Seasons Greetings

i am looking to upgrade to a HD non linear suite and camcorder

i presently have a pdx10 and avid , premiere and ulead on my pc at present i only edit in DV

unfortunately i don't have unlimited resources

i would like your thoughts on what items i should acquire e.g

FX7 or FX1 PC or Mac and Software using a maximum budget of $6000 us

thanks in advance i am also looking at making my own list that i will also post but i would also like to hear the views of other members

thanks in advance

Hi

Since you already are using Ulead, why not buy the "Videostudio 10 Plus" and a Sony FX7.

That will be a nice start and it will be below 6000 USD.

Greetings

Hans

I am in the same boat as you are and I think that I will go for the Sony FX7. I have bought the Ulead VideoStudio 10 plus and I am thrilled with the easy of operation and the performance. Just waiting the $$$$$$ to come (its X-mas) for the FX7

Stelios

I thought I could easily step over from the DV to the HDV arena. But please take in mind that what was a high spec PC only two or three years ago (like my Vaio & Asus PC's are), is on the edge to match in the new new workflow.

I've been particulary disappointed about this.

Specially in the PC world, we seem to be back in the old days where you need additional expensive software add-ons like Cineform or even cards to HD in the 'real world'. Still, the whole process gets more complicated and surely a lot slower then ever before.

I easily discovered that a non-cost solution is not existing. In the best manner (see this forum), you'll be able to capture m2t-files via tools like HDVsplit.

But what's next? Premiere Pro won't edit them even after dmux, at least in a decent way. I tried out a lot demo's of NLE's: PP, Edius, Vegas Video, etc. none of them where really performing 100% satisfying on my present hardware, at least not allowing a real fluent workflow as I was having before.

I don't know about Ulead. It reminds me of the real start I took with NLE's, many years ago. Ulead was maybe good for "easy shot home video's", but in the PAL-zone, using Mediastudio Pro for more advanced video projects I experienced a lot of problems with all kinds of nasty bugs and artifacts - what made me step over to PP. I

My feeling is that there is going to be changing a lot in the NLE world in 2007. A lot of new camera's will be HD. NLE's will need to support native H264 for AVC/HD - also whatever some may say - M2T in a native format must be astandard (Vegas is doing this, I know). Intel is planning the release of quad core processors.

What it really means: HD-editing is not fully mainstream yet. At least, I regret to see that some companies are creating now expensive monopolies around real HDV solutions. If the 100-1000 Euro range DV NLE's can do the whole job on an ordinary home & office PC, retaining a perfect quality - it must be also possible for HD.

And I regret to say it: as a tendency of all other Windows-stuff a lot of NLE's are spending too much effort in creating tons of effects & animation stuff, complex crossovers and other code we don't need, instead of staying to the core business: a real pro only wants to cut and assemble, hardly ever uses a cross-fade. Developpers: be lean and mean, just make it all work for HD in a fluent way.

Or... I'm affraid that Mac will remain the only true solution for HD. Though Mac's hardware is not cheap, for a handfull (I agree something more) of Euro's, FCP express will do the job for real. But being a PC IT-pro, this is quite a step.

Intel released quad core this past November. I'm running Vegas 7, editing HD without a problem. I'm not surprised HD takes longer to render. I was expecting that given the extra resolution.

The gurus out their are stating HD render times of 1.5x to 2x realtime on a quad core processor. Short render times are a luxury. Long renders may be a PITA, but I usually render as the last step and it's not hard to find something else to do while the computer chugs away.

I agree on all the NLE special effects. But they haven't ignored what is important. Version 7 of Sony Vegas takes advantage of quad core processors.