How are my computer specs when it comes to video editing?

[Norman Willis]

No.

What are you editing? HD or SD? And what kind?

Also, how many hard drives do you have?

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Fernando Park]

I’m editing HD videos captured with my Kodak Playsport which records 720p. I only have 1 250GB internal hard drive with an external 500GB plugged in.

I didn’t know hard drives had any effect. How so?

So according to my computer specs and the files I’m editing, is this enough? If not, how can it be improved?

[Fernando Park]

I’m also on Vegas Pro 9 if that helps.

[Fernando Park]

Here are also the specs for the video camera I’m using.

File formats
video: H.264 (MOV), AAC LC
still: JPEG

Capture modes
1080p—1920 x 1080, 30 fps
720p / 60 fps—1280 x 720, 60 fps
720p—1280 x 720, 30 fps
WVGA—848 x 480, 30 fps

I mostly shoot with 720p (30 or 60fps, I’m not sure)

[Norman Willis]

Hey Fernando.

Good questions and good info. Typically, to edit HD one wants at least four cores. Can you upgrade your processor to a CoreDuo Quad? It does not have to be one of the top models. But four cores really helps. Also, four gigs of RAM is probably the minimum for HD.

Finally, you might try a free download trial of Cineform NeoScene ($99.00 at https://www.videoguys.com if you decide to buy it). What that does is ‘relax’ the H.264 into a .avi format, which is much looser, and much easier to edit.

The reason for the separate hard drives is that the operating system pretty much keeps your C:\ drive read-write head busy. So when you start working with HD files, you need a separate read-write head. And then you store your video files on D:\, and also put the Vegas temp file there. A 7200 RPM spin model is the idea. You can usually pick them up for not very much nowadays. There are lots of options, but they have 1TB Seagate 7200 RPM spin HDD’s on sale now. That is a good model, and pretty much everyone likes it. Other guys like Western Digital. If you plan to do this a lot (or do it for a living) you might want to spring for an enterpreise class drive (although they cost more). And be sure to back up your projects and data!

Please let me know what other questions you have.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Norman Willis]

The thing with the external hard drive is that the transfer speeds on USB 2.0 or Firewire 400 are not fast enough. When USB 3.0 comes out, that will be fast enough, as the internal hard drive speeds are somewhere between 3GB/sec and 6GB/sec, depending on the hard drive you are using.

USB 3.0 will be 5GB/sec (i.e., faster than many internal drives), so that will be a game-changer. You will pretty much be able to treat USB 3.0 thumb drives as an internal solid state drive (not quite, but almost).

But at the moment USB 2.0 is pretty much good only for backing up your C:\ OS drive, and your D:\ data drive.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Hallgeir Gjesdal]

This is almost exactly my specs.. same processor, vista 32 bit and I’ve got 4 Gb ram (Dell Dimension E520).

I can drop almost anything at the Timeline, and I do alot with a similar mov format (Aiptek HD camera). Have not had any Vegas crash issues with this or other HD formats at all.
Before Pro 9.0e I had to rename the files to *.mp4 before I drop them on the Timeline to get both audio and video.

Nowadays I batch-render every file to Sony MXF format before using them in any project. Then I have a very decent fps in preview 🙂
In HD render-test my setup perform 5 times slower than a ‘state-of-art’ computer with latest cpu, 64 bit and 8-12 Gb ram.

Hope this gives you some answers.

[Fernando Park]

Thanks for your insight Norman. I am still confused on some parts, however.

1. Are you saying to switch over to Cineform Neoscene because it’ll be less strenuous on my computer?

2. I’m trying to better understand this whole hard drive concept. What do you mean by read-write head busy?

3. Why would I want to store my video files in D:\? Isn’t the D:\ just data? My D:\ is able to hold up to 10GB while the rest is in my C:\.

4. So you’re saying when I’m working on an HD video file, it’ll be working on the new additional internal HDD? Don’t I have to have that file in the new HDD to begin with in order for the C:\ to take a break?

Thanks again

[No Vegas]

Ouch. Those specs seem pretty low.

I would have at least 3 Hard Drives. 1 Dedicated to your OS ONLY.
One for your video capture files and one for your scratch disk or other media. I would suggest the eternal G-RAID 1tb or 2tb for your video capture.

I would go with 500GB Western Digital Drives for the others. They are cheap enough. You want to keep your system drive above 75% for best performance.

I would also go with a faster CPU and more ram if possible.

Make sure you have enough power also to push it. 650W with a good 12v rail.

[Norman Willis]

Fernando,

The thing is to have at least two physical hard drives. Not logical partitions where C and D live on the same drive: but separate drives.

A hard drive uses a read-write head (like a record player needle) to get data to and from the drive. Windows can keep a hard drive busy all by itself. So you need at least one more physical hard drive, 7200 RPM or faster. Also, HD files are huge, so bigger is better.

Basically, when you edit video, you are doing a defrag in reverse. The computer has to pull a lot of data from a lot of different places and put it to a different place. That is a lot. Having more physical drives is like having extra people to help you pack a moving van. The more people you have, the easier it goes.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org