Buying new computer, help needed.

Hi everyone, i need to update my computer as my old one has shat itself and is roughly 6years old.

I have recently purchased a second hand sony SR12 video camera & bluefin housing but i havn't been able to edit any footage or anything because of my computer issues & i only have nero to use anyway.

So now that my old computer has shat & with al the current technology what should i be looking at?

The video camera is full HD & i would upgrade in a few years so something that could handle a newer camera would be desirable.

Should i be looking at external hard drives to store the footage so the computer doesn't get bogged down with footage doing nothing on the hard drive?

I should also state that i am an absolute novice to video & not much good with computers either so keep it in plain terms please otherwise i will get totally lost.

What system should i run as the old computer had windows 2000?

What editing software is everyone using?

So if you were buying a new computer what would you buy?

Secondly, is there any dvds or books that can teach me about underwater video?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers Pete.

Hi everyone, i need to update my computer as my old one has shat itself and is roughly 6years old.

I have recently purchased a second hand sony SR12 video camera & bluefin housing but i havn't been able to edit any footage or anything because of my computer issues & i only have nero to use anyway.

So now that my old computer has shat & with al the current technology what should i be looking at?

The video camera is full HD & i would upgrade in a few years so something that could handle a newer camera would be desirable.

Should i be looking at external hard drives to store the footage so the computer doesn't get bogged down with footage doing nothing on the hard drive?

I should also state that i am an absolute novice to video & not much good with computers either so keep it in plain terms please otherwise i will get totally lost.

What system should i run as the old computer had windows 2000?

What editing software is everyone using?

So if you were buying a new computer what would you buy?

 

Secondly, is there any dvds or books that can teach me about underwater video?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers Pete.

An iMac or MacBook Pro running iMovie would be the best way to get started.

If the internal disk gets to 85% full, then add an external drive. Otherwise internal is fine.

Best book on underwater video, IMHO, is High Definition Underwater Video by Steven Fish (www.fishtalespress.com)

Regards

Peter

Should i be looking at external hard drives to store the footage so the computer doesn't get bogged down with footage doing nothing on the hard drive?

I prefer to keep footage on a separate drive from the OS and NLE software. It doesn't have to be external, but it could be. That was traditionally the recommendation but may be less important these days with faster drives and transfer speeds.

What editing software is everyone using?

Sony Vegas Pro here.

I will probably go with a self-build PC again next time, but from what you've told us, my recommendation would be to get a pre-built branded PC running Windows 7 with a 3-year support contract. Personally I would probably go with Dell because of my great experience with them. Maybe check out HP too. I like Sony Vegas Pro, but check out Premiere Pro and Edius as well. If you don't need all the features then you could get the cheaper Sony Vegas Studio or Premiere Elements. They all have free trials. Alternatively you could go to the dark side and get a Mac with the forthcoming FCPX, which does sound good (and CHEAP), if it lives up to its billing. In terms of NLE user-base, you'd be in the biggest boat. You could use iMovie while you're waiting for FCPX to get released, and might even find you don't need it.

Thanks for the help so far guys.

What minimum system requirements should i be looking for?

Processor speeds, ram etc etc?

Cheers Pete.

Thanks for the help so far guys.

What minimum system requirements should i be looking for?

Processor speeds, ram etc etc?

Cheers Pete.

An Intel I7 o equivalent, 4 GB of ram and a 64bit OS (Win7) and any decent HD video card with 1GB of Ram. Few NLE use the GPU mainly for effects.

Nowadays there are a lot of laptops with these specs, just try to check the hard drvie speed. 7200 rpm is far better while most laptop uses 5400 rpm.

Cheers

Thanks for the replies

With most NLEs going 64 bit, get as much ram as you can afford (4 gigs is a bare minimum) and as many cores as the computer will provide. At least for Macs, the difference between a 2.63 processor and a 2.98 really don't account for much.

Steve

Hi Steve, thanks for the info mate.

I just have to find out what NLEs are & also cores & then that might make sense.....

As i said i am an absolute novice.

So far i understand i should be looking at windows 7, 64 bit. Minimum 4 gigs of ram, what would be ideal? Say 8 or 16 or something?

A FullHD screen, some sort of hd video card. Is that a video capture card?

Do i need a graphics card thingy???

Anything else i am missing?

Cheers Pete.

Hey Pete,

I am and have always been a Mac guy and PC illiterate. I have a 12 core Mac Pro, 2.66 processor, NVIDIA FX4300 graphics card and 20 gigs of ram. CS5.5 now runs as fast as I always wanted it to though I use primarily After Effects from the Master Collection. If FCX is any good, it will then also run as fast.

I will soon be testing NVIDIA's 4000 graphics card as soon as they work out a slight bug I found for them. Never take the job as a beta tester.

Steve

I'm very PC literate, but technology has been evolving so fast, it's difficult to keep up with what's the latest and greatest. In the past I always ordered a top of the line Dell. However, that resulted in a system not optimized for video editing.

Not sure if it's popular in Australia, but I just ordered a complete turnkey video editing system from a specialist. All the software and hardware components are selected and configured to work together specifically for video editing.

Will take 3-4 weeks for them to build, load and test, but it should be worth the wait.