Video editing and Vjing

[DoYouHearVisions]

I am a filmmaker currently looking into buying a PC for Video editing. At the same time, for the past year I have been shooting content for VJ's and now I feel that I'd like to VJ myself.

Is it too much of a pain in the butt to do both on one system especially if I get a desktop to lug around?
I have heard a lot about getting two hard drives, tons of memory, and a dope graphics card, but I am wondering if any of you do this, and if you have any possible suggestions or comments before I drop a lot of cash.

Thanks

PS this website freakin rocks

[holly]

Since you are creating and editing your own video you might be dissapointed with the options on a laptop, both for editing and for VJing. IMHO, laptops are strongest when they are generating live visuals through software. They are a dream for multimedia-3D-A/V-types, but there are cheaper (and higher quality) ways to play video loops. For my money I would invest in a tower with a DVD burner, lotsa ram and a nice 601 vid-card, and then get a hardware mixer and a few portable DVD players for VJing (in fact that's what I did).

For me, video editing and DVD authoring pay the bills. I couldn't do broadcast (601) video on a laptop, so there's no compromise. I have a great VJ rig that's 100% reliable hardware and it cost half the price of a good laptop.

Edited to say:
After re-reading your post, I realize you are considering taking your tower on gigs instead of buying a laptop for editing.:rolleyes: Maybe I should read more closely before I open my mouth. Anyway, once you've loaded up your tower with $2000 in extra video hardware and everything is working together, the last thing you need to be doing is disconnecting everything and lugging it into a club.

[ecin]

with the amount of cash i've dumped into my video editing box the last thing i would do is disconnect everything attached to it and bring it somewhere. its my production box and if anything goes wrong with it i'd be screwed. being that hardware has gone down quite a bit in price lately you could go the DIY route and probably build two boxes for what it would cost to get a ready made video editing station from big companies.

a machine for editing built yourself might run about $1500(bare minimum to get started). a good box for VJ gigs you could build for $800. get a big 21" monitor and a 15" lcd and you're rockin.

i just built a kick-ass p4/2.4GHz box with 512RAM, 120GB HD & Matrox Dual-Head card for $800 and its the size of a toaster. plays uncompressed DV clips at 720x480 through resolume like its a joke. its not as portable as a laptop, but its not as bulky as a desktop, you can put it in a backpack.

[psychodude]

As Holly says : It isn't a good idea to invest in a nice tower if you are going to drag it around ...
BUT an idea might be to invest in one big ass tower with the works on it (tons of memory, tons of hard disk space, a classy videocard ....) for editing and using one small one (basic needs-type of thing)for performing.
Sounds expensive, I know, but taking a risk with a ?650 CPU feels better than a ?3500-risk

I have one full tower to provide content (video-capture, 3D anim, 2D anim, ...) to our 2 mini-CPU's. The price of the full-tower is about double as the 2 put together. (better grafix-card, more RAM, a whole lot more harddisk-space, CD-rom, DVD, .... it all adds up)

The mini CPU's have everything (monitor out, sound, ...) onboard exept for the video-output (1xPCI-DC-30) I just added 256mb RAM and a harddisk of 50 Gb and I could play. extra : there about the size of a shoe-box
2nd hand 15" monitors cost about nothing btw (so if they meet with an accident ....)

When your buying your computer, first check the hardware for drivers and their operatingsystem...., I found out (after buying the bl**dy licence) that my DC-30 isn't supported by millenium.

I hope some of above is usefull :)

[DoYouHearVisions]

"i just built a kick-ass p4/2.4GHz box with 512RAM, 120GB HD & Matrox Dual-Head card for $800 and its the size of a toaster. plays uncompressed DV clips at 720x480 through resolume like its a joke. its not as portable as a laptop, but its not as bulky as a desktop, you can put it in a backpack. "

Nice one. That's probabaly what I am looking at. My friend who builds computers said he'd help me out. I guess that is the best option. $800 for it all??

One more thing, what is the 601 card? I shoot on mini DV and know it's already compressed 4:1 and I'll be usiing Avid DVexpress to edit (most likely). Still confused by that.

You guys rock... thanks a lot.

[holly]

what is the 601 card?
Sorry, it's shorthand for broadcast video colorspace and pixel ratio. The DV codec is acceptable quality for most live action, low-budget video. It has good compression and an accepted, multi-platform standard (Firewire) which makes it the format of choice for entry-level video editing. But, despite all the hype surrounding it, DV is not up to broadcast standards. If you ever tried to create motion graphics or do 3D or compositing work with DV you will see why. (It uses an abreviated colorspace that averages across 4 pixels, no need to go into it here, but eventually you will be looking at an SDI or even high-quality analog video editing card as a step up from DV.)

[tange]

I use a flightcased desktop for performance.

It has been totally reliable, and if it did screw up I wouldn't have to send it away to get it fixed. It is pretty heavy, but that does make it a lot less attractive to thieves, so I worry less at gigs.

[neoteo]

Originally posted by holly
If you ever tried to create motion graphics or do 3D or compositing work with DV you will see why. (It uses an abreviated colorspace that averages across 4 pixels

holy you can bypass that problem , in after effects for exemple , right clic on clip in project windows , INTERPRET FOTAGE , MAIN , FIELDS AND PULLDOWN , SEPARETE FIELDS , LOWER FIELD FIRST

DV squares disapear ... if its what you are talking about :rolleyes:

[visualove]

I edit for my art pieces. Video editing SW can be delicate - add a new driver, a new app, or forget to turn off your antivirus and your editing SW stops working or glitches in the middle of playback. So I keep my editing station to a minimum of necessary applications and minimal internet usage.

Editing, effects and animation-modeling are very time intensive. Your time. What would happen if you take the editing station to the gig, jostle the box and loose one or more 200G drives (they're completely backed up right?). How much time to recreate the edit, effects or models? (Avid is one of the best for rebuilding lost work if you duplicate key files, but I have never had to do it). If it's only the media drive you loose, you still need to import the footage again, which takes a lot of time.

So I would argue for separate systems if at all possible.

Also if you use Avid, at avid.com, the forums, under customers are very useful, but I haven't found any VJ's there. The people on the board would probably give the same advise - separate.