I am building a PC for someone solely for graphics and video editing. I am haveing a tough time trying to figure what kind of graphics card it should have. On my computer the graphics card was the most expensive thing by far, but I wanted it for games. I wonder how much things like photoshop and misc video editing apps use a graphics card if at all?

I have budgetary considerations, so I don't want to run out and buy the latest PCI express capeable graphics card when maybe a simpler (and much cheaper) card will be fine. I have been reading up on what to include in video editing machines, but I have not read any specific recomendations on graphics card other than to get one.

What would you guys suggest? I was leaning maybe to an all-in-wonder type card which offers at least an s-video out. Or maybe it would be better to get a lesser card and an add in box with various outputs. An all-in-wonder may have a cable input, and an s-video output, but that will not help transferring video to VHS since no VCR has an s-video input. I know I can get an s-video adapter if need be.

You actually don't need to spend as much money on a vid card as you think. I'm running a P4 2.4ghz, with a gig of RAM. The card I have installed is a Radeon7500, 128mb. As well, I'm running dual display with it. As with your case, this machine is used almost solely for video and graphics editing, and it is going without a hitch.

One thing I've found with using other similar computers is that there is a much greater need for RAM as opposed to video card. Editing DV tapes with a similar system and 128mb of ram was a bitch, but with a gig, even uncompressed frames are not a problem.

In terms of inputs, all you need is USB2 or Firewire cards, each running about $60US. Then, get an all purpose adapter for video/audio (plug in a/v, s-video, firewire, usb or coax in to it, and it outputs it into your Firewire/USB2 port).

The question is what are you planning to edit? Is it high res non-interlaced digital video? Or is it a conversion from TV, VHS or other analog signals?

Concerning 3D graphics (and I assume this applies to alot of 2D as well), the card is mostly useful for the GUI. The actual rendering is dependant mostly on the CPU and RAM, as far as I know at least.

Mega, I'll go with VladiO on this ! I'm using an ATI RADEON 9600 SE card with
128 MB SDRAM. It may not be perfect, but with a VIDEO OUT, it's hard to
beat. Of course, there are so-called better cards out there. It really depends
upon your needs. The older RADEON 7500 card I used finally crapped out
after years of use but, what the hell, I got my money's worth out of it !

Vladio is mostly right, except for one omission: the 128 Mb graphics card should also be a video capture card, as well as with video out. A further advantage is if it is also a TV card - then you can display and capture TV programs.

The 1 Gb of RAM mentioned is also in order, but even then you may need some hard drive space for virtual RAM. And to store the captured or converted videos (and TV programs), you should have the largest possible hard drive(s) you can get and use on the machine. For more than 3 or 4 physical hard drives, you will need an IDE card.

Bugger.

Hard drive space is pretty much obvious for video editing though. I'm running on 149gigs internal, 80 gigs on 2 removable 40's and acquiring a 200gig in a couple of weeks (removables run on USB2 and Firewire as well).

One thing I forgot to mention about this particular radeon is it has an s-video out too, but it is really not necessary considering there's a firewire and USB2 out/in-put (3 of 1394 and 3 USB2s).

Make sure that the disk you're writing to has a large cache and a fast-write
capability. Also don't have any other programs resident in memory. You
don't want the bus competing with other applications ! I use a Hauppauge
PVR 250 for encoding. It doesn't like competition ! Even under the best
conditions, occasionally I run into a "jitter". This is caused by the encoder
being unable to keep up with the video source and a "no change" frame being
put out by the encoder. It shows up as a "frozen" frame - that is a frame is
repeated, looking like a "still" effect during playback.

I'm using a ATI 9000 AIW pro its only 64mbs and can handle only directX 8.1 but it takes video input/ouput rather good and it was cheap enough.

If you have enough RAM, set up a virtual RAM-drive and set your registry to use it as a swap drive, instead of the HDD. This will greatly improve things, as your computer won't be using the HDD for ordinary functions, leaving it all for the video. :)

I find that with graphic and video editing, RAM is just as (if not more) important then video cards. I think a 128mb vid card with in/out and such would be a very good choice, plus they can be picked up pretty cheap if you buy them used.

i would go with a ATI RADEON 9600 SE card with 128 MB, it does what you need it to do and it does not play up as much as my gforce4 graphics card.

I suggest using a Pinnacle Studio AV/DV Deluxe v9 - PCI Firewire & Analogue Capture Card to capture from TV/VCR. And then using a XFX GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI AGP for the encoding.

Or if you want the very best without using both cards, I recommend a Hp 3d High-end Ati Fire Gl, X1 ,agp 8x Pro 256 Mb. It WILL cost you a small fortune, but it's worth it's weight in gold!

Also, the card(s) is just one part of it, you will be needing a beefy machine to run along side the card(s).

I would recommend a AMD Athlon 2.6Ghz, with a dual DDR ram supported motherboard, running 1Gb of 333Mhz DDR RAM.

Or again, there's the all out way, and go with a dual processor motherboard. Drop two 3.4Ghz P4's in with 3, 1Gb sticks of 333Mhz DDR RAM. But I think the last option will be out of your ideal price range.

Mega, have you found a suitable card yet ? If not, I still recommend 1
from ATI. I can't speak for other vendors, but both of my RADEON cards
have worked very well.

I decided to go with a GeForce FX 5500 with 256 MB of RAM. Not the best card by far, but I got a really good deal on the retail box. Other items include a Athlon 64 3400+ and a MSI FIS2R motherboard. 1 GB of Corsair RAM fleshes out the system. Also included is a Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card, a dual layer DVD +/- RW drive, a floppy drive that includes slots for memory cards (and its USB 2.0), and a 250 GB hard drive. I also got a free watch, 2 free games, and a 10 pack of CD-R's.

Then the trouble started... I was waiting and waiting for the motherboard to arrive only to get an email a week later saying it was cancelled. Out of stock apparently. Fortunatly I found another for a few dollars more with second day delivery. Once I got everything I could not find ANY screws :( I could not remember if they came with the case or the MB, but it looked like I was SOL. I cracked open the case and found this nifty little plastic box with all the screws in it. It even had a screwdriver. How handy :) It was so well secured nothing rattled, it was screwed into a drive bay like a hard drive. With my screws in hand I placed the standoffs in place (this case uses some crappy clips instead of brass hexagonal screws). I dropped the motherboard in... and it did not fit. What the hell I thought! The motherboard did fit, but 90 degrees out of place. The back of the board could only face the bottom of the case instead of the back. I went back to the website where I bought the case and checked the specs. What I thought was an ATX case (as it was being sold in the ATX section) was actually a micro-ATX case according to the fine print. This thing is supposed to be put together by next weekend :( The store has still not gotten back to me about returning my case. I went ahead and ordered a new one today, but by UPS ground (2nd day costs more than the case!).

Mega, off-topic I know, but I have to ask. That dual layer DVD burner -
who makes it and what did it cost you ? Currently, I use a Plextor 708A
burner that does a good job but I really would like to have a dual layer
burner in my setup.

First try finding a dual-layer disk you can afford to buy. :p

For the price, new dual layer drives are not all that much more than a standard DVD-RW drive. That is if you don't already have a DVD drive to begin with. If you do then there is not much need to get one unless you really need to use a dual layer disk. waiting 6 months or a year will be best as the prices will drop. The price will not drop so much that you could get away with buying a regular DVD-RW and then a dual layer in a year, that's why I opted for the dual layer now. Of course my client actually has a use for the extra capicity a dual layer disk offers since they will be burning large numbers of massive video files. Currently the disks are around $10 a pop, but they will drop rapidly as they move into the main stream.

At $10 for one dual-layer disk of ~8GB capacity, you can buy at least ten 4GB disks for 40GB of capacity, 5x more for the same cost. The economics don't justify it yet.

The beauty of dual layer disks is that you can do bit-for-bit copies of commercial movie DVDs.

Because commercial dvds are invariably dual layer, to do a copy at present requires at least removing menus, extra features etc. It usually involves re-encoding the movie at a lower bitrate.

I'll be buying a dual layer burner within the next week. At roughly £10 extra it's well worth it for when R9 disks come down in price.

Bought a NEC ND-3500A a month ago for around $100, and I'm very pleased with it. Haven't trashed and discs yet (But the Pioneer DVR105 that I replaced did trash alot (1in6 maybe)) Even with el cheepo Princo dvd's..

If the dual-layer disk DVD-R ($10) doesn't cost less than buying a copy of the movie 2nd hand from the pawn shop ($6), then what's the point?

Even if it cost half as much, what's the point? With a fully functional DVD in hand, you can rip it to DivX and fit it on a regular DVD-R, with room for a few more, and at less cost.

I'd rather have the original disk, even at a few dollars more, and not bother with the ripping/encoding/burning/toaster?/wasting time cycle.

BTW, mine is an I/O River 16x DVD+-R/RW in an external Firewire adapter case, though I've got it installed in a machine now. I'm also looking at a thermal disk printer, so I can actually label my DVD's, rather than using those lame stick-on labels. :rolleyes:

Hmmmm...unique serial numbers, printed on the DVD, to unlock the PDF? ;)

Yes, the price of dual layer disks is silly now, but so were regular dvdrs not so long ago! I Can easily remember the time when a dvdrw cost $50!

Heck, DVD-R disks are going for a third of what they were just 1 year ago. A dual layer disk is useful for convience purposes. A wedding video for example is just better as a single disk, despite the extra cost. Naturally, as NBK says, money is a replacement for work. If you want convience you have to pay. Why just a few years ago I would never have dreamt of getting a DVD burner at $300 a pop.

If you think dual layer is great wate until you see what is next. Scientists are developing an 8 layer disk! They were able to use some special property of crystals to encode 8 seperate layers. They think it could go up to 10 layers. They expect to have a working player in 3 years and commercial ubiquity in 5 years. They expect the technology to enable up to 1 TB a disk.

The downside is these are not burnable disks as the technology for that resembles the old DAT burners of 10 years ago that made disks (i.e. tens of thousands of dollars). Personally I can't imagine what product you could possibly buy with 50 GB of data besides an entire collection of several seasons worth of a TV show. Maybe they will be used for high-def programming. Of course it is human nature to always use the disk space we have, be it 3 GB or 3000 GB, we will fill it up.