Putting Together a Nonlinear Editing System

 

 

 

 
by Reid Van Voris and Jorge Dighero
 

So you're thinking about putting together a nonlinear editing system, perhaps so you can get the most out of that DV camcorder you just bought? Well, here are a few facts that will help you when it's time to make the plunge. We'll give you the lowdown on the main things you need to know to make the best possible buying decision. In this overview, we'll cover the important basic facts about the kind of system you'll need to edit your DV tapes, with coverage of the computer platform to use, the motherboard and its processor, how much RAM to use, the video display card, hard disks, and single- and dual-stream video editing boards.

Ouch! Sounds like a lot of stuff, huh? Well, for now, let's break it down into two major categories: 1) the components that make up the computer itself, and 2) the video capture and editing board. Both components are crucial. If one part of the system does not perform well, the entire editing system will not perform well.
 
Lets start with the computer. The main components that must be analyzed when putting any computer system together are the motherboard, the processor, RAM (memory), the video display card, and the hard drives. When building a system for digital video editing, these choices are critical to the performance of the system.
 
The motherboard is like the soul of the machine, it is where all the components of the system are connected. Be sure that your motherboard has these minimum qualities: ISA, PCI, and AGP slots, and at least four slots to connect the RAM memory. The ISA, PCI, and AGP slots are for connecting peripherals and additional boards, including the digital video editing board, to the computer. Make sure your motherboard has at least the minimum number of slots required to install the hardware you want to run on the system.
 
If you are planning to attach SCSI devices (such as audio/video hard drives), make sure you have a free slot to install a SCSI controller card, or make sure the motherboard itself has a built in SCSI controller with sufficient bandwidth to complete your task. We recommend the minimum use of at least an Ultra Wide SCSI controller. This type of SCSI card has a 40 MB per second transfer rate. Preferably, we recommend the use of an Ultra 2 SCSI controller with an 80 MB per second transfer rate. We recommend Adaptec as the number one maker of SCSI controller cards. The motherboard should also have room to install sufficient RAM for digital editing. It is suggested that a video editing system have not less that 128 MB of RAM and the capacity for at least 512 MB of RAM, or more.
 

The motherboard is also home for the processor or CPU. Some motherboards are equipped to handle dual CPUs while others are single-CPU boards. Dual Processor boards enable higher (faster) performance, but at a higher cost. For the best performance, we recommend you buy a dual processor motherboard. There is usually no need for two processors for smaller scale productions, but your system will be ready to add a second processor for play in the big leagues in the future.

Another important point is, generally, the dual processor motherboard can accommodate more RAM. The dual processor board has the same number of slots for the memory as the single processor board, but the slots can support up to 512 MB RAM modules, which means a maximum total of one gigabyte of RAM.

Next: 2. The Processor
 3. Hard Disks
4. Capture Cards