PC For HD CAM

[Hulk]

I'm about to purchase a HV-20 cam and I would like some advice on what kind of pc I should be building. The pc will not be used for video games, just for editing HD footage.

I heard that nvidia cards are better than ati for this because they have higher bandwith for 2d.

Also, what programs for editing should I be looking at? I heard good things about "Vegas".

 

[wildfire99]

Video cards are video cards... get one with onboard memory, and you're golden. All the card does is show you images, and all of them are more than fast enough for 2D. I used to do HD editing on a Radeon 7000 VE, so it's really not going to be a big deal. Heck, I use an embedded intel GMA on a secondary render-only box and it does just fine (not that I'd want to edit on it, but it shows video). I'd say anything from the NV 7600GT / ATI HD2400 and up is going to do everything and anything you throw at it.

I thought for a moment you really meant HDCAM... but you mean HDV. Make sure your mobo has a firewire port, or better get a firewire card with 3 ports, because you'll want to plug in more things eventually. Get a fast dual-core processor (quad core if you know your apps will use it), and make sure you have a crap-load of disk space, preferably on several drives. Memory speed is irrelevant I think, but you want 3GB of RAM at least.

Spend your money on a good display, more storage, better DV tape, another camera/deck, a good tripod, lights, or whatever else floats your boat. Super-fast raptors, high end video, quad core CPUs, etc. don't make a lick of difference to the final product.

As to NLEs... well that's a matter of your personal preference. Grab trials of Vegas and Premiere and see which clicks for you. Some people will only use Final Cut and do an amazing amount of work with just that program only, but in that case you're looking at Macs.

I don't know if I would build/DIY. Yes it's a better "value" but really is your time spent screwing around with hardware and conflicts worth it? If you're just fooling around with footage then maybe, but if it's a job then it's absolutely not worth it. Buy a Dell/HP/whatever and get to work.