Graphic card for video editing

[Mariomau]

Hi,

I am looking for a graphic card for professional DV editing (price around US$ 500).

A friend of mine suggested The PNY Quadro FX 500. Is it any good for this purpose? Does anyone have this card and use it for video editing? Any other suggestions within this price range?

I have a P4, 2.4 GHz, 533 FSB, 2GB DDR 266 memory, and a 120 GB Seagate HD.

Thanks

[$1500-P4 gamer]

That card is for video RENDERING> not editing. What kinda stuff you do. Like mpeg's and such? If so just your normal high Quality ATI 9800 or such will do. The video card wont help with conversion and such with editing-thats all cpu/mem there. All it can do is look better while doing it. Hehe.

[RIS]

I have PINNACLE DV500DVD. And work fine. Rendering is litle bit slow but a have PIII 0n 600MHz and 768 Mb of ram, so u will be much faster

[unfguy]

Depends on what software you are using. The software I've used allows you to choose to have transitions/effects rendered by the CPU or the video card. Contact the software builder to find out if they have a suggestion.

[Mariomau]

Thank you all for the information.

I currently have a Geforce 4 MX 440 with 64 MB, AGP. Now I am asking myself if it will be necessary AT ALL to upgrade the graphic card.

What do you all think?

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Well if its for Tmpeg Inc. Vidomi or other similar progs. its a waiste. If its for editing scenes and rendering then yes. What program your using to edit with will be the key-so let us know. We can help you better.

[Mariomau]

I plan to use Adobe Premiere (either 6.5 or pro).

Now somebody told me I should be worried about my capture card, not the video. (!!!!!)

Is that really so? I thought the capture card was only important when I had an analog camcorder. But this person told me different.

Now I am really confused...please help me!!!!

[Hadibo]

You can use an OHCI firewire card for DV capture and with your Premiere s/w. That won't cost much. If you want to spend more money then I suggest a Canopus Storm2 which will give you realtime playback from the timeline. You should be able to find Storm cards on Ebay complete with software.

As long as you are only capturing DV then you would have no problems with a firewire card, but you won't get much realtime effects. The Storm can capture analogue and DV and output both and give you all the realtime you might need. If you want to capture analogue then you will need something from Matrox or Pinnacle, unless you get the Storm system.


You should also consider having a separate harddrive for the video files. They should not go on the C: drive as the System is writing files most of the time and this could screw up your video working.
HTH
John

[Mariomau]

Thank you for your suggestions.

I think (hope) I only have 2 questions now. I am planning to go for the Canopus card.

1) Can I use it with my Geforce 4 MX 440 64MB, or will it slow things down?

2) What is this OHCI firewire card you mentioned?

[Hadibo]

Hi
The Canopus Storm will not slow down your PC, in fact it will speed up the editing you do. The Storm2 should come with editing software, probably Premiere, although Canopus have their own editing software also which is excellent.

The OHCI firewire card allows you to connect a DV camera and capture the video to your harddrive through video cature software. That is built into Premiere etc.
As I said, also allow for another hard drive in your expenses.
HTH
John

[Mariomau]

John,

thanks a lot, you've been very helpful.

My concern with the Canopus and the Geforce 4 MX 440 is that the Geforce will slow my system, not the Storm 2. Or, in other words, do they work well together? Are they compatible, or should I get a better video card?

As for the HD, I am planning to have a new one (120GB) just for the video files. I was just wondering if the IDE HD is fast enough. I thought about buying the SCSI HD, but it's much more expensive...

All the best,

Mario

[Hadibo]

Hi again
The graphics card will not slow your PC down. It needs to, and probably does, provide video overlay. This means that you can see what you are editing in the editing software windows. You should have no problems with that video card.

There is no need now to have scsi hard drives as IDE are plenty fast enough. DV streams to the hard drive at about 3.5 mb/s and the hard drives can handle well over 15 mb/s. I have used ide drives for the past 4 years with no problems of frame dropping.

A used Storm2, with all its software will cost about £450.00 - £600.00 GBP. If you are going to buy on Ebay tell me where you live and I'll see what I can find for you.

I've just realised that the Storm card is fussy about which motherboard and chipset it is fitted into. It could be that your mobo is not compatible so that would cause problems. Before you go down the Storm route that needs to be looked into. Therefore, to get you going an OHCI firewire card would do but you will also need some editing software. Sorry, but editing on a PC is not very straight forward. Once its running OK then its wonderful.

Of course, Windows XP has Movie Maker which is just about OK for home movies.

HTH
John

[Mariomau]

Hi John,

I have also found out that Canopus is a little fussy about the motherboard and chipset.

And, also because of the fact that I live in Brazil, I started looking for a same level capture card, from another company. (It turned out that I can find the Canopus here, but it takes a while - almost a month - to get it).

So I ran into the Matrox RT X-100 card. I read some reviews stating that this card is as good as the Canopus (better in some aspects, worse in others, of course). From what I have read, I understood it is not as fussy with the motherboard and chipset. Do you have any information about this specific issue? Anyone you know uses this card?

Once again, thank you for your kindness and patience.


Mario

PS
I am not only interested in making home movies, but, mainly, professional, broadcasting quality ones. That is why I will be using Premiere Pro.

[Hadibo]

Hi Mariomau
The Matrox card is very popular and it works well as I understand but have never used one. The Matrox forums should have discussions on the pros and cons of the card.

The card, with Premier, is capable of very good results so if that is what you feel is right then go for it. Your PC is certainly up to the job. Just make sure that there will be no problems with the Matrox and your motherboard before committing yourself.

Glad to be of some help.
Good luck and please tell me the outcome and how it all works.
Cheers
John