Computer recommendations?

[Wayne Morellini]

I know this probably has been asked before, but there is no FAQ's and Wikis here. Could anybody link me to good recommendations and threads. I am interested in what power is required at each level of codec.

Unfortunately my PC is not making it to my next camera system, so I have to upgrade replace now (while it still boots fro me to come here) but do not know what the target format will be.

I am open to Mac, Linux, and PC.


The formats I am looking at in the future, for upto 720/50p or 1080/50p:

Mpeg/MJpeg, HDV, Mpeg4, AVCHD Intra (100mb/s+) Cineform, H264, or AVCHD Inter (24mb/s).

Digital Cinema camera format upto 8 mpixel is also an possibility (format unspecified as yet).


I know that some of these formats, Like AVCHD Inter and Digital Cinema Wavelet, may require more than an practical PC Processor can give at the moment.

[Ralph Keyser]

Wayne,

What type of work are you going to be doing with this system?
What software tools do you prefer?
What kind of budget do you have to work with?

[Wayne Morellini]

Hi sorry for the delay my system went down with the hard disk and backup disk, and I then got really sick.

I thought I definitely posted a reply to this before, but it is gone, also another thread I just visited seems to have been shortened.

Types of Filming, documentary, some professional level fiction is possible, and commercial work including commercials in future. The type of filming does not really matter at the moment, but the system requirements for these different things, as I can adjust filming style to maximise performance for an situation.

I would like to meet an high quality of footage suitable for large screen showings (even for customers with 100-200inch screens).

Software, anything that does the job, don't matter how cheap, but I am open. I am hoping to minimise my computer expenditure if I can get software that uses a Direct X 10 (or supports next version of Open GL) graphics card GPU rather than an 8 core processor system, which will allow me to settle for an modest dual processor. The question of processing capability is complex across these codecs processing options and I do not know the answers myself.

I will likely be working with a high data rate codec for high level filming, and an lower level one for handheld filming. I am likely to do direct capture at one level, and rely of the internal codec for handheld filming (unless the camera has sufficient codec to start with). There maybe two cameras (one ultra cheap pocket HD). The options for cameras are so varied now days, that is why my choice of potential formats is so broad. XDCAM HD EX also interests me, since the recent Sony announcements.

Budget, modest, until I get specific funding or spare income, $5K. This is not an production budget, but just basic equipment budget, I am not getting a Red yet.

I hope you can help me Ralph.

I sure wish there were links to information on questions like these at the top of forums. It is an expensive time waster to get it wrong and have to buy more equipment. Which gives me an idea for an forum suggestion that might help low end people, and newbies, to have regional sub-forums, I'll have to search for an place to post it.


Thanks

Wayne.

[Glenn Chan]

Warne, it might help to figure out what editing software you would like to use first. Then determine the computer.

i.e. Final Cut means you're getting a Mac.
Vegas means that you don't need a good video card (because Vegas is very CPU-centric... it is not very hardware dependent).

2- If you're on a budget, I highly recommend getting Vegas. It is:
--great value
--does many things without having to switch apps (and that process can be annoying)
--Top notch audio capabilities.
--Great workflow for particular things... i.e. if you need to do all the post yourself, you can edit and do audio mixing in the same program.
--Very stable
--No hardware incompatibilities AFAIK (unless you need to add a Aja or blackmagic capture card, which doesn't apply to your situation).

Get Vegas, a pedestrian dual core Intel Core Duo, and spend the rest of your money on other gear so you can shoot it right. Getting the right audio equipment means you don't have to fix it in post (and it is so much cheaper to capture audio properly in the first place).
Ditto for lighting (btw, Victor Milt's Light it Right instructional DVD may be very helpful; it even shows you how to make DIY lights that are sort of like kinoflos).

2- To recap, decide on your editing software first as that determines what kind of computer you'd get.

[Wayne Morellini]

That does not answer my questions, I do not know which editors are more GPU intensive, or their capabilities to be able to nominate which editor to get. The other equipment was never in question. The only tip I got, apart from the audio recorder that I was considering (but I know an modestly priced effective one) is that I should probably avoid Vegas because it is very CPU intensive (and I know that CPU's are slow for AVC Inter streams, let alone large AVC inter streams, but how much). It will cost much less to get a graphics card to do it, then to buy an 4 or 8 core system. It more about performance facts, and best fit recommendations based on performance requirements, I can narrow which editor and equipment, down from there.

I know this post has been here for an month of so, with one reply, so maybe I just need to give it an miss, unless somebody with that level of experience comes by. The questioners were simple and independent from most of the other questions.

[Glenn Chan]

Most editors are bottlenecked by the CPU...
Final Cut
Avid (once you use up that 1 layer of hardware RT; from what I hear anyways)
Vegas
Premiere

Of the editors that use GPU acceleration heavily, it might be just Edius and Liquid on that list. Read their recommended specs carefully to see what brand of video card is supported (and other hardware incompatibilities).

2- As far as format support goes, you'll have to research each codec + NLE. Some codecs are more difficult to edit than others (i.e. it used to be that HDV was difficult to edit; not software-only editors have no problem with it).

NLEs may not support particular formats (i.e. Vegas doesn't do MXF without 3rd party add-ons, Cineform won't work on Mac until they come out with the quicktime version, etc. etc.).

3- I'm not sure I understand your question, you have to make it clearer.

[Wayne Morellini]

Originally Posted by Glenn Chan

Of the editors that use GPU acceleration heavily, it might be just Edius and Liquid on that list. Read their recommended specs carefully to see what brand of video card is supported (and other hardware incompatibilities).

Thanks very much for that. I thought GPU usage had become more widespread on editors than this. There should soon be much more variety on video cards, both ATI and NVIDIA have programming interfaces available for GPU programming, and Direct X 10 is more independent of hardware features, and also direct X 10 hardware is many times faster in GPU performance then Direct X 9. So a range of cards should soon be available, the biggest question though, is where ever the G/GM965 DX10 cores will prove useful. It is base line DX10 core, but will ship with motherboards and many laptops.

2- As far as format support goes, you'll have to research each codec + NLE. Some codecs are more difficult to edit than others (i.e. it used to be that HDV was difficult to edit; not software-only editors have no problem with it).

That is why I asked here, asking an hundred people that may already know about three hundred different editors for their brief opinion, is easier then working my way through three hundred editors. Which, with my disability, makes my head spin and vision distort after a couple of spec sheets at the moment.

3- I'm not sure I understand your question, you have to make it clearer.

Originally Posted by Wayne Morellini

I am interested in what power is required at each level of codec.

Then a list of the codecs at the screen formats I am interested in, and operating systems I am considering for the editor.