HD video editing and Blu-Ray system requirements

[Bill Hark]

I am looking to upgrade my 6 year old desktop and would like to be able to edit HD video and produce both DVD's and Blu-Rays. I will likely use Adobe CS5 assuming I can get a decent upgrade price. In their systems requirements list, they state,

"7200 RPM hard drive for editing compressed video formats; RAID 0 for uncompressed"

I know that HDV is a compressed video format. For typical storm chaser use, is there any requirement to use "uncompressed video formats" to edit HD video and produce Blu-Rays? I currently use HDV tape-based cameras but may eventually upgrade to a tapeless system when my current cameras die. I am hoping not to need a RAID 0 and be able to have larger hard drive space.

Bill Hark

 

[Walt VanRheen]

7200 RPM is standard pretty much. go with it. the big thing is Horsepower. Get the fastest processor you can afford. I7 preferably. 6-8 gigs of ram. 64bit as well. multiple HD is also an excellent idea.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

I know that HDV is a compressed video format. For typical storm chaser use, is there any requirement to use "uncompressed video formats" to edit HD video and produce Blu-Rays? I currently use HDV tape-based cameras but may eventually upgrade to a tapeless system when my current cameras die. I am hoping not to need a RAID 0 and be able to have larger hard drive space.
Bill Hark

I'm assuming by "compressed" you are talking about the resolution of 1440x1080 instead of 1920x1080?

If so, the answer is no. The 1440 can be stretched to 1920 with no noticeable (visual) loss of quality. I didn't do the editing, but my Bowdle video was shot in HDV, and I believe you bought the Blu-ray copy of Bullseye Bowdle, so that should give you a pretty good idea of how HDV looks on Blu-ray. It can be edited just like any other HD format.

If you are talking about compressed as in lower bitrate, HDV has a higher bitrate than most solid-state or HD camcorders, so you wouldn't have any more or less "compressed" video with HDV than you would a tapeless system.

 

[James Langford]

I'm thinking maybe they mean "lossless" when talking about uncompressed. If you are working with After Effects or Vegas, and in a Lossless format, the files are HUGE. I'm guessing the faster hard drive speed is required for working with those files, but I'm not sure.

I'd definitely recommend 64 Bit and at a minimum 8 Gbs of RAM if you can swing it. I just jumped from Windows 7 32 to 64, and the difference in every aspect is enourmouse. Photo and video editting are so much faster now, and memory usage is much more efficient.

James

 

[Skip Talbot]

The processor is going to be the component that affects your editing and rendering process the most (assuming you have adequate memory). I'll second the i7. The more cores your processor has the better, as Premiere is multithreaded so it can use all of your cores at the same time. 8 GB of memory should be more than enough. I've got 4 in my quad core desktop and it does a fine job, but 8 will definitely give you more leg room when dealing with larges files.

 

[Andrew Ryan]

I am looking to upgrade my 6 year old desktop and would like to be able to edit HD video and produce both DVD's and Blu-Rays. I will likely use Adobe CS5 assuming I can get a decent upgrade price. In their systems requirements list, they state,

"7200 RPM hard drive for editing compressed video formats; RAID 0 for uncompressed"

I know that HDV is a compressed video format. For typical storm chaser use, is there any requirement to use "uncompressed video formats" to edit HD video and produce Blu-Rays? I currently use HDV tape-based cameras but may eventually upgrade to a tapeless system when my current cameras die. I am hoping not to need a RAID 0 and be able to have larger hard drive space.

Bill Hark

Uncompressed HD 4:4:4 (i.e., raw video from the camera) requires an insane amount of space and power to work with. It's an enormous overkill for any project unless you are dealing with chroma key or cgi.

But anywho, I recommend staying with tape and HDV. It produces great quality and you always have an archival copy of your work. I just don't trust tapeless methods (especially HDD) without having at least one backup.

Also, most if not all computers these days have 7200rpm HDDs, that shouldn't be a problem. If you plan on doing serious editing, I recommend an external drive. They're cheap (<$200 for 1TB of space) and don't tie you down to your computer.

 

[Bill Hark]

I'm assuming by "compressed" you are talking about the resolution of 1440x1080 instead of 1920x1080?

If so, the answer is no. The 1440 can be stretched to 1920 with no noticeable (visual) loss of quality. I didn't do the editing, but my Bowdle video was shot in HDV, and I believe you bought the Blu-ray copy of Bullseye Bowdle, so that should give you a pretty good idea of how HDV looks on Blu-ray. It can be edited just like any other HD format.

If you are talking about compressed as in lower bitrate, HDV has a higher bitrate than most solid-state or HD camcorders, so you wouldn't have any more or less "compressed" video with HDV than you would a tapeless system.

Scott,

I am using the term "compressed" as it was listed in the system requirements for Adobe CS5. They don't specify. I am assuming there are other formats besides HDV and AVCHD. Andrew mentions "Uncompressed HD 4:4:4 (i.e., raw video from the camera)." I guess I would never need to use that level of video. I know some folks convert to AVI format/Cineform for editing but I think it is still compressed. BTW, I did purchase Bulleye Bowdle on Blu-Ray and was impressed with the video quality.

Bill Hark

 

[Mark Blue]

I've been thinking about this thread and did some looking around and found a website you might find interesting Bill: http://tinyurl.com/c4uhqs

One thing to note is that video card technology has come a long way in the last few years and a bulk of the video processing is often times offloaded from the CPU to the GPU, but largely depends on the software you use and the model of video card you buy. The Nvidia Quadro card is designed for workstation use is an excellent choice for HD video editing. I found several other references that I would be glad to share, but thought I'd start with this as it covers the bases for someone who is looking to upgrade their computer. One question I have is are you planning to build your own rig or buy one that is already preconfigured? Building your own is the only way to go in my estimation as it gives you complete control over the hardware. However, there are several options from the major manufacturers these days, so the door is wide open no matter which route you decide to go. Take a look at the website and let me know what you think. I'd be happy to share the other information I found offline or here if you are interested.