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Videoon 7/14/2005
P4 & M - What's the difference?
Spot- I don't know how the performance, usability, or quality rates, but HP/Compaq has several notebooks with the Athlon 64 and the Turion 64 processor. Pretty nicely equiped for around $1500. Anyone have any thoughts? http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/generic_category.do?catLevel=1&landing=notebooks&category=compaq_presario&storeName=computer_store Brian
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Videoon 6/17/2005
Building video computer for Vegas editing
I'm not sure which would be the absolute fastest for video. Based on the threads here, I'd guess that the 3400+ (running at 2.2-2.4Ghz) would have the edge over the 3200+ (running at 2.0 Ghz). However, it looks like every 3400+ model is a socket 754 and 130nm process (versus socket 939 and 90nm). That means you have zero dual core future upgrade options, and it'll run a little hotter and use a little more electricity. The Venice core is getting my money when I finally get off the dime in a few months and build a new system.
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Videoon 6/17/2005
Building video computer for Vegas editing
Venice is the newest of those three. It's the only one (of those three) to support SSE3 which could be beneficial. It also runs the coolest of the three. I think Venice (also referred to as "Rev E") is a no brainer, even if you don't overclock.
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Videoon 6/16/2005
Vegas Poll
#4 - purely hobby.
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Videoon 6/16/2005
Building video computer for Vegas editing
Given that you do have modest budget constraints and that your friend doesn't do video editing full time, I wonder if the extra money you've allocated for the 3700+ is necessary. I'm thinking you might like the 3200+ (at $200) or the 3000+ (at $150) just as well for day to day use, and not mind the (maybe) 10% performance hit. [Look at the very minor difference between the 3700+ and the 3400+ render times in the post referenced above (78 seconds vs. 79 seconds).] You could allocate the money elsewhere (like dual monitors) or just save it for the dual-core X2 upgrade. Since he's not editing all the time, the lesser CPUs should be fine for editing and he can always let it render overnight if it's a huge project. If you're concerned about loosing that last notch of performance, it looks like you can easily make some *minor* overclocking with the A64 Venice core. If you're interested read the article I referenced in the following post and decide for yourself. http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=395506 $328 just seems like a lot of money to spend (over 18% of budget) for a CPU that you are already considering upgrading in the future. (Socket 939 is a sweet upgrade when the X2 prices come down!...) For what it's worth, I'd much rather have two 17" monitors than one 19" monitor. I don't have either setup, but I'd love to be able to put the preview screen and various toolbars on one screen and leave the editing area on another. As mentioned previously, a lot more real estate. Brian
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Videoon 6/5/2005
OT: 1.8Ghz A64 overclocked to 2.8Ghz!
The low end Intel probably is better for video than the low end A64, but one nice thing about the 939 socket A64 is that you can build a nice, but cheap computer today and yet still have a simple upgrade to dual core once the prices come down (hopefully in a year or so). Gotta love how cool they run, too.
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Videoon 6/4/2005
OT: 1.8Ghz A64 overclocked to 2.8Ghz!
The article is actually pretty thorough in their testing. They are very specific in their test setup, and they don't use any terribly exotic hardware (on purpose) for the testing. They benchmark it on just about every possible use, including video rendering. No, it wasn't rendering for hours on end, so that's a factor, although temperature buildup doesn't appear to be an issue at all. I certainly wouldn't recommend maximum overclocking to anyone, let alone video editors where a reboot can crush your productivity (as I found out during my Pinaccle Studio days). However, given how easily (if you read the article) this chip overclocked to 2.8Ghz, I wouldn't hesitate to OC this cheap 3000+ chip to the 2.2-2.4 Ghz region (3500-4000+ equivalent). Should have ZERO problems there, and you just saved $200-300 over buying the other chips. If you have more money than time because you video edit for profit, then you might as well just buy a dual-core and not worry about it. If you're a home user and can afford to test as you rachet up the overclock, why wouldn't you? Curious if anyone's ever used the manufacturer's warrantee on a CPU before? Seems like it would either work or not, which you should obviously check out prior to attempting to overclock.
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Videoon 6/4/2005
OT: 1.8Ghz A64 overclocked to 2.8Ghz!
P.S. From looking at the user reviews of the faster Venice-core chips on Newegg, it doesn't look like you gain anything from buying them (3800/3500/3200+ vs. 3000+). Sounds like they all end up overclocking to the same Ghz, and all with minimal effort. Save your money! P.P.S. I've never seriously considered overclocking before, but this chip runs so darn cool (even when overclocked), that it almost seems foolish NOT to overclock. Brian
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Videoon 6/2/2005
Foldable green screen suggestions
John, Do you really only use the LiteRing for your lighting when using their green/blue screen or do you find it necessary/useful to have standard spot/key/back lighting? What do you use for to chromakey with this setup? Ultra? Vegas built-in? other? Thanks, Brian
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Videoon 6/1/2005
OT: Bare Minimum Laptop Recommendations
Keep in mind that you can "build" your own high-performance external drive by buying a standard EIDE drive (ATA-100 or 133) and an external USB 2.0 enclosure. You can search this forum for hard drive and enclosure preferences and experiences, but you can pick up a high-quality 120GB drive for ~$70 and a nice enclosure for ~$30. This gives you extra performance over what you can get in a laptop drive, extra space over what your laptop has, and much cheaper than a comparable attempt to upgrade the internal drive on your budget laptop. You can also search this forum to see if you think a USB or Firewire enclosure would work best for you.
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Videoon 5/26/2005
Two new Stonefield Videos
Stan, Take this for what it's worth since I'm no professional, but although I liked these two videos they seemed to be missed something ***compared to your previous videos.*** The models are beautiful (always), the shots are beautiful (always), and the editing is slick, but they seem to lack a little something, which I can only label as soul. It's almost as if you were overconcerned with the new technical aspects you were attempting. I think the video you set to "Kiss" is my all time favorite, and my favorite single-model video is the one you did with the asian model (with some beach shots). Both of these (to me) have that nebulous quality of "soul." I can't say why these new vids don't do as much for me, maybe it's the music. Who knows. Again, these are great videos, and my only negative remark is in comparison to your previous work. Maybe others can amplify (or negate) these remarks. Thanks for posting them. I love to see examples of great filming & editing. Brian
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Videoon 5/20/2005
Sony: Forum Search preferences
True. What I'm saying, though, is I NEVER search the Sound Forge or Vegas - Audio forum. If I'm logged in, the Search should know (via preferences) that 99+% of the time, I just search Vegas Video. And I prefer 50 responses per search instead of the default 10. That way, I just type the word I'm looking for and go. Takes a 3-step process down to a 1-step process. That's improvement! And should be simple to add. Brian
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Videoon 5/20/2005
moving video across the screen evenly
I'll second Jet's recommendation. I've also been a victim of the Smoothness default setting (of 100 (on scale of 0 to 100 for Track Motion) and 1 (on scale of 0 to 1 for Pan/Crop)). Hard to figure out what's causing it, but now that you know, do a Forum search on "smoothness" and you'll see you're far from the first. There doesn't appear to be any way to change the default setting, which is a shame, since it affects so many folks. Jet mentioned probably being able to write/modify a script to take care of it (in the thread below). http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=163031 Also, as someone else mentioned in a previous thread, if you remember to set the smoothness to 0 for the first keyframe of the event, all new keyframes in that event will inherit that property. Doesn't help if you've already made 200 keyframes before you remember ... Wish Sony could allow for this to be set in the Preferences. Brian
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Videoon 5/19/2005
OT: Serious Magic Ultra 2 Just Released
I thought the only benefit to turning the camera sideways was easily be able to insert a DV (read: cheaper equipment) image into a HD background, and end up with a "HD" product. Visualize a vertical rectangle 480x720 (your DV image filmed sideways) inserted into a horizontal rectangle 1080x720 (the HD background). Notice how you get a full size (vertical) insert? You could do the same thing with Vegas (or any NLE) I suppose, but Ultra 2 has it built in so that when you do a zoom on your subject, Ultra will zoom the background at the exact same rate, making it more realistic. I can't find this in a quick scan of the Serious Magic website, but I think it was it one of their promo videos on the site. I don't remember any mention of the chroma-keying actually working better (due to being sideways), but it has been a couple months since I watched that ... Brian
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Videoon 5/11/2005
external USB hard drive - capture? render?
Thanks for the experienced info, guys. I already have a USB external enclosure (for data backup), so I'll have to check it out sometime. Will add a Firewire card later to see how capture to my USB goes, then look to get a Firewire enclosure if the USB gives me trouble. Good to know anything is possible (both good & bad, it sounds like).
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Videoon 5/11/2005
external USB hard drive - capture? render?
Liam- I've got to laugh, but yes, I do have USB 2.0. Unfortunately that's a prudent question, as I'm sure some folks are still trying to make 1.1 work for heavy tasks. Any concerns about the speed of my system for capturing? It's a Pentium M 1.5Ghz with 768 MB ram. Obviously I wouldn't perform any other tasks, would disable the screensaver, and wouldn't breathe on it while capturing ... Any problems with the (internal) hard drive in an (external) enclosure overheating due to the load? Brian
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Videoon 5/11/2005
external USB hard drive - capture? render?
Spot- I only use my desktop for all video editing currently. Don't have Firewire or enough drive space to edit on my laptop. Finally thought about a USB external drive to solve both problems (with video capture on desktop and transferred over). Good way to utilize otherwise dead time. I'm willing to fork over the money to buy a Firewire PCMCIA card, though, if the performance warrants it. Have to get one with 2+ ports, though, so I could input video via Firewire and capture back to HD via Firewire. Brian
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Videoon 4/15/2005
Sony Vegas 6 First Look - DMN By Charlie White
I don't understand all this "audio angst" over Vegas 6 pre-release news. 1. You don't have to buy EVERY upgrade. 2. Surely Sony marketing is reserving some key features to release at NAB - no need to blow their wad prematurely. 3. Surely you'll take a grain of salt with the "lack of audio features" that a DV (digitial VIDEO) website chose to talk about. 4. Even if Vegas 6 is primarily a "video-guy" upgrade, maybe you'll remember this thread from a year ago when the video guys had angst and the audio guys (Rednroll, Ben, Spot) were crowing about what a great upgrade (finally) Vegas 5 was. http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=272207 5. See point 1. Me? I'm too stupid to be a "video guy" or an "audio guy." I'm just a guy who happens to like Vegas. Will I upgrade from V5? See point 1. Tattoo
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Videoon 4/12/2005
OT: Dell XPS Gen 4 vs. Made from scratch (through new egg)
Oh, and I forgot to mention that once you have built your own computer, if something does go wrong later on, you'll have a pretty good idea how to fix it, versus being a lamb and having to call in a service tech. Still, time is money ... A good point by Dan above - build your own and avoid all the crap the boxbuilders put on. I bought a great laptop from IBM last fall, but it takes forever to boot because of all the stuff on there. I'm still debating about what to uninstall. Hard to tell what's useful and what's fluff.
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Videoon 4/12/2005
OT: Dell XPS Gen 4 vs. Made from scratch (through new egg)
Many folks here have built their own machine. It's not hard, especially with all the articles online (ExtremeTech.com, TomsHardware.com, etc.). It's not easy, either, if it's your first time, as it takes awhile to research the "how-to" and what components you want to use. If you've upgraded your hard drive, video card, and memory, then you've got what it takes. The only thing you really need to research is how to handle/install the CPU & CPU cooler, and I recommend you read it from the "pro" computer sites instead of a video forum. It's not rocket science, though. Is it worth it? If you have the time to research & build your computer and you care about the components, then yes, absolutely worth it. The computer builders are out to save a buck wherever they can, not build you your perfect machine. Even when you try to compare specs head-to-head with them, I'd say you can't get the "real deal." Yes, you may compare specs on the 200GB, 7200RPM hard drive and may be able to specify SATA, but do you know how noisy their drive is, how hot/cold it tends to run, or what the transfer rate is? You can specify the CPU, but how good is the CPU cooler at keeping it cool? Can you overclock? Is the cooler noisy? You can specify the video card chipset, but will it have video out or dual monitor capabilities? There are a lot of things that Dell (& others) won't tell you. Partly because they don't want you to know, and partly because they'll use whatever (drive, etc) they can get cheapest at the moment, so no guarantees on EXACTLY what you get. If you want cheap - it's hard to beat Dell (& others). If you want a great system - you either pay up the whazzoo or build it yourself. Researching each component, however, costs you a lot of time. It's all out there on the internet, though. Purchase sites: everyone loves New Egg, and it's hard to go wrong there. I've also had no problems with mWave.com. Lastly - don't forget to include the price of software when comparing with the big guys. Windows & Office don't come free or cheap ... Hope this helps, Tattoo
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Videoon 3/20/2005
Sony Forum Vote Either Y or N ONLY - please no oppinions
Y
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Videoon 2/27/2005
OT: sound FX (particularly that "Swish" type of sound associated with metal texts etc...)
Yet another site for sound effects. If I remember right, this one basically catalogs all the sound files (non-spoken sounds) already on the internet and you can search by keywords for their titles. I checked it out last fall. Seemed to be a good place to find foley-type sounds that you can alter for effects. Can't vouch for sound-quality either good or bad, 'cause I wouldn't know. Very interesting visual depiction (thumbnail) of the sound file, though, and you can learn to pick or dismiss many sounds by this thumbnail. http://www.findsounds.com/ Brian
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Videoon 2/17/2005
What SATA's are you running?
Seagate drives stay cool better than most drives, too, which I would think would be a factor as you start RAIDing a bunch of drives together in one system. Cool, quiet, and 5-year warrantee! I don't think they're the absolute fastest drives, but they're competitive. Tom's Hardware just posted a review of the new WD drives (WD3200JB) that found it to be the coolest 7200rpm drive they've tested and very quiet, too. Not available in SATA yet, though.
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Videoon 2/5/2005
torn, worn, speckled text
Spot on, as usual. "Ragged" text, yes. The tutorial showed the exact effect I wanted, just more extreme. Just had to figure out how to back it off a little. nickle - you were right, too, just different parameters. For the effect I'm thinking of, I set the Film Grain granularity to 1, and the amount to around .7. Never hit on that combo when I was attempting your previous suggestion. Bing-badda-boom! There ya go. Vegas forum knows all! And picked up several other great tips along the way ... Thanks all. Brian
Tattoo
Offline, Member since 6/20/2004