Topic: I am wanting to create a video editing studio

I am wanting to create a video editing studio at home but I dont want to spend $38,000 or more to buy Avid's system. Anyone have experience in building their own editing studio at home?

Currently all I have is my Macbook Pro which is fine for small projects but won't be so great once I start working on my feature. So I am looking at two options. Keep using Apple products and by a Mac Pro Tower and build the studio around it.

Or option B switching back to PCs, using Avid, and building my own studio around a custom workstation.

My question is what type of storage solution would I need for real time editing of footage? What is a good amount of storage to begin? What type of raid should it be?

Should I go Fiber Optics or Gigabit for the network.

What other equipment should I be looking at?

STAY with Apple. Getting a Mac Pro tower with FCP 7 is all the editing studio you will need.

For storage, I use Western Digital 2TB externals with Firewire. (Dont buy USB)

Originally Posted by Nick

STAY with Apple. Getting a Mac Pro tower with FCP 7 is all the editing studio you will need.

For storage, I use Western Digital 2TB externals with Firewire. (Dont buy USB)

How long does it take to move the finished movie from the computer to the external via Firewire? I am not familiar with that technology but I know USB is slower then Christmas.

Originally Posted by Jsthompson79

How long does it take to move the finished movie from the computer to the external via Firewire? I am not familiar with that technology but I know USB is slower then Christmas.

Not 100% sure, but I know that the firewire 800 is fast.

Thanks for the idea. I will look into Firewire storage and compare it to the gigabit storage I want to build.

Another question came to mind was studio headphones. Is there a particular brand you'd recommend. I have been looking at the Sennheiser HD 280 and the Audio-Technica ath-m50. I had thought about going with the beats from Dre but saw the HD280s destroy them at a third of the price.

I personally dont do sound for my films, but let me forward this to my audio person so he can make a recommendation

I use Final Cut Pro 6 on the earliest version of G5 Mac PowerPC. I've compressed a TON of HD footage to ProRes 422, and it's all stored on External HDs. With my computer if I tried to play the footage using a USB port it won't play. Firewire 400 (it's all my computer has) plays fine. But, the age of my computer is making it hard to edit. It's constantly dropping frames.

Now, my DP has a laptop (a few years old) that plays everything uncompressed just fine.

It's just time for me to buy a new computer, at least for editing.

I use both Avid and FCP7...both on my mac. Waaa-aay less than $38K.

If all you have is a laptop, definitely upgrade. I use an iMac, I think--the 27-inch screen. Have the store add as much ram as it can take before you take it home. I think I added 4gb to mine. Both After Effects and FCP can't use more than the 4gb extra--at least that's the way it was when I got mine.

I also have another monitor hooked up so I get more screen real estate for bins and stuff.

I have an FCP keyboard, too, but I rarely use it since I know the keys backwards and forwards. I could use an Avid keyboard, though.

All my drives are usb 2 or 3--and I have no problem, but I don't cut HD [yet]...though I shoot HD I knock it down to SD before editing.

HD may be better with firewire.



Kurt Hathaway
-------------------
VikingDream7 Productions
Video Production & Editing
khathawayart[at]gmail.com

Originally Posted by Jsthompson79

I am wanting to create a video editing studio at home but I dont want to spend $38,000 or more to buy Avid's system. Anyone have experience in building their own editing studio at home?

Currently all I have is my Macbook Pro which is fine for small projects but won't be so great once I start working on my feature. So I am looking at two options. Keep using Apple products and by a Mac Pro Tower and build the studio around it.



Or option B switching back to PCs, using Avid, and building my own studio around a custom workstation.

My question is what type of storage solution would I need for real time editing of footage? What is a good amount of storage to begin? What type of raid should it be?

Should I go Fiber Optics or Gigabit for the network.

What other equipment should I be looking at?

Please post pics of when your done gotta see it!!!

If you wanted to invest in Adobe CS6, either Production Premium or Creative Cloud. It gives you a full workflow, with many tools to solve most problems. As for hardware, well... I'm not really a hardware guy :)

-AF

I have CS 6 Master Collection as well as Magic Bullets suite to go with it. The problem I am having is the hardware and storage issues. Thank you though for the input.

Originally Posted by Jsthompson79

I have CS 6 Master Collection as well as Magic Bullets suite to go with it. The problem I am having is the hardware and storage issues. Thank you though for the input.

So how is your studio coming out?

How much did you spend?

Are you happy with it?

It went to the back burner for now. I am still researching the best options for me. Currently I do my editing on a Macbook Pro and have a gigabyte storage device. It works for my needs right now. I hook my Macbook up to my 47" LED TV for colorgrading for the moment till I can get my own office for doing all my work.

Originally Posted by Jsthompson79

How long does it take to move the finished movie from the computer to the external via Firewire? I am not familiar with that technology but I know USB is slower then Christmas.

Dude, you will have the option to set your scratch disk to the external, so anything you do will go straight to the external harddrive. If you don't have the money for a solid state harddrive, just about any will do, just make sure it runs at 7200 RPMs.

Originally Posted by Jsthompson79

I have CS 6 Master Collection as well as Magic Bullets suite to go with it. The problem I am having is the hardware and storage issues. Thank you though for the input.

CS 6 Master Collection eats the hell out of your RAM. Again, use external hard drive. Get a terabyte, they're cheap. Move your master suite to the external and run everything from there.

Headphones
I bought a set of AKG headphones (get this), 17 years ago, and I still have and use them everyday. They fit around your ears and not on top of them (very important). Headphones sitting on your ears will pain you to the point of cutting down on editing time, so make sure you invest in a pair that is comfortable.

External Heardrives
Whatever harddrive you get, make sure its an RAID 2 terabytes, and do not partition it, and here's why. When your harddrive finally decides to peter out, as they all eventually will, that extra terabyte hardrive that you didn't partition, will give you the peace of mind knowing you can retrieve everything. Take it from me, I lost 8 years worth of files because I stupidly didn't back it up.

Originally Posted by Director

Again, use external hard drive. Get a terabyte, they're cheap. Move your master suite to the external and run everything from there.

If you have the money, try to find a solid state drive. They are a lot more expensive, but even if you just keep CS6 and nothing else on there, it will probably speed things up tremendously.

-AF