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if you had $5K to spend on a computer-based video editing system, what would you buy? What kind of computer? What card? etc? My goal is to create DVDs that I film myself, create streaming video for the Web, and do hard-core video editing with special effects and merging footage from many different sources (VCR, DVD, camcorder, etc.) and putting it to music. I have all the audio equipment I'd need plus the camcorder. I don't think my computer is powerful enough though.
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For computer-relates equipments, I would buy the processors that are just in the sweet spot of value. Buying the most high-end equipments is like tossing money into the sea. CPU, RAM and Motherboard fall into this consideration. For harddrives, you should consider getting as much as you can (without blowing your budget, of course) since you'll be dealing a lot with HUGE data.
For graphics card and sound card, you don't really need much grunt. However, if you are considering outputting the picture to, say, a projector and the sound to hi-fi equipments (non-multimedia), consider buying cards that have been specifically engineered for those purposes. -
what graphics card would you recommend if I do not need to output the image to a projector?
Also, how many of you would go with a Mac vs a PC?Comment
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For viewing on a PC, and assuming no gaming in sight, any budget cards will do. I personally recommend the Radeon cards, which offer excellent image quality compared to the big competition. The Radeon 8500LE or 9000 will both offer excellent value for the money.
I don't use a Mac and so can't give any comments on this.Also, how many of you would go with a Mac vs a PC?Comment
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my dream machine...
I'd want to make sure I had vidcap abilities with S-video connections for the VCR, firewire for the Camera (assumedly) and of course dual DVD - one for the reads and one for the writes. (you did mention you wanted to cap from DVD... and this IS a dream machine.) Mac's dont have the software support and toolsets, so your into the Intel world. The AMD's dont cut it, there for those of us without the extra dollars. The new 3.06Ghz P4's under XP are showing performance gains for some encoders and content creation. See : Computer Game Magazine, Feb 2003 issue for a neat comparison. the p4 with HyperThread is 10% faster than the XP2800+athelon. You can also shave a few more secs with the 8MB cached Western Digital ATA100 drive. Finally, the PC1066 Ram is EXPENSIVE stuff. Grab a gig of it if you can afford it. Its really nice when you run Virtual windows or multi-monitor and dont like taking apps up and down. The new ATI 9700 is now the de-facto standard in video performance. Really not an issue for editing work but having Directx9 support now might hedge your bet for a year. tough call on that one tho.
Off the cuff, mem/Motherb/processor is about 1450. Add 400 for the 2 DVD's, and another 300 for Video (dont go cheap on the Video card, to many issues with lower end units) and your passing thru the $2100 barrier.
Dont forget that this isn't all just a hardware issue! Save 1/2 your money for your applications too! *grin* I hear that CCE is a bit pricey... And so is Premiere!ShuMOComment
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Re: ShuMO
That's one way of getting the expensive dream machine. I'll give this three months before it becomes displaced by faster processors and eventually into the mainstream.Comment
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