I'm buying a "new" computer to edit on but I don't want to waste money on one that can't handle the load. How much RAM or GB do I need and whats a good drive size to edit movies between 30 minutes to an hour long.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
Depends on the format. If you're editing DV, then you might as well get a 500+GB drive so you can load all your video onto the disk and not need to worry about running out of space; they're getting pretty cheap these days. I have nearly two terabytes now and I'm still having to delete old files to make space for new ones :).
I was editing with 1GB of RAM, but I've upgraded to 2GB; to be honest, it didn't make much difference to editing, but it did improve games that need a lot of memory :).
Do get two hard disks though; one for the operating system and programs, and the second just for video and audio files. Otherwise the operating system and editing program will have to fight over the same disk and that will slow you down.
What editing software are you using? What type of camera are you shooting with or what type of format do you want to be able to handle? Your software will have system requirements for your computer set-up and that should be your first starting point.
Software: Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Avid...etc?
Have you thought about getting your self an external hard drive to lighten the load? it would keep the computer running faster than if you were just storing your footage straight to your computer. Cleary.
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The simple answer is you should get as much RAM as you can afford
and put all you media on an external hard drive. A couple of
500BG drives should be quite enough.
I've cut feature films (80 plus minutes) on an iMac with 512MB of RAM
so I know it can be done.
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
True, there's a lot to be said for buying an external hard drive for each project so you can store the footage on there for future re-use, or take it elsewhere if you need to (e.g. for sound mixing on a different system). I've used Firewire drives for DV editing before with no problems.
quote:
What editing software are you using? What type of camera are you shooting with or what type of format do you want to be able to handle?
I'm editing with studio 9 and I have a 3ccd mini dv camera. I already have an external hard drive that I didn't realize until this moment I've been using wrong. It never crossed my mind to store video files there. Stop laughing. Is there a better way to capture video? I'm using a digital converter that captures composite video now and the quality is so poor that it defeats the purpose of having the $1500 camera.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
quote:
Originally posted by Valhurst
?I'm editing with studio 9 and I have a 3ccd mini dv camera. I already have an external hard drive that I didn't realize until this moment I've been using wrong. It never crossed my mind to store video files there. Stop laughing. Is there a better way to capture video? I'm using a digital converter that captures composite video now and the quality is so poor that it defeats the purpose of having the $1500 camera.
Yes, you'll want to get FireWire, otherwise known as IEEE1394. There will be a connection on any recent digital camera for that. You'll need to buy a FireWire card for your computer as well. Your best bet is to go to a computer store and ask them for a FireWire card and cable, they should point you in the right direction. Either that, or just do some research on Google.
I'm in need of a new computer as well. I want a Mac badly, but after looking over my options I can't go there in the name of fiscal responsibility. Ultimately although there's no way to match the performance of a Mac, going with a custom built PC might cost about a tenth as much.
What kind of specs do I need? I know I need firewire and plenty of USB 2.0 ports, a fast processor and I'm aiming for 2GB of RAM... what about video cards, things like that? I have a friend who can help me build the computer but he's not familiar with the kind of specs needed to run high end AV software...
http://www.youtube.com/nairnet
http://www.youtube.com/nairnet
You can get a Firewire Card with a PC. USB 2.0 is just as good. Figure out which one your camera has and then make sure your external harddrive and computer have it as well.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
My camera has a firewire output. So there are external hardrives with firewire inputs? I wasn't aware of that... is it better to feed video directly to the external hard drive rather than feeding it to the computer and having the capture program save it on the hard drive?
Any tips on designing PCs specifically for running AV software? I gather it should be fairly stripped down and the computer shouldn't be used for much other than AV stuff. I'll probably keep it offline most of the time, maybe connecting it for software updates only...
http://www.youtube.com/nairnet
http://www.youtube.com/nairnet
Finally got a firewire card and it works so much better than I thought it would! I had no idea my footage looked so good. Thank you all very much. That was just the boost I needed.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
