computer question for AVCHD

[mtl perry]

I just bought a new Sony HD video camera. the problem is it records in AVCHD and my computer

Dell OptiPlex 745 Desktop Dual Core Processor is too slow
is there a computer i can buy off the shelf ? i would also like to upgrade from adobe premier pro cs3 to cs5


thanks
Perry

 

[TSwain]

You want at least a I5 Quad core but a I7 Quad core, and a good video card. Sorry not to computer savy, but I had a custom system built just for HD video and this is what they said I needed and it works for me. Hope this helps some.

 

[diversteve]

You might look at the Dell XPS 8300 - $749. http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-8300/pd.aspx?c=us&~srd=true&sk=xps 8300&scat=prod

Maybe add more ram and a better video card. But it should work as configured. Compare the specs with what Premiere requires.
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/tech-specs.html

i would also like to upgrade from adobe premier pro cs3 to cs5

That's $299. Buying guide | Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5

 

[lionfish-eater]

my I3 Windows 7 toshiba laptop works fine. I run the sony software and use adobe premier. Off the shelf at microcenter for $425.

 

[alcina]

+1 on my Toshiba laptop i3 Windows 7 working no worries i7 is obviously going to be faster but one works with what one has.

 

[Marty Cerven]

When it comes to HD video the more hardware you have the better Adobe cs5 will work, with basic edits the min specs will work well but I think one of the most important is your system ram. 64bit apps like adobe premiere pro will use as much as you give it and when you run out things will slow down drastically 2GB I don't think is anywhere near enough and if you have any more detailed and layered videos then the amount of ram available will have big effects on performance. If your using a 32 bit app though more ram is a complete waste as 32 bit limits your system from addressing more the 4gb of ram and anything above that wont be used.

With cs5 and above you will also want to look at an Nvidia Cuda accelerated card which will use your GPU for playback and rendering acceleration this has a huge performance issue with rendering and platback. I have a GTX 480 card which isn't officially supported but a small hack in a text file will enable it. Surprisingly the lower model of my card the GTX470 is officially supported.

Read this page on Premiere Pro cs5 and the GPU accelerated Mercury engine
Adobe Premiere CS5 and Premiere CS5.5 Video Cards with CUDA Acceleration Mercury Playback Unlock Enable MPE Hack Mod Tip

Also having Multiple HD drives will improve your editing performance by eliminating slow downs caused by the disk having to read and write at the same time. A good setup is to have a high speed drive where your main app will be installed, then have a seperate physical drive for your source material and another physical drive as your output destination. This may not be practical for all people but it will also give a significant performance boost avoiding lag caused by the system waiting on data to be written or read for each task.

 

[drbill]

I edit my Sony AVCHD on systems ranging from a Dell Inspiron laptop with a 1.6 GHz core 2 duo processor and 2 gb RAM to my preferred system, a 3.2 GHz quad core Pentium with 4 gb RAM. Both systems are running Windows XP. Editing is no problem on either, but rendering and previewing on the slower laptop is a problem. Since the newer i5 and i7 do not run easily with Windows XP (no longer supported by Microsoft or many major computer manufacturers), you probably need to go to a Windows 7 based system with one of those processors.

Of course software is another issue. I'd used Adobe Premiere products for 12 years now, but when I went to AVCHD they ran much too slow for any effective editing. I switched to Vegas Movie Studio Platinum and it edits the exact same files with much greater zip on the same system. I still use older versions of Adobe Premiere for my SD editing though.

 

[Mark Derail]

I just bought & used ClipWare, for the Mac (I have both Windows & Mac), and it encapsulates the MTS file(s) into .MOV files for Quicktime playback. Easy to import into iMovie or Final Cut Pro.

 

[robint]

AVCHD = massive file size! I had to upgrade to a quad-core computer when I upgraded to my Canon HG-21 HD camcorder 3 yrs ago. My Pinnacle Ultimate 12 software ran, but was jerky and you can't edit jerky footage! Upgraded to quad-core and no problemo...

Now that I have bought a GoPro Hero2, I am running into the issue that my Pinnacle software does not support the files... so I have to upgrade to Avid or Pinnacle 15, or just use the GoPro software for editing. ~sigh~

 

[Mark Derail]

Most laptops have cheap video cards made by Intel and truly suck-the-big-one for HD.

Sometimes for just 100$ more you get one with a dedicated, separate, video card NOT made by Intel, with it's own memory (not shared with system RAM). That alone makes a big difference.

I've played HD 1080p video MKV files on single core computers ever since Bluray came out, on my big screen TV, no problems, thanks to an NVIDIA video card that cost me 150$ with onboard HDMI.

Only 1 cable between the computer & HDTV, HD video, windows desktop, and SOUND, one easy plug.

You have no idea how PEEVED I was when I could not connect the Macbook Pro directly to my Samsung TV for both Video and Sound.
Just video !!! WTF Apple? What a waste of a 50$ adapter.

My old DELL laptop that's a dual-core and dedicated Nvidia video card with 1G of RAM plays MKV / AVCHD / AVI in all resolutions with no problems, even when the 2+ Gigs files are on an USB external hard drive.

That's my new home theater setup to replace the previous <big box home-made computer>. However, no HDMI. So I plug SVGA + mini-plug stereo the the Computer IN jacks on the Samsung LCD 52".

When I put my Sony memory card into the laptop, and use VLC to play back the AVCHD's, they show up fine.

The editing is better on the Mac though, and by converting everything "personal" to HD MOV format, I can play them / stream them on my iPhone and iPad, at home over Wifi or using my WAN IP address, anywhere in the world to myself.

The expertise level required is still high, just slowly becoming mainstream, no thanks to Corporate Hollywood Mafia Hooligans.