OS for DV encoding.

[Paddy]

Hi guys.
I've got a HP DV6174ea laptop. It's a Core2 Duo T5500 (1.6GHz) with 2GB of RAM. It functions well enough, but I find myself doing more and more video editing and transcoding from my Sony AVCHD HDR-SR8 camcorder. Painful!

I'm currently using Vista 64 which feels very slow. I have Vegas Pro 8 (got to love the US exchange rate!) and it is more than enough for my needs.

I am looking to replace the laptop with a more power not for games but for DV, but I will make do for now. Would migrating to another OS give me any more performance gains? I have very little experience with the 'dark' side, but if I can dual boot, i'll try anything. The only other consideration is that the HDD is 120GB, so I'd rather not have too much bloat consuming valuable space. The only thing keeping me to M$ is office which I could live without.

What do you think? At this point i'd even consider a mac!

[Fat Tone]

Hiya stranger, I hope all's well.

The obvious and loudest answer is to get rid of Vista and stick XP on for a major shot in the arm.

As to video editing on a mac, I can't tell you until after my Macbook Pro arrives in a few weeks. I'm thinking of getting a cam prior to my summer trips so will get into this myself.

[ND66]

You have a single HD, right?

Andy.

[ND66]

More stuff for you...

Dan, I can't say whether your laptop is going to suffice or not. What I can do is tell you my experience and let you judge for yourself. I've got a Dual Core 1.6 (E2140) that I can OC to ~2.2GHz without much trouble, 2GB of DDR2 800 and a very zippy SATA disk subsystem.

When I merely playback unedited AVCHD clips in Vegas, both cores are basically pegged @ 98% - this is with ZERO edits. When I playback the same clips rendered to Cineform intermediate .avi's, I'm sitting at ~18%. This is under preview quality (auto mode, so small display window).

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Most computers find just playing an AVCHD file a real challenge. Editing is even harder, even for a fast computer. You really have to define more precisely editing. IF you just mean cuts editing with no colour correction etc, then the software that comes with the Sony camcorders is sufficient and can create SD DVD's or AVCHD discs as backups on pretty much any computer.
Not sure what comes with the Canon. IF you want to get more fancy then you will need a more powerful computer, and plenty of patience!!!! Using an intermediate file system like Cineform or the HQ file structure from Canopus will make editing much faster however they may take a long time to convert to this format!!!!
On my dual core AMD 4200X2 it takes about 10 times realtime to convert to Canopus HQ. Then of course it is realtime editing with no problems.
Vegas will work with the AVCHD files on the timeline but rendering will take some time. It's pay me now or pay me later!!! With my SR7 I find the easiest in fact is the Sony Browser software that comes with the camera to create a simple AVCHD or DVD.
Simple menus can be created etc and you don't need to buy anything other than the camcorder. Pinnacle and Ulead/Corel also make editing software that is a little more sophisticated.

You may want to sniff around HERE: some more....

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[Paddy]

Tony: I'll write you an email tonight, I promise!
ND66: Yeah I am using the single HDD in the laptop. I have to move date around to my external USB drive just to free up enough space to do the encoding. The preview of AVCHD is pants in Vegas. The CPUs just are not up to it. I can get native playback in MediaPlayer Classic which is passable. It jsut takes so long to do the rendering! I am used to my old AMD XP 3200 and the laptop is much faster so I don't have too high expectations!

I was thinking about ubuntu....

[Hulk]

I am also a Vegas user and while the preview is pretty good at the lower quality previews, it could definitely use some improvement. If you haven't noticed Vegas doesn't always floor all cpu's when previewing. There are quite a few people that have been complaining about this at the Sony Media Forums so hopefully in the next update or version we'll see some preview improvement.

As with most NLE's you get the most bang for your buck with more cpu power. I wouldn't worry about moving to XP unless you are having other problems with Vista, you won't see a performance difference in Vegas worth noting.

Just get the faster dually can afford.

[Dr Mordrid]

I've encoded H.264/AVCHD (MainConcept H.264 encoder) in both Vista and XP and XP wins hands down. This on both Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad rigs (just had to try it on the new toy). The speed difference is significant: ~12% - 15% faster in XP SP3 vs Vista SP1 on the Quad and slightly less with the Duo. IMO the variability is that of content; some scenes are easier to encode than others.

[Marshmallowman]

Could increasing the memory to 4G(if possible) help ?.

Vista uses quite a bit of memory and I would think vista x64 would use a chunk more.

[Paddy]

Cheers guys.
I cant really upgrade the RAM further, as I will be replacing the laptop in the near future. Vista x64 is a lot slower than the 32bit counterpart. I guess, I am toying with either dual booting vista and ubuntu studio or just going back to XP....

ND66: Thanks for the link, I'll troll around there....

Thanks for the input Hulk and DM

[Dr Mordrid]

My suggestion: roll-back to XP for any video rigs you have unless you have hw/sw that requires it.