Video editing and PC requirements

My office has always bought me Dell computers and they have served me well.

I would, and always have, opted for the three-year warranty.

Not sure if that is standard now.

Unless things have changed, having an internal RAID usually requires more specialized backup software.

An option which seems to be popular, is to put your operating system and software on a SSD and have a large secondary data drive.

My last two computers have been Dell Precision systems.

Go with a case that will allow at least 3 drives for later expansion.

As for video, check reviews before you decide.

The more memory, the better.

Alan

Any i7 will do fine, although there can never be too much processing power. Nvidia vs ATI: check a specific NLE that you will be using, can it use a graphics card processor for speeding things up and if it can, does it require a specific type. Many NLE work with Nvidia CUDA, for example.

"i always wanted to make some youtube videos with some of my favorite music and shows" - illegal unless you get an explicit permission.

You should always try software/trial versions before you buy. All software has this; some have more limitations than others with the trials.

You can try Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 and use it free, fully-functional for 30 days.
After the trial, you have the option of buying it while it is already installed on your computer. (Or buy it from a retailer if you want the disk):

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/.../moviestudiope


In Vegas, there's a "show me how" tutorial function that walks you through the steps of each function. If you need to learn something you click the 'show me how' button and then click onto something or select from a list of options. It won't let you go to the next step until you get it right.

Also, as with almost any software, you can type in "Sony Vegas tutorial" into YouTube or Google and watch videos and/or read text about how-to's.

On YouTube, what they do now is leave your video up, naming the song while providing a link directing to an option to purchase it, like Amazon.

If in the US, they inform you of a number of countries that won't see your videos due to copyright restrictions - but all of US and many other countries will still see and hear it.

Your system looks fine, and always go with the fastest video card you can afford. You will also want to add a bluray burner. And NO RAID, instead install all software on 1 drive, and store your projects on another. If you can afford, go with 1tb drives, as HD video fills drives quickly.

But just as important are these pointers:
* Fine tune the system when you get it. Any system (other than home build) is bloated with junk software, and Dell is no exception. Uninstall it.
* Fine Tune W7. There are numerous articles on how to do this.
* Update all your hardware drivers, including video. You would be surprised how old the drivers will be on a new unit.
* Don't install general use software, leave the system as a video processing system, with only the software you need for the specific NLE you chose. For PD10, you will need the latest version of quicktime. Install that BEFORE PD10
* Install PD10 last, after all other software, and after all driver updates. To avoid sodftware related issues, follow the "specific" install instructions on the PD10 forum here: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/forums/show/99.page Read up a bit, while waiting on your system to get here.
* Don't install the PD10 "demo" on your new system. But DO install all PD-10 patches, as per the instructions on the forum.
* Use an antivirus that does not use a lot of resources, such as avast. But turn it OFF, when using PD10. Also disconnect your network cable when using PD10.

Randy

You can always add a second 1tb drive yourself. You will need the 2 seperate drives, like I described. Don't have to be same brand or size.

Also, be sure to get W7 "pro" 64 bit and NOT 'home". "Home" seems to have an issue with some NLE's.

Currently YouTube seems to have found some middle ground between copyright owners and uploaders to either show related ads or to point to a page where a music track can be purchased or to block the video outright if nothing else is acceptable for copyright holder. This does not change the fact that using someone else's music is still illegal without permission. It is another question whether you or me consider it fair.

- they still may go after you
- you will not be able to monetize on such a video

Any editing program may seem overwhelming; download trial versions may help you sort out which one may be less so.
The show me how feature in Vegas is helpful for beginners.

I was saying about YouTube, that, instead of taking down your video for copyright violation, they link to the song for purchase/download.



yeah, that's true, Prince's record company sued a woman for having a brief clip of a Prince song in the background during a video of her baby.

DeAnna could go to Creative Commons for royalty-free music and get a license for a song while linking to the artist, per the CC agreement.
There are also licenses for famous songs; I think the prices may be dependent on how many hits you get on your video. It's probably at least over $100/don't know the actual prices.

Does the GPU matter if I am using Windows Movie Maker?

Windows Movie Maker runs fine on my Toshiba Laptop that has an i5 processor and no graphics card. When I bought it last year I had no intention of video editing. It was considered a mid grade, work horse laptop and cost about $650. Since then I've used the PMB editor that comes with Sony camcorders and the HD Writer editor that comes with Panasonic camcorders. They both run well.

To see what I could do with editors that have more choices with transitions and effects I installed both Adobe Premier Elements 10 (about $90) and Sony Vegas Movie Studio 11 (about $80).

The Vegas Movie Studio stopped running completely after about a month. It won't load. I sought help form Sony and it took three weeks for them to tell me to uninstall it, create a new user on my laptop and reinstall it as the new user. Instead of that, I gave it away. I did like it while it worked.

I'm now in the middle of an online video training course (Lynda.com) for Premier Elements and all is going well. The computer is OK. My goals include limiting my Videos to less than 10 minutes. Rendering is not fast. But, for short videos, it won't matter that much.

So, my experience is that an Intel i5 laptop is sufficient without a GPU for four out of five editors, with the Sony Vegas Movie Maker being the one that won't work.

Bill

The below link is a good starter on what is needed to edit video.

http://www.videoguys.com/Guide/E/Vid...ce243a6c6.aspx

Alan

"
Not really, as was posted before. I like to always keep a simple and light video editing program on my laptop because they KILL your computer if you are not optimized for all the editing and rendering. I actually use Reveal X ( http://www.muvee.com ) which is almost as light as Windos movie maker with a bit better effects and music stuff. They also provide like copywrite free music ( its not always that good ) but its good if you dont want to get busted on youtube.

Anyways something to think about!

JB"

a couple months ago i bought a dell xps 8300 with a entry level i5 cpu and 6gb ram and it has been wonderful for editing avchd 60i

Hi, I know this is the old thread, but I decided to use this one instead of creating a new one.
I am looking to get a new PC for video editing. I have Panasonic FZ150 and generally record 1080 60p
My current PC is HP - Intel Core2 Quad 2.66 GHz, 8G RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5450 video- under Window 7 64 bit.
Video editor of choice is Power Director 10.0

I am OK with rendering speed, but I have some trouble editing 60p clips over 1 min. long.
Trimming, especially multy and splitting, takes forever and in many cases I've got black screen instead od trimmed clip.
I have spent some time at PD forums ans tried many differnt settings, but the problem is still there:(

Here is that I found:
http://www.costco.com/ZT-Desktop%2c-Intel%c2%ae-Core%e2%84%a2-i7-3770%2c-3.40GHz.product.100011273.html

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

To the OP:
I use a very similar DELL XPS 8300 with Vegas PRO 12 and everything works great. I-7, 8GB RAM, ATI 5870 ,1.5TB HDD. Some important things to consider:

-Get USB 3.0 and buy a large HDD to avoid bottlenecking your disk. Always use at least 2 separate disks when editing. If you don't get USB 3.0, the XPS 8300 has a ESATA port that can be used with an external disk (7200 RPM).

-RAID is a no- no for editing.

-Vegas is CPU bound, it will use all the horse-power you can have. 8GB RAM is fine. The new versions of Vegas will use your GPU , NVIDIA or ATI, but I vever noticed any substantial gain in performance.

-Rendering is time consuming but can be reduced depending on the file format, bitrate, resolution and other parameters. My wife has a super fast PC with all the best features (XPS 8500) and rendering can take a long time as well.

-I use W7 HOME and never had a single glitch with Vegas PRO. Perhaps the problem only happens with the consumer edition ?

-The HDD (5900 RPM) is too slow for video editing.

--The PSU (350W) is very weak. A little better graphics card and an extra HDD will cause power trouble.

-The included video card is only basic and explain the PSU choice.

-This system is cheap and will do the job but is also pretty bad if you plan to upgrade.

Take a look at the DELL XPS 8500 instead. Maybe you can find some coupons and bring the price close to the Costco PC.

I've been fighting with myself for 6 months over what to get as a video editing computer. A major conflict for me was that I wanted the portability of a laptop. HP makes some "workstation" laptops that were impressive and many like the $3,000 Mac Book Pro. I shopped Costco pretty hard, but never found a choice that was optimized for video editing.

Then I found a $1800 "gamer" laptop from ASUS at B&H Photo that had appealing specs.

• 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM Quad-Core
• 16GB of RAM
• 750GB 7200 rpm HDD
• 256GB SSD
• nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M Graphics
• 17.3" HD Anti-Glare Led-Backlit Display
• Blu-ray Player burner and player
• 4 3.0 USBs
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

I bought it! It was more expensive than what you are seeing at Costco, but as a laptop it has a monitor and the optical drive is a BD burner. They threw in a mouse and computer backpack. When I buy from Costco I have to pay sales tax so I saved 10% buying from New York!

To go with the computer I bought new versions of Adobe Elements and Lightroom. The newest version of Premier Elements has "official" support of 1080p60. Adobe Premier Elements is also a memory and processor hog. It does install as a 64 bit version and Win 7 64bit allows it to use all the memory it wants.

Adobe forums also suggest using multiple drives but there is disagreement about what goes where and how many drives to use. Most of the discussion seems to center around HDDs, not SSDs.

I'm experimenting with putting all the video assets, project and buffers in one folder on the SSD. Then when the project is complete it gets transferred to the HDD or an external drive. It seems to work. It is certainly faster and smoother than what I had.

I think the three biggest factors in performance improvent are the processor, ram and SSD. I can't tell if the graphics card helps or not and since I'm using the SSD for the work, the faster HDD may not be important either. Certainly the USB 3.0 helps with backups.

Bill

Bill,

Try using the SSD to read and the 7200RPM disk to record the files. That's the best combination.Using a 3rd disk (USB 3.0) to store the temp files can be the icing on the cake.

I will. But, it may be a few days before I get to try it.

Bill