-
Starting to Shoot HD Will the PC Handle in Premiere
I’ve just joined the 21st century by switching to HD camcorders for a project. The live production is captured from three camera angles and a sequence is created where we fade and cut between the three video tracks. I have been fine capturing in 480i and importing as .avi in previous years. When I bought my PC, I found the most affordable windows 7 64 bit machine I could find that met the recommended specs for CS6. Core i7, 900 lines, 4 GB RAM. I did not realize that the HP 8440p, will only handle a maximum of 8 GB RAM which is frustrating as I thought 64 bit OS machines would take unlimited RAM. Here are my questions for the experts.
Can I get away with 4GB RAM for 3 HD video tracks? If not, am I safe if I upgrade to the maximum 8GB RAM.
Also my Canon camcorders will capture AVCHD or MP4, should I go with MP4 to avoid taxing the system, or will AVCHD do well with 4GB RAM/ 8 GB RAM i7?
Lastly, we are still just making DVDs, but I may want a Blu Ray “print” to maybe make Blu Ray copies of the project in the future, is there a way to simultaneously cut sequences that can easily be made into DVD or Blu Ray. I’ve never used premiere or encore with HD assets before, so I appreciate any feedback. Thank you!
-
3 Replies
-
I would definitely throw another 4 Gigs in there, RAM is cheap these days. You should be ok, but real time playback without rendering is going to be tough with AVCHD.
As for your edits. Create a 1920 x1080 square pixel sequence. Export uncompressed HD or do a Dynamic link to Encore for the BLURAY. For the DVD, export as MPEG2-DVD widescreen or again, do a dynamic link, make sure you select Maximum render quality to get a better downconversion quality.
Vince Becquiot
San Francisco Bay Area
-
Vince, thanks for the reply. I’d rather capture AVCHD and add 4 more gigs of RAM, then have the source material compromised at the start and I’ve been told MP4 will create a lesser source image. I will add the memory and render before preview if neccessary based on your advice. Thanks again.
-
Just a follow up, I have upgraded to 8 GB RAM (maximum for my machine) and made sure it took. When I import all of the assets into Premiere and then try to play an HD clip on the timeline, I am getting some freezing of the image but I still hear sound. I’m wondering if I am bringing too many clips into the project. The project is also set up as a 1080 sequence. If I create an SD sequence, will Premiere have an easier time with the HD assets? I’m only making DVDs anyway. I’ve tried showing the images at 1/4 and 1/2 quality, but it still seems like an issue. If I can get through this project without buying a new PC, I’ll have a year before I have to complete the same volunteer project. Anybody have any suggestions to get the smoothest playback possible at this point? Thanks!
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up