[chinofeliz]

Hey everyone I've got a few avi video clips and I want to burn them onto a DVDR.

What application shall I use (to convert the format, create menu, and burn)? I need a resource-friendly, fast, and stable one (if there's such). Cos I'm still running my computer on a P3.

Thanx

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Sony DVD Architect comes to mind, but I don't know (doubt) it's free.

[gen244drdr]

Sony DVD Architect comes to mind, but I don't know (doubt) it's free.

[chinofeliz]

Will try it out Cheers
Sony... sounds big - would it be Pentium III friendly? Will have a look at the cost first and see if there's a free trial.

[gen244drdr]

I dont think any software which can convert to dvd vobs (MPEG2) will be PIII friendly unfortunately. But on the other hand, it should just take longer... err I mean forever

-Ady

[st22]

DVD Movie Factory 2, 3 or 4.

Actually i had a friend a few years back who wanted to make a dvd on his P3, he only had 128RAM, so i got him to get 512RAM, it worked serveral times faster.... still was a bit slowwwww thoughhhh, but it stopped from freezing up, so u might want to get more ram? (2 did, that is, 3 and 4 wern't out then).

you can get a free trial of all of them somewhere... (www.google.com)

Edited by st22, 30 November 2005 - 01:18 AM.

[gen244drdr]

All the programs I've ever used to code highly compressed avi to dvd mpeg2 vobs have always crashed, but I've always had 1024 MB ram. Recently I went to 2048 but I don't expect this will help. Any reason they always crash? Might k-light be to blame? Yeah I know this should be a new thread, oh well

[chinofeliz]

Yeah I'm buying a new computer first year next year. I know this should be a new thread (lol) but anyone could give me some advice (on all the specification and processors and whatever that comes to mind)?

Cos I'm doing multimedia so I'd like to run:
1. Maya 7 (or the coming up versions)
2. Windows Vista
3. All the heavy Adobe stuff
4. All the heavy video authoring applications

I'm really ignorant when it comes to hardwares so any suggestion would be appreciated.

Cheers

PS - Tried out Sony DVD Architect, mmm... didn't work (my systems bad)

[gen244drdr]

Well, you'd need the best video card you can buy, and I think (?) there's a difference between 3D game cards and good 3D graphic production cards. Although I think the difference is blurring, ie. 3D game cards now do the multi monitor thing etc and the 3D game cards are probably the fastest - period, now.

That aside, a good quality motherboard makes *all* the difference. No-name motherboards really, truly suck donkey's balls. I have a gigabyte board, but keep in mind they also sell cheap crap. I've had good times with high end gigas and high end asus boards. Admittedly asus has needed a warranty on one too many occasions though... (and replacement is slow)

RAM. More is better. Speed = dual channel DDR.

blah blah in a rush, sorry.

[st22]

gen244drdr,
When you do "highly compressed avi to dvd mpeg2" have you tried going from highly compressed avi to dv uncompressed avi then to mpeg2?


chinofeliz,
Would you consider getting a Power Mac G5?

More Specifically:
2.5GHz Quad-core PowerPC G5
4GB 533 DDR2 Non ECC SDRAM- 8x512
2x500GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB SDRAM
16x SuperDrive DL (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse - U.S English
Mac OS X - U.S. English

That will cost you $5000.00 US, but man that is one fast mother *****.


I run a Pentium 4, 3.4ghz 1GB RAM, 6600GFX, 223GB.

I find that running premiere and after effects is fine, exporting from them is fine, although when you start adding effects such as blur/distort the render time takes a while. If anything i need more harddrive space,

I’m still in debate to whether or not a graphics card has influence to video editing (more specifically rendering) at all. And the rendering is where you need all the harddware the most, dare i say all you need is a cheap graphics card. ((UNLESS MAYA NEEDS IT))

What you might want to consider is a video card like these ones so you can input the video - firewire card, matrox, blackmagic.

[chinofeliz]

Yeah I'll make sure I stock up enough on harddrive space alright... it's scary how the technology progresses so fast everyday I mean at university the multimedia ppl got the really good stuff but sometimes when they do video projects they still need to leave the powerful machines to do rendering OVER NIGHT! That'll drive me nuts.

I'm open to MAC though I've only touched it few times in my life before guess it'll take a while for me to get comfortable with it. I just had a gutsful even doing rendering effects in Photoshop CS2 (or is it just mean to run PSCS2 on a PIII?).

And just btw, what is actual difference between XP Home and XP Professional? I mean, does XP Home edition can't handle all the multitasking stuff?

CHeers everyone.

[gen244drdr]

I'm tempted to start a mac flame war but I'll keep this short...

With regard to sheer brute computational power, you'll get more bang for your buck on a PC - period. You'll also get a greater variety of software, larger support networks and most of all, you wont be a member of a cult comprising less than 3% of computer users.

My all time favourite macintosh computer was the cube which looked suspiciously like a tissue box, but on the other hand I also like the one which looks like a carry bag, and lets not forget the one which looks like a desk lamp... About the only thing they ever got right was a funky titanium notebook but even they have a number of issues...

ST22: good idea, I'll try converting to DV first. I guess cross converting from one compressed format to another is more complicated than doing it one step at a time.

[st22]

gen244drdr,

"You’ll also get a greater variety of software, larger support networks"

I totally agree with you on this, i find PC is better for business work and internet (and games if you play those) and when there is a problem it’s easy to fix it because everyone is familiar with it.

But is it fair to say that a MAC as a standalone edit suite is up there, if not a better option then PC for that video editing / composition task? (in terms of ease of use, speed and power?).

[gen244drdr]

OK, I admit that the software per se is very good for editing video on the Mac. I have found, professionally as a techo for both platforms, that the mac software for video editing is cheaper, simpler and just as feature rich as the very expensive and complicated programs for PC.

But I wouldn't want a dedicated video editing machine, I'd prefer a computer which I'd use for a whole lot more.

[st22]

If you were running a post production house you would have PC's in the office and MAC's in the edit suite as standalone's because you would have people working on videos 24/7 but apart from that, yep PC that does everything is much better for home user.