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PC requirement for editing in HD

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  • 11-01-2007 12:37am
    #1
    Civilian_Target
    Registered Users Posts: 5,618 ✭✭✭


    Honest answers required!

    A friend is currently finalising shooting of a film with a shiny new 1080i HD camera and looking to edit, probably in Adobe Premiere. Problem is, he's only got an Athlon 64 2800 as his PC, and has already spent much of the budget on a HD camera. We were debating wheter, if backed by 2GB of RAM, a well-tuned hard disk, and if necessary, a new graphics card to replace the current ATI 9600pro, whether this system would be sufficient to edit 1080i HD video.

    Adobe say 3Ghz and a supported video card (the ATI 9xxxpro series is marked as partially supported) but you can usually get away with less. The alternative will involve an expensive system board swap, and a substantial overdraft.

    What do you's reckon, would an Athlon64 2800, 2GB RAM, a 7200RPM serial ATA disk and an ATI 9600pro be enough to HD edit in Premiere?


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    #2
    ircoha
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,290 ✭✭✭ircoha


    This isn't the place to pimp other forums, unless no one has the answer.

    John


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    #3
    Lump
    Registered Users Posts: 10,984 ✭✭✭✭Lump


    TBH, the problem with HD is more a hard drive writing speed issue, you'll either need a scsi or a raid array. I think you'd need at least 3ghz, if not more, comsidering the adobe site suggests Dual 2.8 Ghz intels for hd with 2 gigs of ram.

    You'll find that if you under spec the machine will jitter on playback or may not even capture in the first place!

    Just having a decent graphics card won't enable you to edit HD, considering professional HD systems have an entire Hardware box dedicated to just capturing it's crazy to think you can do it cheaply on a PC.

    I assume he's gpt a HDV camera, that might require a lower spec machine. but not by much!

    John


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    #4
    SouperComputer
    Registered Users Posts: 6,949 ✭✭✭SouperComputer


    It depends on what HD you plan editing. 720p will play OK on a 2800, 1080 may not. TBH the graphics card has little or no bearing on it, although it is commonly and wrongly perceived that it is.

    If you can overclock the CPU you will have more luck on playback. Editing may be possible, but you will need to be patient. Ive made SD SVCDs on 300Mhz machines with 64MB RAM. It took a LONG time to process but it got there :)

    Try to play the 1080p video from here. if it cant play it, then its going make editing difficult.


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    #5
    Mizu_Ger
    Registered Users Posts: 1,560 ✭✭✭Mizu_Ger


    I have edited and authored DVDs from 1080i footage off a Sony HDV camcorder with no problem on a MacBook (2Ghz Core Duo, 1Ghz RAM, USB2 external HDD and NO graphics card!). Results are perfect. If there are any errors in the video they are not noticeable (I have played back in 720p to a 32" LCD and couldn't see any problems).

    I know that you will not be buying a Mac based on your budget, but the specs above suggest that CPU and RAM are the important bits.


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