Skip navigation
Storm Born
Storm Born Calculating status...
Currently Being Moderated

Just a few questions from a beginner

Aug 9, 2012 9:24 AM

Hi everyone,

 

I'm sure you've all seen this question plenty of times before, but I'm looking at getting into video editing and VFX etc and uploading videos to YouTube. I'm planning to get the Panasonic HC-X900 HD Camcorder to film with and the Creative Suit 6 Production Premium Suite for students to edit with.

 

I currently have the 21.5" 3.2 GHz Core i3 which has 4GB RAM - I'm planning on upgrading the amount of RAM. I'm currently running the trial and it seems to be running okay, although I haven't put it through its paces.

 

However, the question I have is that the Panasonic camcorder uses the AVCHD format. From what I understand, Premiere Pro CS6 accepts this format, but I keep reading about people having to convert the format to work with it, particularly if they are using some form of a Mac. I don't know if the information I'm reading is slightly outdated, or if I will have to use a converter to edit the footage? Trying to learn about all of this stuff is pretty daunting for a beginner, and I don't want to go and purchase these things to find out I've made a mistake! I may just be confusing myself by reading too much.

 

If it is the case that I will have to convert the format, what software would people recommend? I don't mind paying if I have to for a good converter.

 

Thanks for the help

578 Views   6 Replies   Latest reply: UlfLaursen, Aug 9, 2012 8:00 PM
 
Replies
  • John T Smith
    Currently Being Moderated
    1. John T Smith,
    Aug 9, 2012 9:35 AM   in reply to Storm Born
    Report

    1st, go to the hardware sub-forum and read all of the articles in the FAQ "drop down" list at the top http://forums.adobe.com/community/premiere/hardware_forum?view=overvie w

     

    2nd, an i3 is not strong enough to SMOOTHLY edit AVCHD video... you need an i7 with 16Gig of ram (minimum) and at least two 7200rpm hard drives (minimum)

     

    This message has a really good graphic about requirements http://forums.adobe.com/thread/810750

    About Requirements http://forums.adobe.com/thread/618058

    Disk Configurations http://forums.adobe.com/thread/878419

     

    You do not need to convert AVCHD to anything else... but you DO need a strong computer

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Storm Born
    Currently Being Moderated
    2. Storm Born,
    Aug 9, 2012 9:40 AM   in reply to John T Smith
    Report

    Thanks for this. I did wonder if the iMac would not be strong enough.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • John T Smith
    Currently Being Moderated
    3. John T Smith,
    Aug 9, 2012 10:16 AM   in reply to Storm Born
    Report

    Over on the Windows side my note http://forums.adobe.com/thread/652694 includes a link to the computer I built a bit over 2.5 years ago

     

    Older hardware so my ram is 12Gig (at the time, 2Gig x6 was what was affordable) and my AVCHD editing is very smooth... as a home hobbyist, so not using a lot of effects such as you might do for a class

     

    With today's CPU's and motherboards (again, Windows based) 16gig of ram is the minimum for SMOOTH HiDef editing... lots more information in the hardware section

     

    I know almost nothing about the Mac side of things... so go to the results at http://ppbm5.com/ to see what hardware works well

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • UlfLaursen
    Currently Being Moderated
    4. UlfLaursen,
    Aug 9, 2012 11:43 AM   in reply to John T Smith
    Report

    Just visited the link to your webpage, and got some good old memories back when i saw info on Premiere 6.0 and DV500 - had one too, John, waaay back :)

     

    Ulf

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • John T Smith
    Currently Being Moderated
    5. John T Smith,
    Aug 9, 2012 1:29 PM   in reply to UlfLaursen
    Report

    I still have my DV500 and Premiere 6 - in a dual boot WinXP partition

     

    I sold my Sony 8mm camera, but every now and then I find another old VHS tape when I go through a storage box, to digitize and convert to DVD

     

    The P6/DV500 combination still works well to digitize VHS tapes... I don't even have to edit in Premiere Pro, I just feed the AVI files to Encore to create a DVD

     

    The quality of those VHS-to-DVD projects is WAY less than AVCHD-to-DVD, but at least I can play the old movies I bought on today's hardware

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • UlfLaursen
    Currently Being Moderated
    6. UlfLaursen,
    Aug 9, 2012 8:00 PM   in reply to John T Smith
    Report

    John T Smith wrote:

     

    I still have my DV500 and Premiere 6 - in a dual boot WinXP partition

     

     

    That's cool, John  - I loved the blue "bob". I made countless VHS-tapes back then from the analog out.

     

    /Ulf

     
    |
    Mark as:
Actions

More Like This

  • Retrieving data ...

Bookmarked By (0)

Answers + Points = Status

  • 10 points awarded for Correct Answers
  • 5 points awarded for Helpful Answers
  • 10,000+ points
  • 1,001-10,000 points
  • 501-1,000 points
  • 5-500 points