A/V Computer Requirements?

The Snipe

Hey Guys,

I'm new to the entire A/V scene, and am looking into buying some gear - but unfortunately I don't know what I'm looking for, I know computers pretty well, but I don't know exactly the requirements that I would need for something that can handle video editing.

So could anyone please help me?

We have all the camera and audio gear etc. that we need sorted, but its somewhere that we can edit afterward that we need, what kind of system are we looking at?

What CPU Speed - Cores, (Specific CPU would be great)
RAM - DDR - Speed - Amount - Brand
Disk Space - Amount - SSD/HDD?
Motherboard - Brand - Model (from what I read, this is just as important as the CPU and RAM)
OS - Mac/Windows XP/Vista/7 (I've only ever used Windows & Linux, so sticking to them would be great, especially looking at the prices of macs)
Graphics Card - Memory - Speed - Model
Audio - Haven't a clue about anything with Audio Cards etc. for what we would need
Display - One Screen or two? - Sizes?

Its going to be for Soccer Match recording, so we would need to be able to edit highlights after the game, edit the full thing for DvDs, and we will be doing interviews with the players/coaching staff etc, so we would be working with about 2 hours of video per go, which is going to be recorded onto HD DV Tapes.

So if anyone could point me in any direction as to what we would need it would be great!

Cheers,
Cillian.

keefg

It might be an idea to hire an editor for the first few games and sit in on the edit.

Get chatting about what gear they use and get any info you can that will help you make a decision. This will be a cheaper option than blindly buying a load of gear and finding out it doesn't do the job as you'd hoped.

Only you can decide on what set up best suits your needs & budget.

It's a bit like people on the motors forum advising on what type of car to buy, in the end the buyer has to choose for themselves.

You don't say if the footage is for TV or you intend to sell the DVD's but "Proper" editing is not something learned overnight. Serious editors can spend years learning their craft.

If you're just looking a simple edit (no colour correction, grading etc) then it's something you should be able to pick up in a relatively short time.

The Snipe

Its simple editing really, just highlights, etc. I'll be getting training for it, aswell as the shooting - So thats all covered, but we need to get everything before we get trained in etc, so we are being trained on what gear we have.

SouperComputer

Hi Cillian. Ill preface this and say im not a video editing pro, just a hobbyist. Im more proficient on the computer side of things. Its easy to get tangled up with all the specs and details, really your time is better spent elsewhere.

To be honest, any PC will "do the job". It's more of a case of how long you are willing to let it render the video when you are done editing. When I have to, I still edit 1080i footage on my ailing P4 (5+ years old now). It will do it but it takes a LONG time to process the finished video.

Heres my 2c....

What CPU Speed - Cores, (Specific CPU would be great)
Simple, the fastest and as many cores as you can get for your money. Both AMD and Intel's offerings are good

RAM - DDR - Speed - Amount - Brand RAM speed can make a difference, but its not a streaightforward thing. Get 4GB of the "fastest" and call it good. Dont sweat it over brands or worry too much about it.

Disk Space - Amount - SSD/HDD? SSD is nice, but not needed. Consider a RAID 1 (mirrored) array for your video projects


Motherboard - Brand - Model (from what I read, this is just as important as the CPU and RAM). Its really not that important, and dont go fooling yourself with "future proofing" either. Get enough RAM and HD slots for what you need. Call it a day. ABIT, ASUS and DFI make good boards. Intel stock boards are stable too.

OS - Mac/Windows XP/Vista/7 (I've only ever used Windows & Linux, so sticking to them would be great, especially looking at the prices of macs). If you are looking at Mac, you need to look beyond the spec and consider that you are paying a premium for the ability to run legit, supported version of OSX. I use both Mac and "PC". I like them both and switch back and forth, discounting either is foolish IMO. It comes down to weather you want to use Final Cut or not really. When you consider the cost of a Mac over the course of the time you will keep it, and also its residual value the TCO is not that bad. If Sony Vegas or whatever is you fancy on Windows then go with Win7. If you arent sure, buy a mac and dual boot windows on it. That way you have a great many options. For your situation forget Linux and forget "OSx86". If you dont know what the latter means, then you dont need to.

Graphics Card - Memory - Speed - Model. Some modern graphics cards offer the ability to assist up rendering. Maybe someone else can chime in on specifics.

Audio - Haven't a clue about anything with Audio Cards etc. for what we would need Whatever comes with the system will be OK to get you going.

Display - One Screen or two? - Sizes? As much real estate as you can afford. Two screens is definately nice.

The Snipe

Thanks for the reply SouperComputer, How would something like this fair out?

Customised version of the Dell XPS 8100

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i5 Processor 660 (3.33GHz, 4MB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate 64bit- English
MEMORY 8192MB (4x2GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
HARD DRIVE 2TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x1TB - 7200rpm)
GRAPHICS CARD Graphics : Single 1.8GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
OPTICAL DRIVE Blu-Ray RW (Blu-ray, DVD, CD read & write) & DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read/write)
SOUND SOFTWARE Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio

JG009

XiledSniper wrote: »

Dell XPS 8100

Let me stop you right there. Dell aint any use at custom, dont believe me pop over to the digidesign forum and read. If you are going custom then go proper custom, it will be cheaper and better. If you want help, but the parts and ill assemble it (for a small fee ) but seriously stay away from Dell. Or any shelf builds that claim to be "custom".

Along that lines should be pretty cool though. As for the graphics card I would get one that allows dual screens, this is a must for any audio/video lover.

Splinters

Couldnt agree more with the above post. Price up any Dell machine and I guarentee you I could build you a better machine for less.

For the record theres no set minimum requirements for editing. It totally depends on the software you're using, the format you want to edit, HD or SD? Theres quite a few factors to take in but ill try to give as best a guideline I can.

Simply put, buy in the best machine you can afford. Rather then specific requirements I can tell you that CPU and RAM are probably the biggest factors. 8 gig RAM would be a good guideline (be sure to go for a 64 bit version of Windows too as the 32 bit version of any operating system is limited to 3.2 gigs of ram, it wont be able to see or use any more then that).

As for Processors, any of the the Intel i7 processors would certainly do the trick. i5s are grand and are good overclockers but you dont want to be messing around with that for an editing workhorse, stick with an i7. For graphics cards most Nvidia GPUs are CUDA enabled which is used by quite a few modern packages and plugins, but again depending on the software you're using and what you want to do this may or may not be of benefit to you.

In terms of pure video editing thats the only spec on a pc that will make much of a noticable difference. The motherboard, monitor, size of HDD, soundcard etc are all nice to have higher end models but you honestly wont notice much (if any) performance difference when editing.

Hopefully that helps but if you've any further q's just post them up.

The Snipe

Cheers for that, I was using the likes of the Dell to get a guide line for what I need, I'm able to build them easily, so that wont be a problem - its just so I know what I'm looking for, however the XPS 7100 with an AMD Phenom II X6 8GB RAM does look nice, for a good price (1300 in total) - Only thing is, I'm looking to get it in one package so I'm not waiting for parts and the camera is just sitting there, Y'Know?

Splinters

You really wouldnt be doing yourself any favours, aside from the 8 gig memory theres really nothing about that spec that would stand out to me. That AMD Phenom is considerably slower then most i7's. Not to mention it comes with an ATI graphics card so you wont be able to use any CUDA enhanced software. Price wise 1300 is also way over the odds for that machine. If you were dead set on that machine you could build it yourself for about 900, alternative if you're happy to spend 1300 then you could get a MUCH more powerful machine from parts all in stock on Komplett or Dabs and have it up and running in the same time Dell would have any of their machines shipped to you. Its a no brainer!!

JG009

You could get an absolute ox of a machine for 1300! Its hard to compare it to other things in life........Let me take a Ferrari and a nissan skyline. You can buy a skyline for a fraction of the cost and tune a skyline up to 1000 break horse power and it will be a monster, or you can buy a Ferrari and do nothing to it. It will go fast yes but at the end of the day its still just a Ferrari. And a dell is just a dell. Get a dell if you want but you'll regret it.

There are some good reputable sites in the UK who will list stuff in stock in real time so you won't be waiting for anything if you make a selection on whats in stock at that time.

SouperComputer

JG009 Im not sure quite what you are getting at with your analogy but anyway.

XiledSniper, that machine "will do". Ideal? No. Having a pro buld one for you is a good idea, esp someone with experience in your field as long as you are happy that they will be able to support it for you. Lots of people out there "build" PCs but aren't available for support. Also when getting quotes, be sure a legit OS licence is included, some people tend to "forget" this when comparing to the major brands.

Small thing, but the RAID config in the Intel XPS you listed is 0. You need 1 (mirroring). Unless you want to run an extra risk of losing your work due to disk failure.

When I was still in Ieland, Ankermann built some nice stuff at good prices. Not sure if that still the case. A poke around on the PC build forum will probably point you in the right direction.

JG009

SouperComputer wrote: »

JG009 Im not sure quite what you are getting at with your analogy but anyway.

I tried.

reece

depends on the video editing software you are using and how much time you wanna waste whilst rendering hd output. I had lots of heart ache rendering hd on a machine that wasn't quite up to spec. Time wise. Sooo, I bit the bullet and went for the bogs dollocks. Firstly upgraded to premiere pro cs5 and ae cs5 (which require a 64 bit machine). Didn't waste time or money looking at Dell so built my own machine with the following spec

windows 7 64 bit ultimate
12 gigs ddr3 1333
core i7 - 920 (not over clocked)
nvidia gtx 285 (premiere optimized for this but there is a hack for other nvidia cards).
1 gig main os drive 7200 sata (money wouldn't allow SSD - but will upgrade next year). 2 * 1 gig drive raid 0 for video scratch disks. 1 gig for audio scratch and as a general backup drive.
Pt Delux V2 mobo. Cooler master full case - haf 932.

This combo with CS5 is like a dream come through.

Although this is a fairly highend spec, you could get away with less. if money is not an issue, then you won't do worse.

The Snipe

reece wrote: »

depends on the video editing software you are using and how much time you wanna waste whilst rendering hd output. I had lots of heart ache rendering hd on a machine that wasn't quite up to spec. Time wise. Sooo, I bit the bullet and went for the bogs dollocks. Firstly upgraded to premiere pro cs5 and ae cs5 (which require a 64 bit machine). Didn't waste time or money looking at Dell so built my own machine with the following spec

windows 7 64 bit ultimate
12 gigs ddr3 1333
core i7 - 920 (not over clocked)
nvidia gtx 285 (premiere optimized for this but there is a hack for other nvidia cards).
1 gig main os drive 7200 sata (money wouldn't allow SSD - but will upgrade next year). 2 * 1 gig drive raid 0 for video scratch disks. 1 gig for audio scratch and as a general backup drive.
Pt Delux V2 mobo. Cooler master full case - haf 932.

This combo with CS5 is like a dream come through.

Although this is a fairly highend spec, you could get away with less. if money is not an issue, then you won't do worse.

I'd be looking at running Premiere CS5 or Sony Vegas Pro, how much did your system cost and where did you get the parts? We are looking to get it ASAP, because we are getting the camera within the next two weeks.

reece

have never used vegas, but cs5 has being completely overhauled and optimized for 64bit machines and is the business. Can't say enough good things about it. You probably don't need AE.

The pc parts cost 1600 (around 3800 on dell). But that was 3 months ago so they'd be a little cheaper now. You could bring it in cheaper with lesser parts - cheaper x58 mobo, cheaper case, 6 gigs of ram. I didn't use the stock core i7 fan - but there's no reason not to (I thought I'd be over clocking - but that was a step too far for a first pc build). I used Komplett.ie for the parts.

If you're worried about building ur own pc, then no sweat - there's loads of tutorials on Youtube.

I've actually got a spare case I'm trying to get rid of (u'd just need to check the fans are working).

If you're pushed for time, shoot the match and drop me over the tape and I'll do a quick edit for you until you're up to speed with the equipment (looking to test drive my machine).

Whats your camera/audio spec?