Chepeast computer for HD video editing?
 

Need another computer solely for HD video editing,

might get two of them if I can find one cheap enough that can handle the workload.

Any ideas?

Much appreciation as always!

nowadays anything but a netbook - my editing computer is already 3 or 4 years old and still works fine

Especially for video conversions and other more or less hands off stuff, you can save the $50 Microsoft tax by not getting Windows on it. Today's CentOS and other major Linux distributions are a breeze to use.

is there any HD editing program that works on Linux?

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/top5-li...stem-software/

:winkwink:

TIP: Keep the processor heatsink and fan clean or you risk crashes from overheating when encoding.

Mac rules but you can get a smoking PC for way less - www.newegg.com is the best and cheapest

1400 for a smokin fast i7 machine - built to your specs

then get Premiere - it no Final Cut... but close

Hmm,

good info.. would love to hear some more.

What do you think the minimum price for editing nice chunks of HD video without issue would be?

theres one (Cinelerra) that remotely looks like an editing program, the rest is kiddie stuff

i work on Sony Vegas Pro now and that one is pretty good with HD, especially since we work with Sony cams and AVCHD with 50fps

but even that i can edit fine on my i5 laptop, just rendering is the critical task which gets more comfortable with more power (less waiting)

There are lots of editing programs, linear and nonlinear, from really simple all the way up to the stuff Dreamworks and ILM use. I know Dreamworks and ILM have both contributed to Cinepaint, for example, but since I don't do anything but EDLs I don't know what the pro level tools are.
Check out Ubuntu Studio, though:
http://ubuntustudio.org/

For rendering and conversions there are a ton of GUI front ends that run ffmpeg and mencoder behind the scenes.

i know it's as hard to discuss with a Linux enthusiast as it is with a Mac user... ;)

but in my daily work i rather rely on something thats professional and not an open source project that can be abandoned any day

Cinepaint is no editing program btw, but i see there's Kdenlive which looks like a 100% copy of Sony Vegas. So it could work, but still i rather pay $600 for Vegas and KNOW it works

So Dreamworks, George Lucas, and ILM aren't professional and you don't want to use the tools they use? Ok.

Proprietary software products (Flash, webOS) are never abandoned but open source ones (Apache, Android) are?

When HP abandoned webOS people put Linux on the Touchpad because without HP webOS, being proprietary, became useless. An open source system like Linux doesn't become useless because one company goes away or drops it. All of the other developers and users just keep right on going without that one company.

see, thats what i mean :winkwink:

no matter how professional anyone is - i will never use Linux as desktop system and therefore also no Linux programs

i tried, i wasted my time, i went back to Windows

i am more productive on Windows because i dont waste time on trying to make things work or looking for software that doesnt exist.

thats it for me, i am not saying that others might have different experiences

now when it comes to webservers i wouldnt use anything else than unix - in my case freebsd

Quick question, I'm about to make the jump to mac, would a mac mini with 8gigs ram be ok to do some simple video editing and ps on? or should I get the pro tower when it comes out in feb?

Yes. They are more than capable machines, more so when loaded up with ram.

If they give you the option for an upgraded Video card, go with it.

But yeah, you're more than fine. The Mac Mini can handle HD video, no problem.

I have the last gen Mac Pro desktop and while it's a workhorse, it was WAY overpriced. I have a similarly spec'd HP that I paid $800 for that runs OSX. I can sit down at my desk and forget which screen is which computer. (I don't sit at my desk much these days).

Still looking for something reliable and cheap (so hopefully I can buy more than one).

Again,

going to be using Sony Vegas Pro with AVCHD via Canon HF G10.

Just wondering what machine would be ideal for my needs, but not over my needs, as this will be used solely for editing and HD videos.

I have something that is HD capable already, it's an HP dual with a big hd monitor, it works but is pretty slow when rendering. I have a feeling it's going to take forever, even though I'm just getting started with it.

I would go with a dell.com, and just get a coupon code 1st from http://www.techbargains.com/

I just got Dell Studio Xps 9100 Desktop 9GB of RAM, etc. Its a powerful computer...

I saved about $500 with the coupon

You are running OSX on a HP? I never heard about this before... pls tell me more?

I'm a Mac user, been happy with Final Cut Pro for many years but lately I read nothing but good about Premiere, even in de Final Cut Pro forums a lot of people have nothing but praise for Premiere. I already got my hands on CS5 Master Suite and will buy a new PC soon and give it a go. When I moved from PC to Apple for video editing in 1996, Apple was superiour in this field but at the moment that's no longer the case. Still I can turn on my MacBookPro in the morning and edit all day, if I can do the same with a PC, I'll be happy. The only problem I have with my MacBookPro is that it doesn't see all external Firewire drives always after a start-up but once it sees them, all goes fine.

Anything with a Core I5-2500K will work for you (sandybridge makes the difference, trust me).

No need to go up to a Core I7 unless you're doing bitcoin processing.

For video editing/processing, 8GB RAM minimum, and the largest hard drive you can afford.