Video Editing Systems

[RICoder]

Just got into UW video, but I've been doing the photography thing for a while.

Canon miniDV w/ Ikelite housing.
Video Editing w/ Adobe Premier, mostly because it does the best 16:9 DVDs IMHO.

My main computer is a Media Center PC with 1TB and 3GHz chip.

Mostly I'm posting to say that I picked up a Dell Inspiron 9300 with a 7200rpm drive, firewire, DVD writer and nVidia 6800go. I did my first test video editing the other day and it's flawless. Looks like I'll be able to edit my footage during those long hard surface intervals (a.k.a. sleep time).

 

[eric_in_az]

Finally I fixed my computer so it wont freeze. But now I am struggling with the capture length not fitting on a DVD. If I use DivX Encoder at 500KBPS but is not as good quality, It works fine for a one hours show. But if I use the standard 3600 or what ever it now makes the same video about 9 GIG I want High quality but I want to be able to burn to a Single Layer DVD ( Duel Layers are still to Expensive). I hope this makes since if not let me know. By the way this is using Pinnacle Studio 9.4.3. Also is there any software anyone can recommend that i can use after i make a high quality video to shrink it down to fit on a single layer DVD.

I generally edit my projects down to an hour or less to avoid that problem. To get more than an hour on a disc, you have to use a higher MPEG compression ratio, and that's what Studio does for you if you use the auto quality setting. To the best of my knowledge there's no other way to squeeze more video on a disc. If you have more than an hour and don't want to part with any of it and don't want anything less than the highest quality, you might want to consider splitting it up and putting it on two discs. Two single-layer discs cost less than one dual-layer disc, and 2-disc cases don't cost significantly more than single disc cases.

Since this is my first time posting in this thread, I should add that I also use Pinnacle Studio 9.4.3 on a Compaq 1.3 GHz Athlon. It's a little slow at rendering, but still usable, and I'm hoping my recent memory upgrade will help a little (I went from 640MB to 1.5GB). I use a Sony digital 8 camcorder in an Ikelite housing.

 

[PerroneFord]

If you are making DVDs, you are compressing to MPEG2. Period. I don't care if you are Joe user at home, or Sony Pictures. Everyone is compressing to MPEG2 and everyone has the same limitations. 4.7GB.

I generally cut my DVDs with DVD Architect (came with Sony Vegas) but there are others out there. The DVD software from Adobe is very good from what I hear. You can even use the ROXIO software I suppose.

By the way, why on earth are you using DivX? Leave your video in native format until you get ready to do something with it. Compressing it with DivX, and then compressing it again to go to MPEG2 for DVD use is bound to cause quality problems.

-P

Finally I fixed my computer so it wont freeze. But now I am struggling with the capture length not fitting on a DVD. If I use DivX Encoder at 500KBPS but is not as good quality, It works fine for a one hours show. But if I use the standard 3600 or what ever it now makes the same video about 9 GIG I want High quality but I want to be able to burn to a Single Layer DVD ( Duel Layers are still to Expensive). I hope this makes since if not let me know. By the way this is using Pinnacle Studio 9.4.3. Also is there any software anyone can recommend that i can use after i make a high quality video to shrink it down to fit on a single layer DVD.

 

[eric_in_az]

If you are making DVDs, you are compressing to MPEG2. Period. I don't care if you are Joe user at home, or Sony Pictures. Everyone is compressing to MPEG2 and everyone has the same limitations. 4.7GB.

Pinnacle does offer diferent quality levels when rendering. I looked in the knowledge base on the Pinnacle web site, and the bit rate is what varies when you change quality settings. It uses a fixed bit rate for the highest quality (59 minutes maximum), and a variable rate for more capacity (up to 2 hours or more). Sorry about the earlier misinformation, but I wasn't completely off base when I said it changes the amount of compression (see next paragraph). Pinnacle provides support for other types of MPEG compression, but those are for stand-alone MPEG files, not for DVD authoring. In any case, as I recall, when you use auto mode it doesn't jump straight from the highest quality to the lowest; there's a step or two in between and it will choose the highest quality available for the length of your video. I've put as much as an hour and 40 minutes on a disc and I didn't think there was a noticeable degradation in the quality.

To further clarify, variable bit rate, or VBR, is another compression algorithm. As I understand it, VBR reduces the amount of redundant data on an individual frame basis, while MPEG reduces the overall file size by comparing each frame to the one before and storing only the differences. The two algorithms together allow you to squeeze more minutes of video onto a 4.7GB disc than either would allow alone.

However, I should warn you that Pinnacle also says that a variable bit rate disc may be less universally compatible than a fixed rate disc. If you want to be able to share discs with all of your friends, you might still want to consider my original suggestion and use two discs. I've seen single layer DVDs for as little as 30 cents per disc in packages of 50, so using an extra one now and then for a larger project isn't a big deal. It's your decision to make; I'm just trying to give you all of the facts based on my experience with Pinnacle Studio.

 

[5ata]

Based upon my current research - I am still sticking with MiniDV until the camera manufacturers figure out their product lines.

I currently have a SONY TRV950 in a L&M Bluefin housing.

I use two machines for editing: My desktop is a generic box I built myself - P4 2.4 with 1.5GB RAM, 40GB boot drive, 40GB audio Drive, 160GB video drive - I work with SONY Vegas 6 and PPro 1.5. I also do alot of audio scoring with SONY Acid Pro and some work with Adobe Audition. For field editing, I have a Dell D400 maxed out with 1.8Ghz Centrino and 2GB RAM, 60 GB internal and 200GB External drive for video editing.

My main work has been shooting freediving but now am moving towards short form documentaries hence the need for blowing bubbles...

 

[Empty V]

I've been editing professionally for 2 years now and about a year ago bought a:
Powermac G5 dual 2.0
4.5 gigs of RAM
Ati Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb GFX card
dual 20" apple cinema displays
Contour Shuttle Pro
G-Rain Sata drives
FCP keyboard
Dual Layer burner
FCP Studio, Shake, after Effects Photoshop CS2,and every other high-end program you can imagine.

It runs like a dream. I can edit features and run fully uncompressed compositing.(I borrow breakout boxes when necessary)

Billy

 

[jellyfishluv]

I've been editing professionally for 2 years now and about a year ago bought a:
Powermac G5 dual 2.0
4.5 gigs of RAM
Ati Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb GFX card
dual 20" apple cinema displays
Contour Shuttle Pro
G-Rain Sata drives
FCP keyboard
Dual Layer burner
FCP Studio, Shake, after Effects Photoshop CS2,and every other high-end program you can imagine.

It runs like a dream. I can edit features and run fully uncompressed compositing.(I borrow breakout boxes when necessary)

Billy

4.5 gigs of RAM - I hate you! I purchased an HP laptop 16 months ago and the most Ram expansion offered was up to 1 gig which I have.

40 GB harddrive - 60 & 80 became cheaper about a month later
ATI - 9000IGP chip for graphics- which is the same as most of the Apple's so eventhough I'm sporting a PC I think I'm doing okay

I purchased a docking station for my laptop with a 250 GB hard drive so I can store lots more

Don't know nothin' bout compressing files

Own a Sony video camera - the film turns out realy pixelized
Own a Panasonic miniDV w/2.3 still and it edits better since it's digital, but still not taped to a disc-it's film

I have InterVideo WinDVD Creator & something provided by Panasonic- I use the InterVideo though - never used anything else but read the reviews and it seems like my editing software is okay too

Can't find a housing for the Panasonic - I should have thought about that before I bought but I wanted it for my trip to Turkey and didn't have time to consider housings which are too pricey for me anyways

I would like to start taking underwater videos so I put in my two pence

 

[FaizaL]

I'm using Sony TRV 950 and Amphibico housing and most of the time using imovie (latest) version for editing. And using imac G5 with 1gigs of RAM. And still figure it out to use Final Cut Pro. emmm ... and maybe needs lots of help. For preview please donwload my video at http://faizalomar.multiply.com

 

[scuba-charters]

Running a Pentium 4 3.4ghz with a gig of ram
1 terrabyte of drive space (2 250gig ide & 2 250gig SATA)
Asus motherboard
ATI 800XT video
2 DVD burners
Microsoft XP Media Edition 2005
pinnacle studio 9
Dreamweaver 8
and other stuff on a private lan...
Sony HC1000 triple chip camera in a u/w housing

Things I would change...
Wouldn't spend the $500 on this video card again...
XP Media Edition is buggier than a bait shop and noone writes drivers for it... it acts like XP home edition on qualudes.
I will probably shift the operating system to XP X64...

But... In a couple of months will just bite the bullet and buy a
Mac G5 dual processor, 2 gig RAM, 1 terrabyte of drive space
Final Cut Studio, Macromedia Studio, Photoshop CS2 and be done with
the drivers and other little probs...

 

[5ata]

Why would you willingly purchase a G5 - a technology that Apple is no longer developing??? You should consider a Mac Pro with similar specs. When Apple finally gets it and makes FCP 64 bit native, you'll be left behind on outdated technology...