Video Editing?

[BayAreaPhotog]

For video editing on a PC, what is needed? A lot of Ram, video card, graphic card, . . . I'm a newbie so I may have terminology all wrong. any help? Thanks.

[MaxxuM]

Depends on two main things... 1) Is this just going to be for fun and 2) what is your budget?

[BayAreaPhotog]

Originally Posted by MaxxuM

Depends on two main things... 1) Is this just going to be for fun and 2) what is your budget?

Mostly fun, but who knows where it could lead. I do have a broadcast background. My budget? What are my options? No, I am not looking to buy an Avid video system, but I am using a PC and not a Mac
so Final cut Pro is out . . . What are the options in the low, medium and High end budget? Any info you can give me is much appreciated. . . Thanks.

[MaxxuM]

High end would be a workstation from Dell or HP, mid range would be a business class station with higher end graphics and an Intel chipset and low end would be regular consumer class machines. If you plan on buying parts then a slightly older Intel i7/i5 motherboard that has been around and is known to be stable under hard work. 8GB of RAM is a good starting point and a mid-range video card known to do well with video. With video it's critical to use well established hardware. Though most video is 2D, the video card still must pump out that video and you'd be surprised how stressful it can be to deal with uncompressed 1080p video. Never get a motherboard or video card that's only been around for a few weeks or even a month. You want tried and true hardware and always use top brands (they're usually much better tested) like Intel chipset for motherboard, Crucial memory, nVidia/ATI video card and Sound Blaster... You'd be surprised to note that Adobe Premiere Pro has a problem with some generic motherboard sound chips unless the compatibility drivers are loaded first. The last thing I would do would be to buy a Dell, HP, Gateway... budget system for video editing (unless it's been tested by many people for that purpose). These computers can have problems with max throughput and often use cheaper parts that slow down the process of editing video. There's a reason Avid, Apple and Dell Workstations cost so much

Software is grouped in three categories; beginner, advanced amateur and professional. Beginners have a wide verity of software to pick from. You probably already know about what's bundled with Windows 7. A step up would be PowerDirector and Video Studio Pro X3. The middle ground would be Adobe Premiere Elements, Apple's Final Cut Express and Sony's Vegas Studio Pro. High end would be Avid, Premiere and Final Cut Studio.

I do professional video for local broadcast and have worked with CBS as well as production houses like Crystal Productions. Like photography, if you have the skills then any of these packages will let you shine - but professionals will reach the limits of the lesser packages pretty quick. That said, let me pitch something to you. If you have absolutely no ambition on doing professional video or just want to make your family video's a little snappier I would build an i5 machine with pretty standard parts and 8GB of memory. Then, buy Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 Production Suite and have fun. Vegas is extremely easy to learn despite other packages being better (but more complex).

Now, if you have ambitions of doing more professional video in the future I would go another direction. I would go Mac. I know, I know, but hear me out. First, Final Cut Studio is the standard for non-linear video editing (Avid is tops at live broadcasting). Second, FCS is only $889 and if you were to go the Adobe CS5 direction the savings you would have from hardware would be taken up by having to buy added plugins and third party software to match what you get by default in FCS. And third, stability of getting a proprietary solution is very desirable (like from Avid, Dell workstations and so on).