Pre-install question

dspenc1 wrote on 2/25/2008, 12:15 PM

I have Vegas Pro 8 on order and I am apprehensive as to whether my system will be able to edit AVCHD files from my new HG10 without choking. I have filled in my system info. I have 3 options available to me if my present system does not have enough horsepower:

1) Bumping up the RAM from 1GB to 3GB. (The cheapest)

2) Since I cannot upgrade the motherboard in my Dell, buying a new case with a new motherboard/CPU and installing most of my present components, including HD with my OS in it.

3) New PC.

If I install Vegas Pro 8 on my present PC, will there be any hassle installing it into a new PC if I need to? I would be wiping the HD on the old PC clean and selling it. BTW, I just bought Cinescore the other day and installed it.

Thanks!

Comments

Kennymusicman wrote on 2/25/2008, 12:54 PM

I would probably do this...

Get a little more RAM, and learn to use proxies when editing.

dspenc1 wrote on 2/25/2008, 1:37 PM

Will I be able to use a proxy to edit AVCHD files without buying a seperate plugin? The only references to proxies that I saw in the manual related to XDCAM. Just doing some quick research online, I also saw a product called GearShift 1.7 from VASST that converts "AVCHD footage to proxy files".

If I bumped up the RAM to 3GB, will I be able to edit AVCHD files without a proxy?

Kennymusicman wrote on 2/25/2008, 2:08 PM

I doubt you will be able to smoothly edit AVCHD based on your specs - if you start adding in effects and transitions, it will easily choke most machines out there! Proxy editing need not cost you anything - it's simply a method of using a lower res/rate file to edit on, and them switching back to your HD source for the final render. Gearshift (which will cost you) simply does the donky work for you, which is useful especially if you have many files to work with, otherwise it's a script job, or manually creating a proxy one file at a time.
Proxy editing is cool - and works on SD, as well as HD :)
You could otherwise render your AVCHD into another format (such as HDV?) that is less CPU intensive for editing, and thus possibly negate a need for proxy editing.

If you want to experiment with a proxy yourself - get one of your HD files - and render it to something, say like mpeg2 SD. Edit on that file. Then save your project. Now find your mpeg2 file, and rename it, or move it. Re-open your veg project. It'll ask you for your mpeg file - but instead point it to your original HD file. Suddenly all your edits are now applied to your HD source. It's great, and works wonders.

dspenc1 wrote on 2/29/2008, 7:25 PM

VP8 arrived in the mail today and I used it for the first time. I imported 3 small AVCHD files and edited them. Things went pretty smoothly. It took about 8 minutes to render the 53 second file. I think that adding more RAM will do the trick. I posted the video at http://www.vimeo.com/741239. I have not used a camcorder in a long time, plus I have never used a good video editor before.