Thinking about going high def

[Roger Lee]

Anyone willing to help or comment please....

What do I need to produce an HD DVD?

Specifics, here's what I have.

Canon XH A-1(I bought this for the manual controls and for the option of going HD)

P.C. description

Dell Dimension 8300 that I've upgraded myself

Pentium 4
(my device mgr shows 2 Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.8 Ghz processors but I believe there is just one..I'm not even sure how to tell on that)
4 Gig ram
Video card is an Nvidea Gforce 7600GS
About 750 gb of storage through external WD and Maxtor drives
Liteon DVD-Rom LTD163
Front end buss speed - I'm not sure

Software I've been using is Adobe Elements.

I'm a very small one person business. I do mostly event videos and some promo videos. I've been getting more requests to do high def.

I live in a rural area so any help I get is on forums like this...no one close is into this.

I know I will need to upgrade software...recommendations?

I know I will need a high def(blue ray?) optical drive...recommendations?

I may need a different PC...not sure about that.

If anyone could comment or lead me to a thread that covers this, that would be appreciated.

Also, I have reviewed the sticky's and either (1) missed the post I needed or (2) can't find a thread that seems to answer my question.

Sorry if there is a sticky or thread out there that I missed.

Thank you.

Rog Lee

[Tripp Woelfel]

Rog... I don't think you're too far away.

Originally Posted by Roger Lee

P.C. description: Dell Dimension 8300 that I've upgraded myself
Pentium 4 (my device mgr shows 2 Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.8 Ghz processors but I believe there is just one..I'm not even sure how to tell on that)
4 Gig ram
Video card is an Nvidea Gforce 7600GS
About 750 gb of storage through external WD and Maxtor drives
Liteon DVD-Rom LTD163
Front end buss speed - I'm not sure

It should work but you'll need some upgrades. Internal drives are critical here. USB drives are simply not fast enough for HD. A RAID would help, but fast ATA JBOD should work. I have 4 SATA 750 GB internals and I could use more. Don't forget that any sort of compositing you might do in HD could generate very large files.

Originally Posted by Roger Lee

Software I've been using is Adobe Elements.

Nope. My reason is that HD can look wonderful and sometimes you'll need the higher end tools to get it to look its best. Color correction, for one, is invaluable.

Originally Posted by Roger Lee

I know I will need to upgrade software...recommendations?

I use CS3 so guess what I'm going to recommend. You guessed it. So here's my recommendation. Download trial versions of any product you might be interested in. (CS3, Vegas, Avid, etc.) and find the one that fits your needs best.

Originally Posted by Roger Lee

I know I will need a high def(blue ray?) optical drive...recommendations?

The cheapest one? I haven't bought one yet but will soon as a client has requested BD delivery. I read last week that Sony and another manufacturer have announced new, lower priced drives. I recollect that the Sony's MSRP is $350 so street will be less. I'm waiting on the new crop.

Originally Posted by Roger Lee

I may need a different PC...not sure about that.

Not a bad idea. Like they say, go big or go home. I went from a dual core 2.6G to a quad core 2.3G 6600 and the difference is significant. The old machine is now my graphics and compositing machine so I can get work done whilst the edit station is rendering or transcoding.

Hope that helps.

[Jon McGuffin]

Don't forget if you want to actually produce a "HD DVD" then you need to buy a HD DVD burner, in other words, you need a Bluray burner. I believe there are some situations where you can produce HD content and put it on a regular DVD disc but in general, you want to produce HD quality DVD discs, you need to go Bluray..

Jon

... Oops, you did mention above that you needed a drive! Videoguys.com is a sponsor of this website and I would recommend going there for some of your research... They do have blueray burners..

[Michael Kraus]

If you decide to go with adobe CS3, I would suggest waiting for CS4 production premium to come out. That way you don't end up dishing out an extra few hundred just for upgrades.

Anybody know the dates on CS4 release?

[Mike Gunter]

Hi Roger,

Are you editing in HDV right now in Elements and outputing in SD?

In general, you shouldn't have any trouble doing that with what you have. HDV is about the same bandwidth as DV, just more compressed.

Faster CPUs and hard drives will be more responsive, especially with intensive tasks and complex timelines, so plan accordingly.

Tripp's advice is wise. A lot of company's let you try before you buy. You can download trials and see what the fit is for you before you lay out your cash.

I use Vegas, CS3, Speed Edit, and some other tools fair regularly. There's really no single tool that does everything.

I don't know how long it will be before customers ask for HD discs. Bluray devices are still pretty dear - burners, too.

[Roger Lee]

Many thanks for all the help and ideas. I actually think I know where to start.

I'm filming in HDV, downloading to Adobe and outputting in SD.

Just the idea of being able to output in HD is exciting.

Thanks again all. Your time and responses are appreciated.

Rog Lee

[Roger Lee]

Originally Posted by Tripp Woelfel

Rog... I don't think you're too far away.

I use CS3 so guess what I'm going to recommend. You guessed it. So here's my recommendation. Download trial versions of any product you might be interested in. (CS3, Vegas, Avid, etc.) and find the one that fits your needs best.

It appears CS4 is on the not to distant horizon.

Rog Lee