PC Specs To Capture/Play HDV

[Selim Abdullai]

I was wondering what the recommended specs were to capture and or play HDV. (1080i) Here are my PC specs right now.

-2.6 GHz Intel Celeron Processor.

-526 MB of RAM, DDR, 333MHz, PC2700. I just bought another 526 MB stick of RAM off eBay. I should get it within the week. So I pretty much will have 1 GB of RAM.

-64 MB of on board video memory. I am going to be getting a ATI Radeon 9250 256 MB DDR PCI graphics card. I can only get PCI becuase my motherboard doesn't have an AGP slot. It's the regular PCI slot, not PCI-e.

Will my updated machine be good enough? When ever I try to play a downloaded 1080i HDV clip recorded from a Sony HDR-HC1, it plays all slow and skips. I'm hoping the extra 512MB of RAM I'm getting will help this out a lot. I'm also hoping the ATI Radeon 9250 will be fast enough to play the HDV. I already know that the ATI Radeon 9250 has a high enough resoultion for 1080i HDV video. It goes well over 1920x1080, even though the Sony HDR-HC1 records HDV in 1440x1080.

What do you guys think? Will my system will be powerful enough for just basic HDV editing? Powerful enough for just 1 HDV stream in editing?

[Lars Bieshaar]

I have a 2.6 Ghz P4 (not celeron) and it works good enough (processor use between 60% and 80%). I only have 512 MB system memory that will not be the problem. I personally think the small amount of cache on the celeron cripples it.

I DO see a difference according to what program you use though. While Windows Media player needs more proc power than say vlc player. About capturing i wouldn't know. Harddisk overall fast enough for that, but i don't know about proc and mem.

[Alexander Karol]

That has been discussed in-depth already.

No way you're machine will be able to without an intermediate codec. Dual processors is not enough for editing true HDV. Read about it...

Lars, you must definetely be using an intermediate codec when editing. No way your system has enough muscle...2 GB RAM is almost not enough.

[Lars Bieshaar]

Read the question please. I think he asks if his computer is fast enough to PLAY it back and RECORD it to his PC and PUT it back on the camcorder, NOT EDITING.

Editing in real time for sure will not be able, also with my computer that's not possible. but does it HAVE to be possible? It is handy yes, but RENDERING doesn't have to be real time.

So instead of having a hardware codec you can also wait a little longer and have plenty diskspace (for the rendering).

I said i can play it back real time and probably will be able to record it from the camcorder to the harddrive. In those two ways no rendering is asked of the processor just processing data and decoding at playback.

[Selim Abdullai]

I will be editing the HDV footage once it's on my computer. So I guess I'm going to have to use a intermeadiate codec.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Selim Abdullai

I will be editing the HDV footage once it's on my computer. So I guess I'm going to have to use a intermeadiate codec.

Selim,
What NLE software will you be using?
Your 2.6 will definitely be too slow for normal intermediary editing, but there are applications which will support proxies, so it's like editing DV.
Your final output can be HD, but it's a slow render on such a slow machine. RAM allocation isn't nearly as important as people make it out to be. You'll be more interested in processor speed and the FSB, plus your hard drive controller speed. These are all the more important factors.
You can do HDV on a slower, older machine, it's just a little more work, and a lot more time, even when working with proxies.

[Selim Abdullai]

Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5.1.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Unfortunately, Premiere Pro 1.5.1 won't support HDV on that speed of proc...darn. It'll 'work', but that's just masochism.
you might want to consider downconverting to DV for now, and picking up a faster proc as you can afford. We're using the new AMD 275's with great success. The new X2's look pretty sweet too, I just bought a mobo and proc, will be building up a new system this weekend w/it.

[Selim Abdullai]

I can't wait until I build my first system! But unfortunately, I don't have any money to build it. When I do, I'm only going to the best parts. So I'm going to save up, buy a nice expensive motherboard. Save up more, then by 2 processors for that nice motherboard. Then a 512MB Nividia Quadro FX 4400 Graphics Card...OK, now I'm dreaming. But I'm going to make it the best it can be. It will take some time and a lot of money, but it'll be worth it in the longrun.

[Paul Kepen]

All right, now that its out of the bag, How much computer do you need to get close to real time editing, and not an eternal - more then 12hr for 1 hour of video w color corr., transitions, etc. to render with HDV on either Adobe PPro or Vegas?
Are the Dual Cores the way to go? Intel or AMD? Everyone says AMD, but on THG it seems to show that the Intel is faster at encoding and rendering.
Finally, how do these systems (software+Hardware)compare to FCP5 on a 2.5-2.7g G5 Mac? I need to get a new system. I'm a WinTel guy, but everyone raves about FCP & the Mac, so I could buy that for my editing, but looking around here, it seems they have bugs/issues as well. Sorry to ask so many dumb ?, but any help would be most appreciated - thanks

[Steve Crisdale]

Originally Posted by Paul Kepen

Are the Dual Cores the way to go? Intel or AMD? Everyone says AMD, but on THG it seems to show that the Intel is faster at encoding and rendering.
Finally, how do these systems (software+Hardware)compare to FCP5 on a 2.5-2.7g G5 Mac? I need to get a new system. I'm a WinTel guy, but everyone raves about FCP & the Mac, so I could buy that for my editing, but looking around here, it seems they have bugs/issues as well. Sorry to ask so many dumb ?, but any help would be most appreciated - thanks

I'd say either AMD or Intel Dual core processors will give greatly improved encoding performance. Whether one is radically superior to the other... how important is a milli second to you? There's other things like MMX instruction set support, chipsets, FSB, etc. that play a part as well. Price is gonna be more worthy of consideration IMHO than brand.

I know I'll get crucified by all the Mac afficiandos for saying that you should stick to the PC. If you already got PC you can always network the one you have to help improve render times (network rendering), extra back-up and use of applications that don't require extra licenses for running on 2 machines (if you go Mac you'll have to get ALL new software...).

Now for the bit that'll really get 'em hot under the collar... I just think Mac's are over-rated. I work with them all day long, and can't wait to get home and use my PC instead. All I hear from my co-workers is "Photoshop's better on the Mac," and similar malinformed bunkum. Mind you, when they think no-one else is listening, they ask if I'll give them 'free' software for the new PC they've just bought. What a bloody hyde!!

AS for FCP. It looks feels and operates very much like Premiere Pro. I wondered what all the fuss was about... Whoopdie Doo!!

BTW, not long now until the first Intel powered Mac fellas!!

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Paul Kepen

How much computer do you need to get close to real time editing, and not an eternal - more then 12hr for 1 hour of video w color corr., transitions, etc. to render with HDV on either Adobe PPro or Vegas?

Using Edius software on an Intel dual-core processor running at 3.0 GHz, encoding edited HDV (in Canopus HQ format) back to an HDV 1080i file takes 4+ hours per hour of timeline, while encoding to Windows Media at 720p takes about 7 hours. Sometime in the next few months Canopus will supposedly ship a real-time output encoder for their Edius NX and SP hardware cards.

Sounds like output from FCP5 back to HDV may be significantly quicker than typical PC-based HDV editing options. Anyone on a Mac care to report some real-world results for that?

[Paul Kepen]

Kevein, What model Intel Dual Processor do you have? They don't hype the speed spec's anymore, but most the dual core processors seem to run at <3ghz. Are you over clocking, and how's the temp?

[Shaughan Flynn]

I am editing HDV in real time on my system. It's a bit chunky when I scrub over un-rendered transitions but usually only while it caches it - Subsequent scrubs over them seem just fine.

My machine specs are:

Intel P4 dual core overclocked to 4GHz (had to put in liquid cooling for that).
4GB ram
ATI x850 PCIe video card

[Betsy Moore]

Well now that the new Apple Power Macs came out today, does this change anyone's ideas about the best computer to buy for HDV editing? Or are we still saying PCs?