I'm looking to do short videos what hardware do i really need?

[X1Lightning]

I want to be able to edit video in HD, but they will only be short clips.
They may start out as footage of about 30-45 min, but i will cut them in to short sections of about 5 min, then edit on that.

I was reading the HD video thread and it looks like you can get pretty expensive to edit in HD. do i really need to go that heavy duty for 5min videos?
I was looking at getting the Mac Pro Quad 2.66 with 8 gig of mem and 500 gig of HD and 2 23" screens(I would really like to get 2 30" screens but they are a little too much $)
Would this setup have a problem working with videos like this?

Thanks

 

[Cromulent]

Make sure to get fast HDDs for your scratch disc. 2x 7200 RPM 750GB SATA2 drives in a RAID 0 array should be be okay.

HD video eats hard drive space for breakfast.

 

[THX1139]

For editing videos, needing a fast machine doesn't really have that much to do with how long your videos. Length has more to do with drive storage space. When choosing your computer, you really should be asking yourself what resolution you are going to be working in, how much processing you will be doing, and what your final output will be. Are you working in standard definition? HD? Film? What is the final output? How much effects are going to be adding that will require heavy processing? If you are doing short films with standard definition, with few or no special processing, and maybe intending to go out to the web, then you could get by with a laptop or iMac. If you up your resolution, or start doing stuff that requires major processing, then a MacPro 2.66 will be a good starting point. You don't need HD unless you are outputting to film or an HD television. HD won't make your short better. What will improve the quality of your short will be good lighting, great sound, and a decent script.

 

[Pressure]

You should check out this thread. (Edit: Sorry, I saw you already read that thread)

Are you talking about Uncompressed High Definition video-editing?

4GB of ram is a bare minimum and at least 3 hard disk set up in RAID0! An Uncompressed 1080i footage requires 120MB/s and three 750GB hard disks can deliver around 176MB/s.

You will be able to play one HD stream with this setup.

While this setup could work, you should definitely consider getting an external disk array with multiple disks.

Unless you get at least three 750GB hard drives in RAID0 you will see frame drops and otherwise crummy playback. Add a few effects and it will not look pretty.

 

[X1Lightning]

Its not that i need to do HD now, i just want the machine to be capable of it down the road, so if i can get away with just internal HD's for 6 months then get the external array when i have the extra cash

Does the mac pro support 3 drives on raid 0? or will i need an add on card?
with this setup will i be able to do effects and maintain acceptable playback?
or is it absolutely necessary to have the disk array?

 

[Pressure]

Its not that i need to do HD now, i just want the machine to be capable of it down the road, so if i can get away with just internal HD's for 6 months then get the external array when i have the extra cash

Does the mac pro support 3 drives on raid 0? or will i need an add on card?
with this setup will i be able to do effects and maintain acceptable playback?
or is it absolutely necessary to have the disk array?

Ok, you should definitely read this link then.

Group 1: Just enough to get by. You can accept some risks and hassles-the classic starving indie category.

Group 1: Mac Pro 2.66 GHz tower, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB boot drive minimum; Final Cut Studio software; Nvidia GeForce 7300 graphics card; MacGurus 1.25 TB, five-bay SATA RAID (port-multiplying, or PM, enclosure) with Sonnet E4P host adapter; Dell 24- and 20-inch monitors; Blackmagic Design Intensity card; and $1,000 HDMI-equipped HDTV. Total: about $7,600. Increase storage for longer-form projects as needed. Bumping up to Blackmagic Design HD Extreme and a JVC HDTV adds about $2,500. Getting Blackmagic Design's 4:4:4-capable Pro card (which lacks HDMI) adds $200.

You can always start lower but this is the lowest configuration they list.

 

[dmaxdmax]

Are these videos of your kids' birthdays or professional grade sales pieces? (fun or profit?)

Are you using compressed or uncompressed video? This could make a huge difference.

 

[X1Lightning]

The videos are for profit, Mostly demo videos for specialty equipment manufactures. i have been using adobe premier pro and after effects in sd on a pc, But i'm considering switching to Final Cut, any pros or cons of Final Cut over Premier Pro on the mac?

these may be stupid questions.. but I'm kind of a newb to video....
what do you gain from the Blackmagic cards? is that purely just a card to hook a tv/monitor to?

what does the HD-video deck do?

So i really cant get by with out the disk array? i want to make sure what i get does it right, just that puts me over what i can spend

maybe I'll just have to find some extra work to pay for the difference...

 

[product26]

buy the fastest machine you can afford.

in 2 years it wont be 'fast' anymore, so start off with something fast, or you will be 3 or 4 years behind.

 

[Macinposh]

what do you gain from the Blackmagic cards? is that purely just a card to hook a tv/monitor to?

With some BM cards you can get uncompressed data from your camera to your computer. I.a.the data from the sensor goes straight to the computer via HDMI cable. The cameras own chip dont touch it,so it wont get compessed as it would be if it would be transfered to miniDV let alone HDD. They might give you some benefit if you would do all the stuff in studio/inside or you would have access to you macpro on locations.
I doubt the benefits would be large enough to reward this kind of action..

So i really cant get by with out the disk array? i want to make sure what i get does it right, just that puts me over what i can spend

maybe I'll just have to find some extra work to pay for the difference...

What you could do,if your budget is tight,is to get smaller=cheaper disks ,say 3 x 250GB and put them in raid 0.
Then get 1 x 750GB disk to back up all the stuff on the raids.
Then get some external disks where to save the projects,at that pace that you can afford.

You dont need large disks for your raid0!

You need many disks for that.
Small (cheap) and as fast as possible. Dont bother with raptors though.
To expensive for the bang,in you case.


Sounds a bit complicated,but getting decent redundancy is the trickies and most expensive part.



If i were you,i would get the octo,get extra 1GB from crucial,maybe and get the HDDs from some newegg or whatever. get some cheap peripherals (small displays from maybe dell? etc.) that you can quickly update,as you get cash in.
So you would have a futureproof computer,with cheap,upgradable peripherals.

With the camera,hmm..

You could get some small HD miniDV camera,say some of the smaller canons for cheap. You could use that for the first few months,when you are still picking up the production flow,sell it and THEN get a decent/pro cam.

Unless you are a sesoned pro with good knowledge in the camera stuff,in wich case i am gonna sound like a partrionizing asshat...

 

[X1Lightning]

Thanks for the info Macinposh,

I think I'm going to avoid the BM cards for now

I was looking at a Burly 5 Bay PM Enclosure and get the drives for it from newegg, i should be able to squeeze that in the budget.

I'm going to stick to the quad 2.66, i was looking at the speed charts apple has up comparing the octo vs the quad vs the quad ppc and it didn't look like you gained much by going octo, plus new egg has the cpu chips for 500$ less than the upgrade from apple,

I think i will just get a set of dell displays for now, i can get 2 20" wide screens for less than the price of one 23" apple.

 

[Pressure]

Thanks for the info Macinposh,

I think I'm going to avoid the BM cards for now

I was looking at a Burly 5 Bay PM Enclosure and get the drives for it from newegg, i should be able to squeeze that in the budget.

I'm going to stick to the quad 2.66, i was looking at the speed charts apple has up comparing the octo vs the quad vs the quad ppc and it didn't look like you gained much by going octo, plus new egg has the cpu chips for 500$ less than the upgrade from apple,

I think i will just get a set of dell displays for now, i can get 2 20" wide screens for less than the price of one 23" apple.

Uhm, Newegg doesn't even sell the 3.0Ghz Quad-Core Xeon.

 

[Macinposh]

I'm going to stick to the quad 2.66, i was looking at the speed charts apple has up comparing the octo vs the quad vs the quad ppc and it didn't look like you gained much by going octo, plus new egg has the cpu chips for 500$ less than the upgrade from apple.

If i would be you,I would get the octo.No doubt.



The talk that i have heard,is that it is rougly 30-70% faster than the MP quad 3.0 when working with the fabulous moving pictures related material.
And when the optimisation gets better in the coming months,it only gets better.
If you are thinking of "replacing the cpu´s later",well forger about it,unless you are a real tinker.. They are a real bitch to get off and be replaced.

Skip on everything else,and get the octo,and you will have a upgradable working horse for the next 2-5 years.

Your quad 2.66 would not be sufficient,imho, if you work on the level you let me believe.

The quads are just fine for us photogs and print graph dudes,but for the cine world... nah.

My 0.2 €

 

[X1Lightning]

oops your right.... i was looking at the core 2 duos, and those wont work anyway...

 

[X1Lightning]

If i would be you,I would get the octo.No doubt.



The talk that i have heard,is that it is rougly 30-70% faster than the MP quad 3.0 when working with the fabulous moving pictures related material.
And when the optimisation gets better in the coming months,it only gets better.
If you are thinking of "replacing the cpu´s later",well forger about it,unless you are a real tinker.. They are a real bitch to get off and be replaced.

Skip on everything else,and get the octo,and you will have a upgradable working horse for the next 2-5 years.

Your quad 2.66 would not be sufficient,imho, if you work on the level you let me believe.

The quads are just fine for us photogs and print graph dudes,but for the cine world... nah.

My 0.2 €

30%-70% faster is a major difference, if that is the case i would have no problem at all spending the extra on the octo.