Rendering a Source HDTV File

Bucoholic wrote on 10/31/2003, 10:27 AM
I am having an issue trying to work with source HDTV files. It seems anything with a high frame rate gives my computer problems. So I need to find out what an optimal hardware setup would be to edit and render a 1280 x 720p file at 59.976 fps. I have this file that is 3 to 4 hours long. I trim out some fat from the file and render it to 720 x 480p 29.970 fps. Currently if I try and preview the file it locks up my machine. I also have files that are 704 x 480p 59.976 fps and the rendering time to get it to 29.970 fps is 17 or 18 hours for a 1.5 hour file.

My current setup is:
P4 2.4 800 mhz FSB
512 mb of 400 mhz Ram
480 gigs of HD Space 4 WD SE 120 gig drives
GeForce FX 5200 128 mb

Do I need more Processor or ram or both? What are the minimum requirements for HDTV Editing?

Comments

B_JM wrote on 10/31/2003, 10:53 AM
well i do a lot of HD work and use either my sgi system (4 cpu) or my dual 2.8xeon with 4 gig of memory and 2 tB (plus additional external) of storage on raid (most of which is scsi 160) , matrox par. 128 video card ..


how are you trying to play these files and what format are they in ?
makes a lot of diff. on what app you are using -- do NOT install media player9 also i tell you (in fact i completly removed ALL windows newer media players except i use a media player called "media player classic" based on media player 6.4, but modified) , what codecs are you using?

720p is ussually 24fps btw or 30 also .. 4 hours of HD - ouch , not on your system .. thats 345,600 frames (at 24fps) at 1.3 meg a frame in size uncompressed (or a lot less if you are using jpegs or a compressed format) --still ..

windows will slow to a crawl if you have more than 25,000-30,000 frames in one directory . you have to disable indexing and several other things (like completely disable file properties reading as stupid windows scans all the files when you open a directory), also dont even think about have virus checking on ..



Bucoholic wrote on 10/31/2003, 11:27 AM
I have .ts files that are 1280 x 720p at 59.976 fps. When my system locks up is in the preview window of VV. Do I need to up my ram to 4 gigs? Will that fix my issue? I can break the file up into quarters if that will fix the problem. HD progressive scan is usually at 59.976 fps not 24. The files are coming from ABC (720p 59.976), CBS (1080i 29.97) and Fox (480p 59.976). I am editing our commercials (or trying to) and rendering at 480p 29.97 for DVD viewing. I don't mind adding the ram if that will fix the issue, or at least help it.
SonyEPM wrote on 10/31/2003, 12:14 PM
How are you obtaining these HD source files?

If you are capturing them off air or from some deck, please consider capturing as SD (ideally DV) rather than HD- you'll save a bunch of headaches and some money too.


Bucoholic wrote on 11/1/2003, 10:02 AM
Hello SonyEPM,

The files are coming from MyHD-120 and I want the quality of HD.
What are the hardware specs for HD editing? You do have them, don't you?

I can load a 1:36 min .ts (1280x720p 59.940 fps) file in VV4.0d with no audio & project setting at both 1280x720p 59.940 fps or 720x480p 29.970. I can then set the preview window resolution as "Preview Auto" witch gives me a "display" resolution of 426x240 or 360x240. When I hit the play button at 59.940 fps I get 800 frames and the picture locks up, the CPU pegs and VV stops responding. At 360x240 I only get 400 frames before it does this.

If I add audio to the above equation when I hit play you can hear audio the whole time even when it's locked up. It does play the audio correctly.
SonyEPM wrote on 11/3/2003, 11:45 AM
Trying to edit long HD TS MPEG files is going to cause you a ton of headaches, no matter what system changes you try to throw at the problem. Disc space, render time, a/v sync, etc could all be troublemakers in your proposed scenario.

Since you want to "... trim out some fat from the file and render it to 720 x 480p 29.970 fps"...

...I'd advise capturing as NTSC DV to begin with (don't capture as MPEG at all) using a converter like the Canopus ADVC-100 box. Option 2 is load the HD MPEG files on the Vegas timeline, don't try editing at all, just render to NTSC DV, then edit the DV stuff.