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Migrating to AVCHD and Need to Upgrade Hardware
I’m a work-at-home marketing communications/public relations freelance. I’m getting more and more involved with short, business video projects of 3 to 5 minutes. I’ve been using SONY Vegas Movie Studio 9 and a Canon fs100 camcorder to create the work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phBL1ODTxxg
End purpose has been videos for You Tube (upload over cable modem), files placed on clients’ intranets and the occassional DVD. I’ve recently purchased a Canon VIXIA HF200 camcorder that records in AVCHD to SD memory cards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COi0NgMi8iQI’ve used the trial version of Vegas Movie Studio HD to work with these first AVCHD files. My present computer is a 2.0 Ghz Pentium 4 with 2 Gig RAM and onboard graphics (no card). The Movie Studio HD video preview is quite ‘jerky’ (plays/displays every 20th frame) when working with these AVCHD files. With the current machine, it’s taking 45 minute to 1 hour to render a 3 minute video for upload to you tube.
I think it’s upgrade time. I know this is a support forum for the Vegas software community, but I thought, “These folks use the cameras, the AVCHD format and the editing software. They might have some tips on hardware do’s-and-don’t’s (relating to a migration to AVCHD from standard definition media.).” Would anyone care to share his/her thoughts on:
1.) Processor (brand, speed, single core/dual core?)
2.) Amount of RAM
3.) Video card / onboard videoAgain, I know I’m asking for hardware thoughts, but you folks are the most-thoughtful and considerate group on COW and I’d really appreciate the help in making a buying decision.
John in Ohio
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3 Replies
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The response to my questions has been underwhelming, indeed. So, I struck out on my own relying upon web sources and advice from acquaintences. The resulting system is a refurbished Dell small-form-factor machine running Windows XP Pro w/ 2.8 Gigahertz Pentium D two core processor with 2 Gig system RAM. A 512 Mb PCI-express video card (again— had to be Small Form Factor to fit in box). 1600 x 900 native resolution HP monitor model HP 2009m.
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Hi John.
Just reading this now.
Did you purchase this machine already?
If you are going to use AVCHD natively you need at least a quad core. The only way to make it work with a dual core is to convert to .avi before you edit. The best converter going is Cineform NeoScene, best price $99.00 at Videoguys.com. I hope that helps.
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org -
I agree, that you should be running quad core, and that should mean upgrading to the 64 bit version of the software. Unfortunately, XP is not a great way to go here, as it really was an early implementation of 64 bit by MS and needed much rework. I would consider moving to 64 Bit Vista, or better yet Win7, which I’m running. Not sure how compatable all the plug ins, etc are with Win7 yet, as I’m not a heavy user of the product.So check it out before moving. You will need to erase your hard disk to install Windows 7 over XP, and to avoid that if you must (I recommend erasing first), then I would pay to upgrade first to Vista 64 then to Win7.
Anyway, I’m very pleased with Win7 over Vista 64, it literally gave me a new laptop by installing it, as Vista 64, depending on processor, could be very slow. My desktop is a new Win7, 64 bit, quad core, 6GB RAM, HP machine. A very fast machine. And cheap. $600. But I’m probably going to need a much faster graphics card, which I’ve resisted just yet. I’ll let you know if I find one that works well with VegasP.
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