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editing 1080 HD footage on mid spec machine
hi all
i want to use adobe premiere and adobe after effects to edit my jvc gz-hd40 camera work it can record 1080i in mpeg-2-ts (.TOD extension) or avchd (.MTS extension) but i mostly record in avchd. i am currently using a modest pc:
intel pentium4 3.2ghz hyperhtreading cpu
1gb ddr2 ram
WD 160gb SATA-II 3.0Gb/s hard drive
windows xp home sp3my problem is at the moment when i import the footage into premiere all playbacks/previews of the footage is extremely choppy. playing fine for a second then freezing and stutterng even with draft or automatic preview quality. this was in cs4. i downloaded cs2 hoping that it would be more forgiving on my system specs. it couldnt open avchd but i downloaded mainconcept mpeg HD V3 which allowed it to support avchd. but the previews were just as bad.
i have some possible solutions and i want to know which will be best for editing short films for dvd and youtube with lots of effects added and easy after effects integration.
-convert to a smaller framsize (720p?) but which format? which converter? lossy/lossless?
-convert to another codec (i have no idea which to use? ffdshow cinepak microsoft prodad mainconcept indeo avc H.264 divx xvid the list seems endless)
– use an intermediate codec such as cineform aspect hd which looks hard to get hold of
– convert to progressive before editing (ie less frames)with virtualdub
– any other solutions?i have another question do your project settings in premiere affect previewing at all?
which is easier/better to edit avchd or mpeg2ts?
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6 Replies
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Well…first off MPEG2 is far easier for a computer to get through than AVCHD…
I’m not sure what version of Premiere Pro you’re using, but “modest” would apply to your system if we were talking about editing standard definition DV…for HD, a Pentium 4 and 1 GB of RAM are simply not going to do the job with HDV (MPEG2), and certainly not AVCHD.
CineForm Neoscene is the current product, but I’m not sure how many legacy versions of Premiere Pro they support with it. With your hardware, an intermediate workflow like CineForm is the only real possibility of getting anything done…
…not trying to be mean here… I’m just trying to recall the last Pentium 4 I had that I did any editing on…and I’m quite sure it was 7 or 8 years ago and I used it primarily to edit DV.
Make sure you check on the minmum specs for the CineForm product as well. That system may not be able to run the newest CineForm products.
FWIW…Premiere Pro 1.5 had CineForm’s codec inside it for editing HDV…
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
The Cineform option might be the best, although the resulting files are 4X the size of the original and you may need larger and faster HDs. Your PC is way to old/slow for HD editing.
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You need to make some changes, One: you need more than one harddrive, you need a separate drive for video files, Two: more memory, at least 3gigs, 4gigs if you change the operating system to a Win7 64bit one, more friendly to CS4 which would be capable of editing HDV with a P4 3.2 ghz, a intermediate codec like NeoScene would also be benifical for HDV editing, forget any mpg4 derivative codecs, also what could help is upgrading to a dual core processor if your motherboard is capable, and also of course a decent display card(not necessarily top of the line), if you add-up needed upgrades you possibly could get a i5 quade based machine for a few bucks more.
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i can’t afford to upgrade my pc i just want to know what i can do to my hd footage to make it editable on my current machine. ie would i be able to edit partial hd 720p? or would i have to reduce the frame size further to a standard definition (PAL)? but thanks for your wisdom and i do realise my pc is a piece of crap but thats why it was so cheap lol my camera actually cost double what my pc cost but im more into cinematography than editing anyway.
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I noticed that your mid-spec machine had 1 GB of RAM. I have hickups with mine at 4GB RAM and am upgrading it to 16 as soon as it gets here this week. I would consider 1 GB very substandard, even for SD, personally. My advice in dealing with HD content is get some serious memory.
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Professional videography since 1996
https://www.tetonvideo.com -
I noticed that your mid-spec machine had 1 GB of RAM. I have hickups with mine at 4GB RAM and am upgrading it to 16 as soon as it gets here this week. I would consider 1 GB very substandard, even for SD, personally. My advice in dealing with HD content is get some serious memory. Allan
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Professional videography since 1996
https://www.tetonvideo.com
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