Which OS for Video Editing?

[dsp]

Hi all,

I just want to ask which is the best OS for Video Editing using my system. I'm thinking about Win98SE or 2kPro/XP Pro or XP Home. Home and 98SE are cheaper and thus more likely, and this is a video only machine. So any suggestions as to which one to get is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

dsp

System:
Celeron 850
256MB RAM
815P motherboard
G400 DualHead
WinTV Go
Pyro Firewire card
SB Live 5.1
D-Link 10/100 NIC
8.4GB boot drive (quantum)
40GB Maxtor 740dx drive

[Baerchen]

Biased answer:

My very first recommendation would be a nice & clean 98SE installation. I've had lots of issues (mainly stability and drivers, but also not properly working software) on Win XP Pro with my 450 eTV and just like others, I've stepped back to 98SE. Also, looking around on boards and reading user's experiences point to 98SE.

Politically correct answer:

Depends very much on your hardware, the drivers and sometimes even on the current weather in HongKong. Seriously, you have to try for yourself. I could die for 98SE while doom9 from doom9.org does the same for a periodic re-installation of W2K.

Getting politically incorrect again: you could 'borrow' both O/S'es from friends (or so), install in a dual or multi boot environment, see what works out best in the long run and finally go and buy that O/S.

br

Baerchen

[dsp]

Baerchen,

Thanks for replying. I've used 2k and 98SE on this system and like 2k slightly more but it costs more. So I'm just wondering if XP Home is more or less XP Pro with some less features but the same stability I expect out of XP Pro or 2K.

dsp

[Dr Mordrid]

You're using IEEE-1394 for DV and a WinTV for analog?

Go with Win2K. It's more stable than Win2K, requries NO trickery (like the VCACHE thing), it handles memory MUCH better and lets you use NTFS for those projects >18 minutes.

The WinTV's VfW drivers + AVI_IO should handle what you need to do in analog (effects, keys etc.).

Dr. Mordrid

[Hulk]

I am currently using MS Pro 6.5, g450 eTV, and XP Pro and am very satisfied. I was using 98SE. I find XP to be a lot more stable.

My only issue is an audio dropout at 2:06 on print to tape. I'm pretty sure this is a Gateway issue though since I have no problems printing to tape using Sonic Foundry's Capture program. I like it better for capturing anyway.

[dsp]

Thanks for those answers. I'm looking more at 98SE and XP Home as 2K/XP Pro is a bit more costly than I wanted.

Dr. Mordrid which OS are you talking about? You said:

Go with Win2K. It's more stable than Win2K

dsp

[Dr Mordrid]

It's called having a near-4 year old under foot and therefore not having any cnocnetartoin

I meant that Win2K is more stable than Win9x.

Dr. Mordrid

[Hulk]

I think that XP home and pro will be basically the same as far as video editing is concerned. I'm by no means an expert on this (or pretty much anything for that matter) but I think Pro adds:

multiprocessing support
more networking, I think server support
and a few other things

Home may work for you.