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General discussion

PC requirements for video editing

Feb 11, 2006 8:14AM PST

I am planning to buy a dig camcorder but don't want to get a new PC yet.

I have a Dell Pent 4, 1.4g with 512ram & 80 gig HD + 160G ext. HD. my question: Will the 1.4g pent. just be slow or will it affect quality? I will get a firewire card & would not mind increasing ram.

Any help will be appreciated.
pud

Discussion is locked

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Usable.
Feb 11, 2006 11:14AM PST

You don't want to know I used my Acer ter-600 laptop for on the road edits. It had a P3-600 MHz, 256MB RAM and you have much more.

Try it with what you have.

Bob

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video editing
Feb 12, 2006 1:31AM PST

It should work for editing, but you may want to check the requirements for any software you may want to use.

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Dual Processor
Feb 17, 2006 12:10AM PST

If you are thinking of upgrading your system go for a dual processor and video card with as much ram as you can afford, it cuts down on the wait while rendering. Good Luck.

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DUAL is nice. Video ram?
Feb 17, 2006 12:49AM PST

I never found that to speed this up.

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Rendering Will Be Slow
Feb 17, 2006 12:44AM PST

I have a 2.6 G P4 with only 256 RAM. Editing is fine, but the rendering is quite slow. Unless you're really impatient, you can just go away and do other stuff and it will eventually be done. I would expect a 1.4 to slow down rendering even more although you do have more RAM than I do.

All you can do is try it and see if you can live with it. As noted in another reply, you might want to check requirements for any software you acquire.

Yeah - I know I should get more RAM. I have more RAM in my old PII 500 MHz in the basement than I have in my "main" computer.

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i have basically the same system...
Feb 17, 2006 2:03AM PST

A HP 1.4ghz with 384megs of RAM, 80 gig + a 300 gig internal with a 256meg gforce 6200...and i edit all the time. if you have a good video card it helps. you should be fine, but like everyone has said the render times might be slow....course i dont have anythng to compare it to so, i'll go with them Happy

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one more thing...
Feb 17, 2006 2:08AM PST

i made a 4 min slide show with lots of trasition effects and it took around 20-25 min to render on my machine...

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Video Editing
Feb 17, 2006 12:53PM PST

I asked this question as to hardware needed to produce video DVD's from a PROFESSIONAL. His reply: P4, Min. 2.4g, and a Large hard drive. Problem if not is DROPPED FRAMES {Jerky Look}. You are minipulating large quanities of data from Camcorder to hard drive, editing and RENDERING (RENDERING WILL AGE YOU OTHERWISE}. I have a JVC Cam. and bought a Sony Laptop {Great Screen} 2.8g 512 Ram. Software, Bought Pinnacle and to many problems. Bought Sony {MOVIE STUDIO + DVD} and won"t change, SIMPLY GREAT. Their Plantinum Service is out of this world. I wasted days before investing in this and getting answers in MINUTES from PROS. Once you start making movies you will understand this. GOOD LUCK. Paul pk12345678@sbcglobal.net

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About dropped frames. My P3 at 600 MHz did not..
Feb 17, 2006 1:11PM PST

Drop frames. But I used firewire...

Bob