What is a "good" computer for editing

S

Scud

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Hey All-
I am getting a new computer and will be doing some editing on it. Obviously, more is better, but what would be some recommended requirements for RAM and Hard Drive space, etc for an editing machine?
Thanks
 
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Minimum for PC... (no clue on Macs)

You'll want harddrives that are 7200rpm or better. (The 5400rpm ones drop a lot of frames)

You should probably get a second harddrive to use just for the video itself. Each hour of DV takes up 13gigs of space, btw.

At least 512mb RAM and 1ghz CPU. If you're doing lots of rendering, you'll like to have more. Not that less won't get it done... it will just take a lot longer.

Also... get a video card with dual output, so you can hook up to that TV that you'll have next to your monitor.

:)
 
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On the Mac side, any current Power Mac G-5 will work very well.

You'll need 7200rpm hard drives, or faster. A G-5 has an internal bay for 1 SATA type hard drive, so make it a big one. You can also use firewire external drives, but they may sometimes drop frames.

You'll want at least 1GB of memory, 2 GB won't hurt.

2 17"-20" computer monitors, or 1 23" monitor, so you'll have enough real estate for all of the windows you need to have open at the same time.

And you'll want a video monitor, good quality (not 'good sounding') speakers with flat response, & a DSR-11 or better DV deck.
 
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I bought the Sony VAIO Digital Studio PC a few years ago. it was about $1,200 and it's awesome. If you bought one now it will probably have better programs on it.

Mine had: second hard drive with 100GB, 7200rpm (I don't know what that means, but I'm reading it off my computer, hehe), Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere 6 LE (along with several other inferior editing programs made by Sony and Microsoft), Sound Forge (VERY useful for recording voices and electric guitar and keyboard, although I discovered it a year after I bought the computer, haha), all kinds of video inputs, and pretty much all you would need unless you plan to use HD or something.
 
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Speaking of Sony.. Their input device is called a "giga pocket". Enabling users to load their Analog tapes and other media on to the computer and burn them onto DVD. What equipment does one need to do this (without the help of the giga pocket thingie :)

Also, Zensteve (or anyone that knows the answer), why a second HD for the videos? Is there an advantage to that as opposed to a giant HD? Thanks
 
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There are adapters that you can buy for usb ports. What you really need is the red, white, and yellow audio/video input slots, period...and of course you need a program that can understand and interpret that input.
 
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I'm not familiar with giga pockets... but in order to get analogue into your computer without one...

I use a Sony Digital-8 camcorder for that. It plays Digi-8, Hi-8 and 8mm tape, with a Firewire connection to the computer. It also has "pass through", which allows you to plug any analogue device into the camcorder and convert that signal to digital while transferring it through the Firewire.

Many (not all) mini-DV camcorders do this as well. (The "pass through", not the various 8mm tape formats... though it would be able to convert a plugged in 8mm tape source.)

You can also get analogue video capture cards (internal or external) that you can plug your camera/devices into, that record to the hard drive.

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As for second hard drives...

You main hard drive is doing a lot of things. Running Windows, your video-editing software, a dozen other things that are working in the background... and all competing for space to record to on the one drive.

You can end up with dropped frames (skipped video) when trying to import, when the system hiccups. Importing analogue and you will have dropped frames, and the better the capture resolution, the more of them.
 
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