PC FOR VIDEO EDITING

Personal Computers for Video Editing

Following a previous talk to the Reading Film and Video Makers I was asked to publish the main points that I had suggested a newcomer to video editing should consider when purchasing a computer. Although a modern 'off-the-shelf computer will probably be adequate, better performance and stability will be achieved if the PC is specially configured for video editing; the following are my recommendations. Additionally, some editing programs and additional software with which I have had experience are suggested, but I must stress that these are my personal recommendations and no doubt others may have different ideas and views on the subject

Recommended Minimum PC spec for Video Editing

Most current PCs will be fast enough for at least basic standard definition video editing and will not necessarily require a dedicated video card (I am referring to a card that receives the video input from the camera, not the graphics card)

As of Jan. 2010, my recommendation for high definition editing would to base the PC on an Intel i7 950 (3.0GHz) processor with a minimum of 3GB RAM, ideally 6GB or more and a separate SATA hard disk or RAID array for the video files. Using such a system with Edius 5.12 software I am now getting the real time performance in editing that is very close to that which I experienced with SD some 5 years ago. I now record in full 1920 x 1080 50i with a Sony EX1 camera and I find that using this software, I rarely need to render any HD transitions or FX to see their operation in full quality and frame rate in real time on the external video monitor; I should mention that I also have the Grass Valley NXex HD cards fitted to provide HD video output to the external monitor, but their inclusion does not effect the real time performance of the system. As an alternative to the NX express cards you could fit an Edius Storm or Spark card.

Use a separate hard disk for the video data, don't use the C drive. A 1TerraByte SATA hard disk or greater will be adequate for HD although using two drives in a RAID 0 configuration will almost double the video data throughput thereby allowing the computer to process more video tracks and effects in real time. SATA drives are faster than the older drives and are to be preferred for video editing

Ensure that the PC has a Firewire (IEEE 1394) connection. You will use this to connect to the digital output of your camera or recorder and so avoid the need for a separate video input/output card. If the PC does not have a Firewire connection you may fit a Firewire interface card in one of the PC motherboard's PCI slots at a small cost - around £15-20. For those who use an analogue camera, then a suitable video interface will be require to receive either the composite or S video and audio inputs.

Software

Operating System:

Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (NB XP and other 32bit operating systems cannot ‘see’ more than 3GB of memory), Windows Vista 64bit Business edition or Windows 7 64bit.

Video Editing and related software :

My favourite, because of its speed, real time performance and stability is Edius (or Edius Neo). These programs also allow you to create a DVD or Bluray directly from the timeline and also support the increasingly popular AVCHD form.

MAGIX 'Movie Edit Pro 15+' (About £60 ) this also includes a DVD burning program, a sound editing program, a photo manipulation program and others to provide exceptional value for money. ‘Movie Edit Pro 16+’ is expected around March of 2010. Be sure to get the + version of this software as it includes the above mentioned programs and many other extras.

Adobe Premiere CS4 Suite is also a very comprehensive suite of programs, but costs a lot more than the Magix software. The suite includes ‘Encore’ a very comprehensive DVD/Bluray authoring package and additional audio editing software.

Sony Vegas is another editing program that you may wish to consider. It comes complete with ‘DVD Architect’ that provides DVD/Bluray authoring.

Ulead DVD Movie Factory 7 an inexpensive, but versatile and easy-to-use DVD/Bluray authoring program. My preference for general use where the greater flexibility (and difficulty) of Adobe Encore is not required.

Bluff Titler - An inexpensive 3d title making program - download from the internet

Audacity - Audio editing (free) - download from the internet

Blender - 3d Modelling (free) - download from the internet

Acronis Backup Use this software to make a safety backup of you C drive. The back-up copy of your C drive could be on the separate video hard disk or on a setoff DVD/Bluray disks and it would then be possible to use this copy to restore the original or new C drive to the original working state in the event of a major crash thus avoiding having to reload the operating system and all other programs separately. Highly recommended!

HD Tune Use this to measure hard disk performance - This is a free download from the internet

Scene Analyzer A useful utility that captures video data into separate files at scene changes - download from the internet.

Hardware Add-Ons

2nd PC Monitor This may require a new graphics card that provides two monitor outputs. Check that the card is compatible with the editing software that is to be used. Using two monitors to display your work area makes video editing much easier on the eye.

Separate Video Monitor or television Recommended for assessing colour balance - LCD screens' colour performance is not as accurate as that of CRTs

Contour Control Unit A useful control unit to supplement the Mouse. The unit provides rotary knob control for Jog and Shuttle operation plus a number of programmable keys to provide the equivalent of keyboard shortcuts when editing.

External Back up drive

Video Keyboard A keyboard with colour coded keys that relate to the keyboard shortcut commands for the editing program. Not available for all programs, but available for Adobe Premiere, Vegas and Edius.

Film/Photo Scanner for bringing in still images from 35 camera slides or photographs

There are a number of recommendations that help to ensure the best performance and least likelihood of system crashes:

Turn off all other programs that may be running in the background

Turn off Internet Access - If possible, don't use the editing PC for internet connection.

Turn off Security - Virus/Firewall when editing

Turn off CD Auto Play. Auto Play requires that the CPU periodically checks whether a CD has been inserted and, if so, automatically runs the program on the disk. This takes up valuable CPU processing time which can be better used in the video editing program.

Enable DMA (Direct memory Access) This will allow hard disks to transfer data using less of the system CPU power, typically about 40%, thus leaving that power for video processing with no adverse effect on hard disk performance.

Use separate drive for Video Use a SATA drive if the PC supports this type of interconnection. Consider using two hard disks in a RAID 0 configuration to improve data flow or RAID 1 to provide added security to your video files (ie. duplicated storage). RAID 5 provides increased data throughput and security, but require at least three hard disks.

Defrag (de-fragment) the video hard drive regularly (Select Disk Drive > Right Click and select Properties > Tools > defrag) This will ensure contiguous data files on the hard disk and will maximise data access.

Disable write behind memory caching This is an option on a disk drive and may be accessed via the Properties page in the Device manager

www.Videoguys.com list a number of tweaks that should be made to Windows XP to ensure the best performance. These have been found to be beneficial and have produced no unwanted side effects on any of my editing PCs.

Remember to use the Windows XP System Restore utility whenever installing new software programs and device drivers. Set a system restore point before you install the new software so that should you suffer problems following the installation you may return to the previous settings.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions relating to editing. I can't promise to be able to answer all questions, but I will do what I can. Happy editing.!

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