AMD x2 for AVCHD Editing?

[KThomas00]

Hi,

I'm currently thinking about upgrading to an AMD Athlon? 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ on my s939 board (last upgrade for that machine). I'd like to do some HD video editing with Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate. The Pinnacle website says that an Intel® Core?2 Duo 2.4 GHz or higher is required for AVCHD editing. Does anyone know if I'll be ok with the X2? Unfortunately, it doesn't say what the minimum AMD processor is for AVCHD editing.

Thanks!

 

[Duvie]

I am using COrel's bundled Ulead software and it only recommends a 1.86gh C2D.....I think You will be fine....I recommend 2gb of Ram from my testing.....

I am using a quad core and so far from the limited testing I see I am not using all of my juice...I however think that is software limitations though...

I haven't bought a Blue Ray player yet so most of my editing is being left in a backup form on my harddrive..


Just so you know X2's are generally 20% slower clock for clock.....so to say a 2.4ghz C2D or what is an E6600 would mean you need 2.88hjz plus AMD!!! I dont think so...I think required may be getting confused with recommended or suggested for excellent performance. really faster cpu speed will only come in play when you do final rendering and slower cpu just means slower time, but not that it wont do it....

I also heard Pinnacle 11 is bloated. I have Pinnacle 10 and 9 and I would have to agree it was bloated software then as well....

 

[Duvie]

I downloaded a version of Pinnacle 11 as a trial for a test and I will try to let you know....A) if I can get work done if I underclock it to about 2ghz using 10x multi and 200fsb....B) what cpu usage I see being used...

I still think RAM and ram speed can make a huge difference here...The amount of page file usage on the HDD can also be a factor....

 

[Duvie]

http://www.internetvideomag.co...7_PinnacleStudio11.htm

This seems to say requirements for processing power is far less then what you are stating...You should be fine by this account....


One thing I didn't like that was mentioned is the AVCHD content once burned to DVD only works on HD-DVD.....My Ulead software says it will only work in certain Blue Ray players (like some sony's and panasonic models) and PS3's.....I dont like the format confusion that will leave people possibly buying a format that could lose out....

 

[KThomas00]

Thanks Duvie,

I'm going to be putting in 2 more GB of RAM for a total for 3GB, so I think I'll be ok with RAM. Let me know how your trial version runs. Did you find that on the Pinnacle site? I'd like to download it as well and take a test drive.

 

[themisfit610]

AVCHD (well, any form of HD H.264 actually) is very CPU intensive to both encode and decode.

Consider that using x264 - a superb open source H.264 encoder that's considered very fast, my 3800+ X2 can encode at ~ 1 fps. I do two passes. Also consider that for the average 2 hour movie that means nearly 3 days of encoding time.

This is one of the biggest reasons I dropped on a q6600 and 4 gigs of RAM recently. I plan on hitting at least 3 GHz. That should speed things up nicely, and I should be able to edit HD without much trouble.

I haven't personally used Pinnacle, but I can say that Adobe Premiere wasn't too bad working with HD material, even with my X2 3800+. Get the X2 for now, and get a quad core system next major upgrade, since s939 is holding on to its last gasps of life.

~MiSfit

 

[Duvie]

ONe thing is different though....Since the format in my case is already AVCHD, it really is a matter of transcoding to finish off a project with some limited rendering of effects into it. Otherwise I dont see myself doing raw files to AVCHD. Time was minimal for a 30min project on my quad core in which I never saw max out all four cores.....

I think there are some serious IO limitations when you start getting into this sort of thing.

I recommend a RAID array and use of multiple drives, and always transfer files from source to HDD before working....

 

[SlyNine]

Well, I will tell you first hand that a stock 4200 X2 will drop frames if decoding h.264 1080P. However, Maybe getting a cheap 3850 ATI video card will offload the decodeing for you, I have no idea how the program works. But the 3850's can do H.264 Decodeing, as far as the Encodeing process. It would take longer then a sweet C2Q, but it will get the job done I'm sure.