Advice on Video Cards (video editting)

1HandClapping · Post by **1HandClapping** » Fri Jan 24, 2003 4:06 pm

I am designing a new system for Video editting.

The ATI 9000 is available in a fanless model but it looks a little under powered.

I hear that Saphire is planning on making a Zalman based 9700 Pro.

What do you guys recommend.

(Gamming is not that important)

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Fri Jan 24, 2003 5:34 pm

Nice handle 1HC and welcome,

If you're video editing, then the graphics power of the video card is not an issue. On the other hand, the image quality which you'll see when you try to use the tiny buttons and palettes in Adobe Premier/AfterEffects/etc - will matter to you a lot. I should know - I did years of analof video editing on my current and previous rigs!

What you'll need for crisp 2D display is a Matrox G550. It does dual-head, so you can put editing windows on your primary disp. and all your palettes on the secondary (or the TV-out).

For video editing & capture you'll need a firewire card. Any regular jobbie from adaptec, d-link, pinnacle, etc will do if your needs are basic and your budget is limited. Video capture & playback is no longer a CPU intensive process for todays processors. Rendering all the special effects is another issue - it still requires a lot of power from either/both the CPU and the capture card.

So really the most important choice will be WRT the capture card. You can spend $50-70 US or more then $2000 US on the capture card alone. What's your budget?

1HandClapping · Post by **1HandClapping** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 6:06 am

First of all apologies for posting this topic on Cases & Damping. I had to use search to find my post

Thanks Gyoza, for the compliment and info. 1HC seemed apropos for this forum.

My target budget is about $1000 to $2000 (USD) based on bang for the buck. I don't want to pay for a premium of cutting edge, but don't mind paying for quality.

I was thinking P4 2.4Ghz for that reason. I am heavily leaning towards the Asus P4PE or P4G8X (if it ever comes out). Maybe I don't need the expansion capabilities of 8xAGP, but Dual DDR is nice. Both boards are available with 1394, SATA and Gigabit Ethernet.

Should the video editting PC be separate from a HTPC? it seems the design conciderations are at odds. I was going to tie systems together with a 1000T network, eventually with an noisy RAID 5 in the basement.

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 12:07 pm

Moving this thread to General Discussion....

juniorrank1 · Post by **juniorrank1** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 3:38 pm

Do you know what applications you will be using to do your editing? It shouldn't make a big difference for hardware requirements unless you're into 3d effects (3d studio max for ex likes proffessional graphics cards). One thing to think about when buying a case is that you will probably want front access to a firewire port, assuming thats how you will be capturing. If you also want a baybus and a DVD burner, make sure you have enough bays, or a case with front ports or room to mod.

I put a Radeon 9000 (fanless, ~75USD) into a friend's system a few weeks ago, image quality on a 15" LCD monitor is good, TV out is fine. I'll also second powergyoza on Matrox being good image quality and price if you aren't going to be gaming.

Keep us posted

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 4:12 pm

1HandClapping wrote:My target budget is about $1000 to $2000 (USD) based on bang for the buck. I don't want to pay for a premium of cutting edge, but don't mind paying for quality.

If that budget includes the monitors, then you'll be more in the prosumer range for video editing. Maybe at your upper budget range can you get a realtime card.

I was thinking P4 2.4Ghz for that reason. I am heavily leaning towards the Asus P4PE or P4G8X (if it ever comes out). Maybe I don't need the expansion capabilities of 8xAGP, but Dual DDR is nice. Both boards are available with 1394, SATA and Gigabit Ethernet.

The motherboard and all its features doesn't matter as much as the capture card.

Should the video editting PC be separate from a HTPC? it seems the design conciderations are at odds. I was going to tie systems together with a 1000T network, eventually with an noisy RAID 5 in the basement.

If making a vid.editing station quiet is your concern, don't worry. The only concern is whether you're gonna be video editing in the same room as watching movies. If they're in the same space, then they can be the same machine.

1HandClapping · Post by **1HandClapping** » Sun Jan 26, 2003 7:39 am

powergyoza wrote: The motherboard and all its features doesn't matter as much as the capture card.

Does the capture card matter if I am using digital video camera and 1394?

Does the video card or capture card help with the compression? If it is CPU based then Memory throughput seems important--hense the dual DDR for 533MHz mempry access.

Tore · Post by **Tore** » Sun Jan 26, 2003 8:58 am

I got a mini-DV camera and Pinnacle Studio 7 with a 1394 card as a gift just after my son was born. My computer is an old Compaq Presario 5030 (which I got for free - wouldn't buy something like that

), which I put a 5400 RPM Fujitsu SilentDrive (inside a smart drive box) and some extra RAM inside (320 MB now). I changed the PSU fan and moved the thermistor. The computer is very quiet (easily drowned by other sounds during day time). This is a PII 300MHz with a passive heat sink, and I think it's 66MHz bus. It has an onboard AGP 2x graphic chip.

Not quite a state of the art computer

.

I don't loose a frame when I capture video in 25 fps full PAL resolution. I can edit the movie without delays, and Pinnacle Studio 7 lets me preview the transitions in real time. When I'm done, the computer renders the movie to a file which takes some time (it renders the transitions it good quality and compress the movie at this stage).

So basic video editing does indeed not require much from the computer. This is basic video editing however. If you plan to do proffesional video editing, that does require more power, for instance to handle video (or animated) overlays.

I've used the same computer with a RealMagic X-card with top quality DVD playback to TV.

I've also tried it with a Terratec Cinergy 600 TV and Radio card. I was able to record TV uncompressed at reduced resolution, but not compressed or at top resolution. I've got a Barracuda drive now though, and I haven't tried to capture TV to that yet. I may be able to capture full size uncompressed TV to that drive (and the video can allways be compressed when the TV-program has ended

)

So basic video editing should be possible to combine with a HTPC.

Tore · Post by **Tore** » Sun Jan 26, 2003 9:05 am

BTW, when I capture a 60 minute cassette, the file becomes about 13 GB. So it's important to have a big and quiet harddrive.