Hi, I'm a complete newbie and I'm hoping I haven't made an expensive mistake.

I got a little Panasonic flash camcorder (I think it was an SDR 7) and Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate. Had the camcorder a couple of days and shot and edited one little project - even burned my first DVD.

Had a lot of fun learning studio. My footage sucked (both composition and quality) as it was a dark foggy morning on a fishing trip. But managed to enjoy the project.

Problem 1: I Wasn't satisfied with the picture quality, so I returned it and upgraded to an HF10.

Problem 2: My computer won't run it (older P4 2.3 gig).

Here's what I'm looking to do, and I hope the generous experts here will help steer me in the right direction.

I'm just doing this for kicks. I'll never make a living (or even spare change) with it. Hell, it won't even be an all-consuming hobby. I just want to do some family related stuff.

I can't return the HF10, so I'm stuck with that. That's ok because I like the camcorder--assuming I'll be able to do the editing.

I like Pinnacle 12 (and spent hours learning just the basics), so I'd rather not have to change that.

I have ah HD (but only 720P / 1080i) plasma with HDMI. I don't have blue ray dvd, just an upconverting standard def.

I'm getting old, so my eyesight isn't that discerning.

Whew. Lot's of explaining.

I'm ready to upgrade my computer. My IT guy at the office suggested Intell quad core 2.66 gig (that he'll overclock to 3.0 or so). 4 gig memory. Geoforce video card with 512 meg. SDHD reader.

Question 1: Will my upgraded computer be sufficient?

Question 2: What combination of recording settings will give me the best compromise of quality and speed of editing.

Since I don't have blue ray or a 1080p tv, do I need to shoot in HFX 17Mbps, or will XP 12Mbps or even SP 7Mbps be sufficient?

Anyone I'm likely to share my stuff with will most likely watch on a regular DVD player as well.

I don't mind if it takes a little while for final rendering and burning, but I don't want to have to wait long periods waiting for the background rendering to keep up while I'm editing.

I'm doing this for fun, and sitting at my desk waiting for my computer doesn't qualify.

Opinions would be greatly appreciated (but please, not too deep on the technical jargon), I'm quite intimidated by the discussions I've been reading here already.

Thank you one and all.

Warmly,
Brad

Hi Brad,

Q1. Go for more.

Q2. Record at highest setting (in general) and get some SD cards to supplement your HD.

That was the quick advice. ;-)

The cost difference from a higher performance and what you're suggesting getting, get more. More CPU, 4 Gigs RAM, a large video drive will pay off in the end.

I have the HF100. The difference in the two cameras pays for a lot of SD cards - that why I got what I got. You'll really enjoy your camera; it takes great pictures.

Have fun.

Thanks Mike:

I forgot to mention that I'm also getting a new 1 Ter hard drive that I'll use just for the video. I'm already getting the 4 gigs of ram.

Of course, if I need more storage, I'll get another hard drive when needed. I've already got the built-in 16 Gigs and another 8 Gig card. If I need more recording time, I'll get more cards.

So the big question now is: How much more on the CPU? Suggestions?
Thanks again.

Warmly,
Brad

My 2 cents -

My 3.0 Ghz quadcore with 4 GB RAM handles HF100 content using Pinnacle Ultimate 12 very smoothly. Rendering is relatively slow and rendered image quality is noticeably degraded compared to original clips.

Extra CPU speed would save rendering time but offer no other benefit.

Larry

Thanks Larry.

I ended up ordering an Intel Quad Q9550 2.83Ghz
4 Gig memory
GeForce 8600 GT with a gig on it
big new 1 ter hard drive

Hopefully I'll be set now.

Thanks to all for advice throughout the forum.

Warmly,
Brad

I agree with both Larry and Mike. Having an SR11 and Pinnacle 12 Ultimate, the workflow, once you learn it, is not bad and is fun to use. However, the final product does not produce the PQ as what I have found with Corel Video Studio X2 Pro (I think that is what it is; my trial time elapsed). Granted, not a great deal of difference in PQ, but there is some. My computer is a quad core, 4 GB RAM, with 1.5 terrabites of storage and works well considering the work load AVCHD places on it. I also have an older (3 years old) 42" plasma and I watch both regular DVDs burned with those programs and directly off of the camcorder. Both look really good, with the direct signal from the camcorder looking substantially better. All footage is captured at the highest level, from which I burn both regular SD DVDs and AVCHD DVDs.

Good luck and have fun.

Mike Burgess

Brad, You can use Studio 12 as NLE to import your video, edit it and apply effects...and you can export into avi file by loseless lagarith codec.

After you can use this chain: avisynth script to load previous edited file inside megui and encode it into a avc/h264 2pass encoding by x264. You can rest astonished by the amazing quality you can obtain.

ciao!

After you can use this chain: avisynth script to load previous edited file inside megui and encode it into a avc/h264 2pass encoding by x264. You can rest astonished by the amazing quality you can obtain.

Thanks Lorenzo. Any chance I could get you to explain this in english? :)

I'm brand new to this and haven't learned enough yet. avisynth script? megui? avc/h264 2 pass encoding by x264? I think recognize the 264--isn't that something to do with the codec?

This may be over my head (and beneath yours), so if you can't take the time to explain it, I'll understand. I'd like to learn, though.

Brad,

to understand that 'chain' power, the most important thing is understand what is avisynth. So...what is it?

in one word: it is video (and audio too) manipulator...

....generally it is a scripting tool for video post-production. It provides a unique way of editing and processing videos. AviSynth works as a frameserver, providing instant editing without the need for temporary files.
AviSynth itself does not provide a graphical user interface (GUI), but instead relies on a script system.

While this may at first seem tedious and unintuitive, it is a good way to manage projects in a precise, consistent, and reproducible manner.
Because the text-based scripts are human readable, the scripting language is simple and complex filters can be created from basic operations to develop a sophisticated palette of useful and unique effects.
Infact you can easily create and edit avisynth script by windows 'notepad'... (saving them with .avc extension...).

megui is a graphical powerful interface to manage a fine tuning of x264 (and not only) that is a mpeg4AVC/h264 codec.

the main referment international forum about all these things is doom9.org.
and off course i'm here if you have any other questions.
And if u want i can show you some footages edited by that chain to verify the quality you can reach using a good camera as hf100...

ciao!!!