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Video Editing

post #1 of 23
3/6/04 at 8:02pm
Thread Starter 
I was searching around google and found this forum and so far it has been a great help in my quest for an AW laptop. Thanks all. I don't have an AW yet but am seriously considering picking one up for college. I have one question that i couldn't really find much on in the forum or else where...

Has anyone done some serious video editing on an Area-51m? (like with Adobe Premiere)

Video editing is what the laptop will be primarily used for so i really want to know how it preforms under the extreme stress of editing and rendering. As far as i can see the specs of an AW should hold up just fine under the pressure, but if i could get some testimonials that would be awesome.
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post #2 of 23
3/6/04 at 8:08pm
Welcome to the forums techguy.
As to video editing, I have Adobe Premier Pro running on my Sager 8890 which is fairly similar in specs to the Area-51m. Works like a charm. I would however recommend you get the 7200 RPM disks. The main issue is how you intend to get the video into the laptop. I would recommend you go the Firewire route and if your video feed is from a VHS system get yourself a Canopus ADVC-100 converter. Definitely worth the extra $.
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post #3 of 23
3/6/04 at 11:34pm
Dude I am on a 1.7 with 5.4k RPM and 3ds max 6.0 and Pro and even some parts of maya run fine That HT is really going to help you don't worry about it. Pro is like the weakest program for video editing it will do fine. Avid is were YOU NEED HT
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post #4 of 23
3/7/04 at 12:52am
As an Editor looking at laptops right now, I'll lend you this advice.

1st. Is this laptop you're looking for a desktop replcacement or a laptop for the road? It sounds like a desktop replacement (ie not excessively worried about battery life).

2nd. Laptops are generally not upgradable. More ram, yes but not cpu and grfx cards(although a few like the Alienware 51m will upgrade the grfx card).

3rd. Software. Premiere Pro is a joke. If it's what you got, then it's what you got. But if you're serious about editing there are two programs at teh top - Avid and Final Cut. If you're a PC man, then look at Avid Xpress DV. Mac guy, it's either Final Cut or Avid Xpress DV.

Finally I can not say this strongly enough, DO NOT SKIMP ON YOUR NEW MACHINE. Ram and CPU power are extremely important in the world of NLE editing programs these days.

PC
CPU: At least a P4 2800
RAM: At least 512MB
GRFX Card: ATI Radeon 9600/9700 serious or Nvidia Geforce FX
OS: Win XP PRO (spend the extra $60)
Hard Drive: As fast and Big as you can. (minimum 60gb)
Extrenal HD: I keep all media on an External FW Drive. Keeps the main one a lot cleaner/faster/less fragmented. 200GB for around $300.

MAC
Laptop - G4 as fast as possible and as much RAM.

Any questions feel free to ask.

Mark Santora
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post #5 of 23
3/7/04 at 5:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Santora
As an Editor looking at laptops right now, I'll lend you this advice.

1st. Is this laptop you're looking for a desktop replcacement or a laptop for the road? It sounds like a desktop replacement (ie not excessively worried about battery life).
I'm looking for something in between because i'm going to be lugging this thing to class alot, but i'm a big guy and don't mind the weight as long as its justified.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Santora
Premiere Pro is a joke.
I use premiere and find it pretty decent, but i've never used avid xpress and i'm always open for suggestions and change. I've heard alot of good things about it, what specific things do you like about avid? or what things does premiere lack that final cut and avid have?
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post #6 of 23
3/7/04 at 6:43am
Avid is used in the profession as a defacto std NLE. It has probably more "professional level" effects and editing capabilities (simultaneous tracks etc).

It might pay you to check this review on Adobe: http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/2...premprorev.htm
and the home page: http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/

Bottom line - if you are going to work in the industry as a professional, I would go the Avid route to get used to the product. If you are after a less expensive option Adobe might be your choice.

Whilst I agree with (Mark) Santora on the CPU/mem needs of NLE (one reason I went for the top end Sager 8890-V with 1GB of memory and RAID) if you have to take your work/study with you a desktop is just not an option. Also how many times do you upgrade a system. Most of the time you tend to set them up then leave them (maybe extra mem and disk) but mobo's etc tend to stay put for a couple of years.
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post #7 of 23
3/7/04 at 6:47am
Santora, what is it with the editors - a girlfriend of mine uses Avid (she works for the film industry here in Oz) and she defends it with her life. When I mentioned I was using Adobe I almost had my head bitten off like I had committed a social faux pax. Sheeesh. I thought AW/Voodoo/Sager owners were biased until I met her .
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post #8 of 23
3/7/04 at 12:41pm
YOu guys make me feel like such a pussy. I have only transferred my home movies from my MiniDV camcorder to DVD with Pinnacle Studio (have added menus and such). I dont see how a laptop would be very good for this as the hard drives are so small. I have to constantly clear space on my home PC (two 200 gig HD, also 2 gigs of ram and 3.06 cpu). Maybe you can give me some tips on how to do MiniDV to DVD more effeciently.
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post #9 of 23
3/7/04 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthBeavis
I dont see how a laptop would be very good for this as the hard drives are so small.
Most people that edit on laptops either do it scene by scene (a couple gigs at a time) or have a badass external FW drive like i have for my desktop (check out the specs in my signature). My friend works at an editing firm that does alot of the commercials for GM and the company gave him a G4 17" Powerbook for just that purpose - to work outside the office on the commercials.
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post #10 of 23
3/7/04 at 12:57pm
I was planning on buying an Firewire/USB 2 hard drive. Can you capture to the external drive without dropped frames? My concern is that I capture via Firewire, so I would have to have a Firewire hub or add another card. I would think this could cause a bottleneck (bloody packet collisions on the firewire express, full story coming up on the 5 O'clock news0.
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post #11 of 23
3/7/04 at 1:02pm
I use Premiere Pro and I am TRYING to make the painful switch to Avid the only BAD thing that I think is that it will only take QT files and as of now all my QT files it says Its got errors or what not in the file even if I render it out of Combustion which means I can't even use Avid. It is alittle more complex well alot lot more. But I wish it would Import Mpg files. as I hate QT files.
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post #12 of 23
3/7/04 at 1:06pm
On another not Why do I keep getting the ERROR

CAN'T IMPORT A MIXED RESOLUTION QUICKTIME MOVIE????


WTF? what file formats will this damn thing take I can't even import jpg files!
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post #13 of 23
3/7/04 at 1:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthBeavis
I was planning on buying an Firewire/USB 2 hard drive. Can you capture to the external drive without dropped frames? My concern is that I capture via Firewire, so I would have to have a Firewire hub or add another card. I would think this could cause a bottleneck (bloody packet collisions on the firewire express, full story coming up on the 5 O'clock news0.
I can't say for any other external HDs, but i haven't dropped a frame yet with my Western Digital FW HD and my desktop. The FW won't cause you to drop frames - although the rest of your computer will cause dropped frames if it can't keep up.
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post #14 of 23
3/7/04 at 1:56pm
My system is beefy enough to keep up to the task (I hope). If not, I would have to go Mac to get any better (or high end graphics station).
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post #15 of 23
3/7/04 at 2:08pm
What do you guys think of proprietary editing packages like NewTek's VT[3]? Our public access cable station runs it on a dual Xeon system with 4 SCSI drives. The requirements for it are really high (it absolutely needs RAID SCSI). The package comes with Lightwave and 3d max. How do integrated packages like this compare to Avid and the like?
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post #16 of 23
3/7/04 at 2:38pm
Dude those programs are 3d model makers the same programs used to make MOVIES like Tomb raider and toy story....avid and Premiere Pro are video editers nothing more.

www.discreet.com


2 different things
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post #17 of 23
3/7/04 at 2:43pm
Oh no, the VT[3] is a video editing package, which looks very similar to Premiere Pro. LightWave and 3ds max are plug-ins in the package.
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post #18 of 23
3/7/04 at 3:20pm
max is a program not a plug in
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post #19 of 23
3/7/04 at 3:46pm
You're right, it's not a software plug-in. What I meant to say was, VT[3] is a integrated package with its proprietary edition software and includes such software as Lightwave and 3ds max. Anyone have experience with it and is able to compare it to Avid or Premiere?

http://www.newtek.com/products/vt/info/index.html
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post #20 of 23
3/7/04 at 5:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by techyguy
I'm looking for something in between because i'm going to be lugging this thing to class alot, but i'm a big guy and don't mind the weight as long as its justified.
The trade off in the laptop world is power vs. batterylife. A P4 3Ghz+ will severly drain your resources compared to a Centrino based system. Also the P4 based machines tend to be closer to 9lbs. But they offer better performance.

Quote:
I use premiere and find it pretty decent, but i've never used avid xpress and i'm always open for suggestions and change. I've heard alot of good things about it, what specific things do you like about avid? or what things does premiere lack that final cut and avid have?
If you are serious about becoming a professional editor, you have to learn the correct tools. No one uses Premiere. It's considered a home editing tool for cutting together home movies. And while it did just go through a major revamping and has come some way in teh last couple of years, you'll never walk into a TV station / film company and find it.

The Avid is just the standard. And frankly I find the interface amazingly intuitive. More so than Final Cut. Lets say you shoot something in Digibeta. You can work the project in Xpress DV for your offline cut, then take the project file to a finishing house and load it into a Symphony/DS/Adrenaline and it's all good to go. All your effects, music levels, everything will transfer. All you do is re-dig teh material in hires and you're done.

Gotta go, more later.

Mark Santora
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