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Question About Vegas Workflow and Hardware
Hello All,
Let me thank everyone at Creative Cow, and the contributors in the forums, to this amazing service. Wow. Thanks to Creative Cow, I think I am getting a pretty good grasp of the basics, and starting to think about optimizing my hardware and workflow.
I am an aspiring/semi-professional videographer who is navigating the transition from an amateur to a professional set up. I currently run Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0 on a Vaio laptop:
Windows 7
AMD Athlon II P320 Dual-Core Processor 2.10 GHz
4 GB RAM
64-Bit OSI know, I know! My machine is woefully underpowered, and I should have Vegas Pro! All in due time. Fortunately, most of my projects right now are relatively short in length, and not terribly effects intensive. AVCHD files straight from my Vixia HF G10 were initially a bit choppy in Vegas, but a trial version of Neoscene seems to have fixed that.
My question is: how much time and energy do I invest in patching this leaky pipe (purchasing programs such as Neoscene or Gearshift), versus replacing it entirely (investing in Vegas Pro and a more powerful machine)? Unfortunately, I can’t really afford a new “pipe” at the moment, but I don’t want to waste too many resources on patching.
So, can anyone suggest the relative merits of Neoscene versus Gearshift in regards to my situation? Which one of them will ultimately be more useful when I upgrade to Vegas Pro and a better machine (or would Vegas Pro duplicate their functionality)? Is there any chance Vegas Pro will run on my current machine, or should I wait until I get something with more power? What comes first, chicken or the egg, pro or new machine?!
On a related note, what investments will maximize the function of my current machine and also be useful in the future? For example, it seems like external hard drives are relatively cheap, and they will always be useful- am I correct in assuming that clearing up memory space on my laptop will be helpful?
I hope I can tack another clump of newbie questions: what is a good workflow for breaking up raw AVCHD files into chunks, storing the good stuff and throwing away the rest? Since Movie Studio does not batch render, do I lose anything if I render individual scenes as AVI files from the source material? What would be the best render settings for this process (i.e. the GoPro Cineform Codec?)?
I would be grateful for any attempts to tackle one or more of these questions. Many thanks!
James
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1 Reply
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You are going to spend so much time and energy working around your underpowered PC, that you may as well go buy a newer one.
Been there, done that.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com
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