Pc For Photo & Video Editing

[Waatz]

Hello people, im looking to get a new PC for editing mostly large numbers of cRAW photos (15-18MB each)
Ive got around $2k to spend, well I dont realy but thats what im going to spend, ive been looking on TM and pricespy and found this
http://www.onlinesale.co.nz/p.php?ssid= ... 53f&c=1511
What do you all rekon? the specs look prety sweet, just wondering about the component quality.

Cheers
Jason

[wuffy]

I use a MacBook Pro, for high definition video editing in an industry standard editing program, as long as it has 4gb+ ram and a decent amount of processing power like that has it should be sweet as. What programs do you use?

[Waatz]

Hey, im currently using PSE7 and LightRoom 2.5, as for video editing, just windows movie maker at this point, but if I get into it a bit more I will look into better software.
I belive Lightroom 3 uses the GPU but im happy with 2.5 so I dont think I will need to upgrade.

I wouldn't mind going MAC but do you get the same value for money? Theres a iMAC in Harvey Norman for $2k but it only has an i3 processor.

[wuffy]

i3 isn't bad, i'm running 2.56 GHZ in mine and it can run Final Cut Pro (high def editing), photoshop and After effect all at the same time. So it's plenty enough. They're certainly superior for editing and processing media but they lack in hard-core graphic department. i.e. Can't run video games etc.

[Simonius_Titius]

I looked into hardware for a chap doing video editing 2 years ago. The story at that time was that the GPU was not used for photo or video processing, it was ONLY for games. From my 2008 notes:

Video card performance is not critical for video, and unimportant for stills.
The card has to handle the resolution of the editor and monitor (which is much more than the resolution of the video!).

For video you need lots of of system memory and a fast disk. HDD speed - 7200rpm, 8MB cache OK. (32MB cache is common now). ATA 100 probably will not limit disk speed.
There is a design compromise between seek vs AV performance so AV-optimised disks are made. (they were in 2008 anyway).

Uncompressed DV-AVI uses 13 GB of storage per hour. Consider backup capacity and time to complete a backup. Automated incremental backup is a must. Stress the diff between backup and archiving.

For serious video production separate Windows & the swap file from the data drive. Ideally separate the input and output drives.

Rendering (final step) takes lots of RAM, as does editing. RAM is about 100x faster than swapfile on disk.

Monitor - need to show full-res video window plus controls so get widescreen.
Dual monitor might be handy if software supports it.

CPU - hyperthreading good for rendering but only if supported by the software.

[kiwi_zg]

Quad Chip CPU?
Get one with a faster Dual chip for faster processing speeds

Video Card: More than 1G Memory.

[Conners]

Up til about six weeks ago all my video editing was done on a Pentium4 1.6 GHz, rocking a whole 512MB of RAM.
It was the shiznick, you guys and your fast processors just need to take some more ritalin and chill the fuck out and wait a while for your machine to do its bizzo.

Seriously though, RAM is your friend. Never used an iPC so can't comment on that aspect. Everyone says they are more gooderer than a PC though, but perhaps they're just buying into the iMarketing? They are the "iIndustry iStandard" though, so maybe there is something in it.

I've just got me a new laptop, compared to the old beast it's a rocketship, but it's only a middle of the road spec really (Dell Inspiron 17R, Core i5 processor @ 2.5GHZ, 4GB RAM). Haven't loaded Vegas onto it yet, but it seems pretty good with CS5/Lightroom3.

[its that guy]

but perhaps they're just buying into the iMarketing?

Na they're just better.

[wuffy]

but perhaps they're just buying into the iMarketing?

Na they're just better.

the OS in mac is much simpler than windows, so takes less time to process commands and less time actually thinking. WIndows 7 is on par with Snow Leopard i've heard in terms of the speed it runs and reliability. But i prefer the sheer simplicity of knowing when I turn my lap-top on, it's going to work very time. I need that if I want to do what I am planning.

I'm making a 40-50 Minute length film of the DH national rounds at the start of next year, filmed in 720p 60p and 1080p 25p all edited in Final Cut Pro, all titles in PS CS4 and Flash. Should be available late february if all goes to plan, DVD HD version and a more basic SD version online.

[Conners]

but perhaps they're just buying into the iMarketing?

Na they're just better.

the OS in mac is much simpler than windows, so takes less time to process commands and less time actually thinking. WIndows 7 is on par with Snow Leopard i've heard in terms of the speed it runs and reliability. But i prefer the sheer simplicity of knowing when I turn my lap-top on, it's going to work very time. I need that if I want to do what I am planning. iMarketing

I'm making a 40-50 Minute length film of the DH national rounds at the start of next year, filmed in 720p 60p and 1080p 25p all edited in Final Cut Pro, all titles in PS CS4 and Flash. Should be available late february if all goes to plan, DVD HD version and a more basic SD version online.

All piss taking aside, I really look forward to seeing what you come up with. From my minimal experience with producing a DVD (which is one), the amount of work goes through the roof. You have to be really focussed on workflow etc, so easy to get sidetracked. And don't underestimate the amount of time getting DVD menus set up and working takes, or the endless options available when actually authoring the DVD!

Just out of interest, when you say DVD HD do you really mean Blu-Ray?

[RJD]

I use sony vegas pro on a windows PC thats pretty crusty (e2160 clocked to 3ghz and 2gigs or ram, vista).

These days I'd be looking for an i5, 4gigs minimum of memory and a decent video card (dx10 level - doesnt have to be bleeding edge though, $100-150 will do it) as video cards are used in the OS presentation layer and in video/photo editing software now , and moreso in the future.

Editing video is an utter nightmare lol.

[ThingOne]

I agree with RJD video editing is a nightmare, I have tried things like Premiere and for the life of me just can not get anything to work, I probably dont know the fundamentals or something.

So I just use Windows Live Movie Maker, its brilliant and you can get pretty damm good results really quick.

[speeding_ant]

Yeah I built my own Mac. Running latest Mac OS, with none of the expensive hardware drawbacks.

Works mint, and benchmarks faster than the top end iMac at 1/3 the cost! Photography, HD video, no problem.

[danose]

I use a MacBook Pro, for high definition video editing in an industry standard editing program, as long as it has 4gb+ ram and a decent amount of processing power like that has it should be sweet as. What programs do you use?

I had a play with one of the new i7 powered macbook pros last week - quite nice (needless to say not at all cheap).

Would still rather a decent desktop though (12 core i7 mac pro anyone?)

[danose]

I agree with RJD video editing is a nightmare, I have tried things like Premiere and for the life of me just can not get anything to work, I probably dont know the fundamentals or something.

full Premiere is really really aimed at people who use it full time (I know a couple of people who do just that for a living) - hell of a learning curve but it'll do anything

for mere punters (like me) premiere elements is great - easier to use, and doesn't spit the dummy editing HD footage (which windows crappy moviemaker did).