Card that is AVCHD friendly?

[AthruZ]

Hi,
I'm looking to build an OC i7 920 system using the scan edge bundle (MB,CPU,RAM)...was originally going to go for the 5770 but I've read that having such a card wont make much difference when editing HD video..can someone point me to the level of card I'd need as I'm starting to think the 5770 is a bit of an overkill for my needs...thanks.
I have an X1950GT that really needs to be retired or sent to live out its days in a beige coloured case somewhere.

[shaithis]

I fail to see why a 5770 would cause you any performance issues while editing HD video...

[Funkstar]

It all depends what you are using to edit the footage in the first place.

Does the software take advantage of hardware acceleration? If it does, is it restricted to nvidea hardware?

If your software doesn't do any hardware acceleration then even your X1950GT would do the job as well as a Quadro

edit oh and I guess the AVCHD codec would need to be hardware accelerated as well. I don't know if this would be a separate piece of software to the editor, some are some aren't.

[AthruZ]

@ Shaithis: I was just wondering if I could purchase a lower spec (hence cheaper) card as I wont be running intensive games 24/7..I'm not really a gamer at all so my need for a powerful GPU is not a priority.

@ Funkstar: I'll be using Vegas 9 which does not have acceleration as far as I know....so you think my 1950 would suffice? wow! I would infact like to get a new card but something of lower spec to the 5770.
Do you mean in your edit something along the lines of the coreAVC codecs, if so then having them does help, the reason for my upgrade is that though I can edit avchd on my system I have to do it by proxy and it takes so so long

[Funkstar]

I don't know if Vegas 9 will use windows codecs or its own internal version, I suspect the latter as they would have more control over them and are less likely to have compatibility problems.

What do you mean by "proxy"?

[kalniel]

I'd go for one of the nVidia HTPC oriented cards actually - they seem to sort out codec compatibility much better than ATI cards when it comes to this sort of thing.

[AthruZ]

proxy editing..taking the raw 24mb/sec HD m2ts file and encoding it into a lower quality and more manageable copy, editing it and then reconverting back to a HD file...takes hours and hours and hours on my system at the moment hence my need for a new system. At the moment I'm running a P4 3.6, 2gb ram and xp home...I'm suprised I can even play avchd files on it to be honest!!!

[Terbinator]

I thought AVCHD was just a container ?

[AthruZ]

no avchd is a high definition mp4/avc codec format ..m2ts is the container in which its in.

@kalniel: Thanks for the heads up...will look into possible cards, having a nose around some people are saying ATI is better, some NVIDIA...the ongoing battle continues

[Terbinator]

no avchd is a high definition mp4/avc codec format ..m2ts is the container in which its in.

@kalniel: Thanks for the heads up...will look into possible cards, having a nose around some people are saying ATI is better, some NVIDIA...the ongoing battle continues

I'd personally say Nvidia is better. Have you tried using a Remuxer instead of a full on transcode - it can take around 8 mins at max running on my rig to convert a 'Blu-Ray' to .M2TS.

[kalniel]

no avchd is a high definition mp4/avc codec format ..m2ts is the container in which its in.

@kalniel: Thanks for the heads up...will look into possible cards, having a nose around some people are saying ATI is better, some NVIDIA...the ongoing battle continues

Have a look on some of the HTPC forums around the interweb - I think when ATI work they work really well, it's just the compatibility isn't as wide ranging.

[Funkstar]

Ah I see what you mean now.

I would agree with Kalniel, an HTPC oriented card would probably be more than enough. They will have hardware video codec acceleration (any current card can do this) and some other hardware video features. Unless your software uses stream processing specifically, you won't benefit from having a high end card vs. a mainstream one.

One thing that might be worth thinking about is the Quadro line of cards. They use a different driver base than the consumer cards and are built to be much more stable and have better colour reproduction etc. They are more expensive though.

[shaithis]

Yeah, just read the post again and it now makes sense....guess 3 hours sleep wasn't enough after all

HD4550 should suffice.......may even get away with a HD4350. Both can be bought in passive variants for ultimate low noise.

[AthruZ]

@Terbinator: Dont know if I'm catching you right but I can import the m2ts files fine into vegas..its just a case of lack of basic computing power that makes editing impossible, demuxing would just give me the same problem split into two.
@Funkstar: Thanks...I nearly spat my tea out when I looked at quadro cards £1000-£4000 is way out of my range, I wanted to cut the price back on a 5770...I'm not making avatar or anything
Thanks to everyone for their pointers...I will go down the path of a pretty strong HTPC orientated card for when sony get their finger out and incorporate acceleration into vegas but enough to give me good HD playback, editing etc at the moment

[AthruZ]

Yeah, just read the post again and it now makes sense....guess 3 hours sleep wasn't enough after all

HD4550 should suffice.......may even get away with a HD4350. Both can be bought in passive variants for ultimate low noise.

I've only had 4 hours myself
thanks.

[Funkstar]

@Funkstar: Thanks...I nearly spat my tea out when I looked at quadro cards £1000-£4000 is way out of my range, I wanted to cut the price back on a 5770...I'm not making avatar or anything

It's the Quadro NVS I was meaning as opposed to the Quadro FX line

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-...DIA-Quadro-NVS

Although you can also get FX cards for around the £100 mark

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-...uadro-FX-PCI-E

Unless Sony add stream processing to the video processing side of Vegas (special effects, transitions, encoding, etc.), any hardware decoding of AVCHD footage will be handled just as well with a basic £50 consumer card as it will a £4,000 Quadro.

The low end Quadro cards will do the same, the advantage of them over consumer cards is the more stable drivers and better quality construction, components and image.