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 | | From: | PMah | | Subject: | Computer Specs for Video Editing | | Date: | 22 Jan 2005 21:42:57 -0800 |
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 | Hey all,
Just wanted some opinions on what kind of a computer I would need to
complete some basic video editing. I've got some old vhs family tapes
I'd like to digitize at home. I have no idea what kind of hardware /
software would be required, or how specialized the hardware / software
needs to be! I'm a bit hesitant to walk into a computer store and ask
the sales people there because they'll likely sell me something I
don't necessarily need.
Thanks for the advice...
Pete
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| | From: | Kent Clarke | | Subject: | Re: Computer Specs for Video Editing | | Date: | Sun, 23 Jan 2005 20:22:09 -0500 |
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| In article <26adf6ed.0501222142.7ba9ea2e@posting.google.com>,
duh_ster@hotmail.com (PMah) wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> Just wanted some opinions on what kind of a computer I would need to
> complete some basic video editing. I've got some old vhs family tapes
> I'd like to digitize at home. I have no idea what kind of hardware /
> software would be required, or how specialized the hardware / software
> needs to be! I'm a bit hesitant to walk into a computer store and ask
> the sales people there because they'll likely sell me something I
> don't necessarily need.
>
> Thanks for the advice...
> Pete
Another alternative:
For minimum cost, buy a used iMac or eMac, or iBook that has iMovie on
it. Or, if you have a monitor, USB keyboard and mouse already, buy a Mac
mini. Cost about $500. You can spend more to get new, or faster
processing, if you want. $1300. gets you an iMac. With Macs, you don't
need special fast hard drives for video. iMovie also doesn't need
massive amounts of memory, although 512 Megs is about the minimum you'd
want.
You'll need to get your VHS tapes digitized, so they can be edited on
the computer. The easiest way is to buy a cheap or used dv camcorder
that can take the output from your VCR and transfer it to your computer
via firewire. There are gadgets from Canopus and others that just
convert composite video to dv, if you think you'll never be needing a
camcorder.
If you want to put your video on DVDs, you'll need a computer with a
SuperDrive--a DVD burner. This adds a few hundred $ to the cost of an
iMac or iBook, but only $100. to a Mac mini. The DVD authoring and
burning software is included.
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| | From: | John S. Dyson | | Subject: | Re: Computer Specs for Video Editing | | Date: | Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:06:53 +0000 (UTC) |
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| In article <26adf6ed.0501222142.7ba9ea2e@posting.google.com>,
duh_ster@hotmail.com (PMah) writes:
> Hey all,
>
> Just wanted some opinions on what kind of a computer I would need to
> complete some basic video editing. I've got some old vhs family tapes
> I'd like to digitize at home. I have no idea what kind of hardware /
> software would be required, or how specialized the hardware / software
> needs to be! I'm a bit hesitant to walk into a computer store and ask
> the sales people there because they'll likely sell me something I
> don't necessarily need.
>
Looking at video editing only:
IF you are looking at purchasing a new PC, then almost any new generation
P4 would be adequate. I'd tend to look at 2.4GHz or faster, only because
those are what is available. For disk, I'd just be generous with the disk
space, and get at least 7200RPM drives (at least two -- one for the system
and one for video only.) Place the video drive onto a controller alone,
only share the connection if the other drive would be disused while editing,
and only share the connection with other hard drives. I'd suggest that
SATA might be a good choice for this. (High performance SCSI is better,
but not really all that advantageous on a cost basis for consumer use.)
For system memory, I'd suggest either 512MB or more. Depending upon your
cost/price sensitivity, 1GB might be a good choice. For the OS, you'd
want to use WinXP or Win2000, where if you have WinXP, then you'd want
to max the memory (1GB or higher.)
You'll also want some firewire ports on your PC -- that will allow for
easier interfacing to your video to digital conversion device. You could
instead use a grabber card, with potentially theoretically better (or
worse) performance.
For the video grabbing, I prefer the Canopus ADVC300 device, which is
designed to handle imperfect video sources like VHS, but some people use
their DV camcorders for the conversion (some have analog video in and
can convert directly to DV.) The output of the ADVC300 can be connected
to the firewire input on your PC. The conjunction of those devices
can provide a very competent grabbing functionality. The ADVC300 seems
to have superior DV25 quality, actually somewhere between the quality
of the DHR1000 and my DV50 decks, mitigating most of the ugly DV25 artifacts
when provided a noisy signal.
Even though properly encoded DV will max out any VHS quality capability,
some (older and low end) DV converters can leave artifacts. Some people
do prefer video grabbing cards that might allow for direct recording
to HuffYUV or somesuch, but that would be overkill for VHS or SVHS quality.
THe bonus is that the lossless compression techniques (except for the
DVD/MPEG2 encoding encoding at the end) can provide better quality without
the DV25 and MPEG2 artifacts being concatenated (but DV25 is typically
better than DVD level of MPEG2.)
To encode a DVD, there are numerous methods. I use the TMPGENC series
of software, because it can do some pretty good noise reduction (fantastic
when used in conjunction with the ADVC300.) The bad news is that TMPGENC
can be very slow when using NR. I DO NOT suggest that I have the BEST
configuration, but I have a workable config.
For DVD burning, I use a Pioneer (records almost anything) device, and
there are probably other people who prefer something else. For me, the
Pioneer just works. I use it both on FreeBSD and Win2000 successfully
for recording video and data.
For higher end applications, you could use dual processors or somesuch,
but then if you are interested in DP, then you probably wouldn't need
to ask the questions :-).
John
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| | From: | John S. Dyson | | Subject: | Re: Computer Specs for Video Editing | | Date: | Mon, 24 Jan 2005 05:11:26 +0000 (UTC) |
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| In article ,
Kent Clarke writes:
> In article <26adf6ed.0501222142.7ba9ea2e@posting.google.com>,
> duh_ster@hotmail.com (PMah) wrote:
>
>> Hey all,
>>
>> Just wanted some opinions on what kind of a computer I would need to
>> complete some basic video editing. I've got some old vhs family tapes
>> I'd like to digitize at home. I have no idea what kind of hardware /
>> software would be required, or how specialized the hardware / software
>> needs to be! I'm a bit hesitant to walk into a computer store and ask
>> the sales people there because they'll likely sell me something I
>> don't necessarily need.
>>
>> Thanks for the advice...
>> Pete
>
> Another alternative:
> For minimum cost, buy a used iMac or eMac, or iBook that has iMovie on
> it. Or, if you have a monitor, USB keyboard and mouse already, buy a Mac
> mini. Cost about $500. You can spend more to get new, or faster
> processing, if you want. $1300. gets you an iMac. With Macs, you don't
> need special fast hard drives for video. iMovie also doesn't need
> massive amounts of memory, although 512 Megs is about the minimum you'd
> want.
>
The Mac approach is a good one, if you don't need a more common P4 type
PC. Actually, a PC doesn't need special high speed drives, but it is
better to have them -- especially for other purposes and to increase margins
if you are going to do more complex editing.
>
> You'll need to get your VHS tapes digitized, so they can be edited on
> the computer. The easiest way is to buy a cheap or used dv camcorder
> that can take the output from your VCR and transfer it to your computer
> via firewire. There are gadgets from Canopus and others that just
> convert composite video to dv, if you think you'll never be needing a
> camcorder.
>
The better canopus devices tend to be better than any DV camcorder in
the conversion. This is especially true for a potentially noisy VHS
tape, and the ADVC300 (for example) can do alot of good. One good thing
is that alot of electronic NR can be done before encoding, and this helps
to reserve the important DCT domain coefficients for real signal and not
noise.
>
> If you want to put your video on DVDs, you'll need a computer with a
> SuperDrive--a DVD burner. This adds a few hundred $ to the cost of an
> iMac or iBook, but only $100. to a Mac mini. The DVD authoring and
> burning software is included.
>
I certainly wouldn't argue against a MAC, other than if someone wants a
commodity P4 for other purposes (e.g. classes in school that prefer the
use of a commodity PC.) For other kinds of classes, a MAC might be
preferrable -- and I do apologize for forgetting about a MAC.
John
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