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Killer Video Editing Machine

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Yeah I figured video editing was a whole lot more cpu and memory intensive than the actual video card. I'll also be doing some 3d work on it...(lightwave, 3ds max, maya) so I'll need a pretty upscale card also. Any recommendations on software for video editing? I use mainly Premiere Pro right now - do they have a final cut pro pc version? Anything more professional?
 
Your setup seems fine. I would think about getting the new Maxtor 300gb drives with the 16mb cache. A pair of them in a RAID setup would give you speed AND capacity.
 
the biggest advantage for a Power G5 is it can have 8GB memory, if u were willing to get over the Mac problem, it would own just about any comp plus 2 apple theater displays = Yesh
 
Originally posted by: Apotherix
Yeah I figured video editing was a whole lot more cpu and memory intensive than the actual video card. I'll also be doing some 3d work on it...(lightwave, 3ds max, maya) so I'll need a pretty upscale card also. Any recommendations on software for video editing? I use mainly Premiere Pro right now - do they have a final cut pro pc version? Anything more professional?
Click to expand...

Final Cut Pro HD is only available for Macintosh systems running OS X. Premiere Pro may be enough for you to start working while you to get a handle on exactly what your needs are. Avid Xpress Pro is another well known video editing suite. Sony Vegas may also be worth a look.

Again, the basics of your required input and output formats would be an immense help for people trying to give you advice. For example, if you need to handle uncompressed SDI and external deck control, you will get different specific hardware suggestions than if you're working with miniDV. What formats of tape and camera sources will you be working from? Will you be outputting back to tape for broadcast, mastering DVDs, producing DRM-ed streaming video or something else?

Now that you're throwing 3D applications into the mix, that will send you in a different direction for video cards (away from Matrox). Once you determine the exact video editing software and combine that with a list of 3D and other applications, you can have a look at all the qualified hardware lists of the software makers to point you in the right direction. Here are a couple examples:

Avid Xpress Pro system requirements

Processors: Dual or Single 2.4 GHz Xeon processor OR Pentium 4 1.6 GHz processor
Open GL graphics cards: NVidia QuadroFX 1300 PCI Express, Nvidia QuadroFX 1100 AGP 8x, NVidia QuadroFX 500 AGP 8X, or NVidia Quadro4 980 XGL AGP 8X
Click to expand...

Maya 6.0 Qualified Graphics Cards and Driver Versions

Maya 6.0 is qualified on Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon processors and AMD Opteron. Maya 6.0 is currently Untested on the following 64-bit systems: Athlon 64.

Maya 6.0 qualified graphics cards include Nvidia Quadro series, ATI FireGL series, 3DLabs Wildcat series (see link for details).
Click to expand...

If you run into trouble in Maya on non-qualified hardware, Alias support may not be able to help you.

Once you narrow down the formats you require and the software you will be using, it might be a good idea to visit the manufacturers' support forums and other forums geared towards video production to ask for recommendations, rather than a general hardware site like AT where you will find a mixed bag of knowledge and experience with video production work.
 
I have many hours of hands-on time with a Matrox RT-X100 based system.

With the RT-X100 card installed, you don't even need a super powerful PC because almost all you do is in freakin' Real Time because of the co-processors.

You need a boot drive that has Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 installed

and an Audio-Video capture / editing drive. They recommend using a RAID 0 setup and that's what I've been using. Super smooth. When "scrubbing" the timeline, it is almost as smooth as using our older $30,000 Mac based Media-100 system. But as far as features go, I like this system much better.

You need dual monitors. Any video card with dual output that supports Direct-X 9 will be fine. We have some mediocre NVidia based card. Video speed is unimportant.

This allows me to capture great Analog video from composite or S-Video. Digital in on firewire is the best, though. Flawless control. Premiere lets you create a log-list of you In and Out points, then you can walk away while it does the actual captures.

PS. Matrox really recommends that you use Intel P4 or Xeons on an Intel motherboard. They give recommendations on their website.

At home, I run Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 on my AMD-64 3000+ and it runs almost as well, but I don't have the Matrox RT-X100 so I can have some rendering time, but it is bearable because my computer is plenty fast.

any other specific questions?

JonB
 
Ram helps when you use large system cache.

Xeons can have file system cache >4GB under 32bit windows...

I'd recommend a 320-4X with 512MB cache, BBU, and 10-20 146 15K4 disks in RAID0 for scratch.

Dual 3.6G Nacona's with 4GB is a good start. I hear of some PCI-E 16x HBA's on the horizon that will support 2GB+ of cache and six U320 channels. A SA-SCSI version is also in the works. 64 10K 2.5" disks in RAID0. There needs to be drool icon!

The G5 may support 8GB but that's not ECC. Not something I would want all my data cached into and have a bit flip. It happens more than you think and this is why servers and true workstations (which the G5 is not) have ECC.

Cheers!
 
Adobe Premiere behaves just the same with 1GB of dual channel RAM when compared to 2GB of dual channel RAM. That was on the editing system with the Matrox card, so it may be because of it. At home, I run 1GB of single channel RAM. Free memory drops from about 750mb down into the 250mb range while editing.
 
I don't know much about video editing/capturing, but i'm surprised that no one has mentioned this: the Opterons can support a much greater amount of memory and when XP-64 comes out, he'll be able to fully utilize the 64 bit stuff (Not sure if this would help or not). Also, I think that a dual opteron 250 system is the best option, look at the one that MarkFw900 has spec'ed out. Hope that you're happy with whatever you get.
 
You really ought to consider a Newtek Video Toaster 4. While I would build my own if I only had the money, this site will give you a good idea of what they are putting in them.

There is nothing like a Video Toaster, once you've used a VT, you'll never want to touch Final Cut or Premiere Pro (though I do becuase of... well.. budget..).
 
Originally posted by: bcoupland
I don't know much about video editing/capturing, but i'm surprised that no one has mentioned this: the Opterons can support a much greater amount of memory and when XP-64 comes out, he'll be able to fully utilize the 64 bit stuff (Not sure if this would help or not). Also, I think that a dual opteron 250 system is the best option, look at the one that MarkFw900 has spec'ed out. Hope that you're happy with whatever you get.
Click to expand...

Not until 64-bit Windows comes out they can't.
 
I glanced at the VT4 pages. Not sure about NewTek's stuff since I have no current experience. Back when they broke into the market with the Video Toaster and Lightwave on the Amiga Platform, they were always a little bit funky in naming of their hardware and software, but it did work well. I just had to explain to the "boss" that ordering a "Toaster" was a good thing.

But I miss Kiki. I saw her at a few tradeshows selling NewTek products. Her bright red hair and lips, short skirt (and she like to sit on tall bar stools). mmmmmmmmmmm. Did I buy NewTek just to have a shot a Kiki? perhaps, but it didn't work.
 
I don't know where all of you are gettting your information, but I can assure you that with DV and MPEG2, the cases where dual Xeons will get trumped by Opterons is few and far between.

That combined with a whole host of SCSI 15K RPM drives in a noise control enclosure and large amounts of cache on the SCSI controller, as much RAM as you can handle, and dedicated capture cards will most likely offer the best computer technology has to offer for video editing at the moment on the Windows platform.
 
dual 2.5 ghz apple g5, with dual 30" LCD displays. as far as video editing goes, macs are still better than pcs.
 
futuristicmonkey, think about it. All the video footage on the RAID 0 drive can be easily and quickly recaptured. I save the Adobe Premiere editing / layout files on the C: drive, but all captured video goes on the RAID. I seriously don't worry about it dying. I would only lose the current project. Older projects have been archived back to DV or to DVD. One C: drive, and two drives make my D: drive.

If you move into the HDTV area, consider 15K SCSI drives, but even then they are overkill.

If you are capturing first generation video to a hard drive (I did it once with a laptop and a Mini-DV camcorder when I forgot extra tapes), then you can get worried about data loss. First thing I did back in the office was dump to tape. Too bad its real-time only.
 
MAN u AMD people just blab all the time !!! but the very fastest boards out there is Asus NCCH_DL with 2 xeon nacona's 3.6 GHz is buy far the fastest there is out right now no competion at all.these things are even faster than the top P4 gaming PC'S and THE all powerful AMD FX 55 you people got to get out more.,ALSO very fast ASUS NCL-DS THESE ARE ALSO 64 bit as well as 32 bit THESE ARE NOT hacked your information is wrong. they are however based on the 875 chipset 6300ESB northbrige. 2xPCI 2xPCI-X.This not a hack job.Also no dual processor board even comes close @ stock speed and you can O/C to 4 GHz. And u can use only 3.6 megs of ram but the board is only $200 thats a deal IT has the AGP proslot So the video solution is there and this is a nice very nice board . Hack job thats what you guys try doing to Intel CPU's your just cring wolf.

 
MAN u AMD people just blab all the time !!! but the very fastest boards out there is Asus NCCH_DL with 2 xeon nacona's 3.6 GHz is buy far the fastest there is out right now no competion at all.these things are even faster than the top P4 gaming PC'S and THE all powerful AMD FX 55 you people got to get out more.,ALSO very fast ASUS NCL-DS THESE ARE ALSO 64 bit as well as 32 bit
Click to expand...

Um, not quite....

The fastest (Xeon based) solution is the SuperMicro X6DAE-G2. The Asus board is a very entry level product based on a desktop chipset hacked with semi-workstation features that are not true 64bit PCI, for example. A true workstation will have PCI-X at 133MHz on its own dedicated path and support for a MINIMUM of 8GB ECC ram. The X6DAE supports 32GB ram.

Comparison

When a 64bit version of Windows is finalised, the choice will be clear as far as Opteron goes.

Cheers!
 
Old post and you probably already have a solution...

Since this is a corporate asset, I would look at getting the HP XW8200 as part of a package. Some vendors offer them as a pre-configured suite. You can also get service level agreements for repair (4 hours?). I know Pinnacle has a system that shipped with the XW8000 as the hardware that Liquid Silver was built into. There may be something similar for LE6, but I think it is not available yet.

My main Rig works well. I am borrowing a X800 Pro at the moment and it is really fun now. 😉

 
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