What computer is everyone using to edit 4K video?

[Blaze0303]

If you have a decent Nvidia GPU you could always use cuda cores instead of the cpu, much lower rendering times. I use Sony Vegas Pro

 

[Canadian]

Apologies for this post showing up a bit late in the thread.

My advice is simple. Most of the modern NLE programs offer free trials:

(post #20)

Steve Mann offered an excellent list of video editors that offer a free trial period. But a word of caution is necessary about one of these:

If anyone installs the free trial version of Majix Movie Edit make sure to remove the tick mark from the Free software install called SimpliClean. Majix Movie Edit is worth testing, but not the free additional program because SimpliClean installs a browser modifier for every browser that you may have on your computer without consent. It's called BrowserModifier:Win32/KipodToolsCby.

Microsoft describes Win32/KipodToolsCby as a "a high threat to your PC". Moreover, there is no real value to SimpliClean. Many other computer "cleaners" are available for those who want to use them that do not install unwanted and secret browser modifiers.

 

[merophosis]

I use this: Built it in 2013:

•INTEL WORKSTATION
- Asus P9X79 Pro
- I7 3930K 12 Cores 3.20GHz (3.80GHz TURBO)
- 32 GB DDR3 2133MHZ Ram
- EVGA GTX680 4GB Graphics
- 256 GB SSD System Drive
- 2 X 4 TB Raid0 Media/Projects
- 2 TB Exports
- 2 TB Backups
- Windows 7 Pro
- Adobe CC Master Collection
- Matrox MXO2 Mini
- Blu-ray Writer
- 40 " monitor

AHHHHHHHHH not to be a stickler but.....*** it's 6 cores, 12 threads

I have the same CPU.

Cheers!

But I will say this (to address the OP), you can use just about any computer to edit 4K video. Your performance will be determined by how much rendering you want to do. If you want to cut your render times, a fast CPU, lots of RAM and a nice SSD as a working drive, will do the trick.

I use Adobe Premiere, but Sony Vegas also works well if you want to get edits out on the quick.

Edit 2: I forgot to mention that CUDA processing helps a lot as well, but overall that's more on the advanced side and costs more money.

 

[Skylark]

IMac 27 inch late 2012 32 GB using Adobe Premiere CC & After Effects. Works like a dream

 

[Adamation]

That is one of the cleanest cases I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of them. Did you build it yourself or direct purchase from a Boutique store?

Thanks built it myself its actually my first ever custom build aswell - Adam

 

[GadgetGuy]

A powerful & expensive one I think.. As I've said on other threads, I wish I'd got the p3a as my desktop pc & tv are obsolete with 4k

Nothing prevents you from recording in 1080p on the P3P until you can upgrade your editing suite to handle 4K.

 

[madgitty]

I'm using a pic with windows 7, will not go to 10, using prem pro, tried a Mac and came running back as it at the time did not do what it said. You can get £50 software which will edit in 4k.
Pic can be upgraded easily and will not cost a fortune. I have had the same pic for 7 years and just upgraded as I needed. Don't listen to the pic is crap, Mac is crap Ect, just look at both and think of upgrading later on, make use you get 4gb ram min, more is better, a good graphics card, I use an nvidia and a fast processor

 

[REBELimgs]

What Intel core do you have? Apple is offering the iMac 27 in to configurations. Also, what type of storage, it seems the have a 1TB Flash. I prices out a iMac with 4.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz, 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM, 1 TB flash storare and AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB video card, total direct from Apple $4,268 the price does not include any software. It this a over kill for 4K video editing?

Over $4,000 and 1600mhz RAM. How do people justify apple's use of poor performance parts while charging an arm and a leg? My PC from 2011 has 1600mhz memory.

 

[prostreetcamaro]

Over $4,000 and 1600mhz RAM. How do people justify apple's use of poor performance parts while charging an arm and a leg? My PC from 2011 has 1600mhz memory.

LOL I am with you I dont get apple lovers. For less than half the cost you can get a more powerful non proprietary system. Want to upgrade? No problem. I just upgraded mine from a 2600K to a 5820K 6 core. Motherboard, cpu and ram cost me $600 to upgrade to something that runs circles around anything apple has to offer.

 

[eMaX]

Doing editing on a 2013 Macbook Air. Don't do lots of effects, but the thing is not to even attempt to do the compression there. Rather, I send it to a server that I have, uncompressed. There, I use a little wrapper I wrote around ffmpeg. See here: http://github.com/mnott/vcompress

HTH,

M

 

[mtmorrow]

All great notes regarding hardware configurations. What ever your hard ware configuration, a good "rule of thumb" work flow is IMPORT INTO NLE, CREATE LOWER RES PROXY MEDIA, EDIT PROXY MEDIA, SWITCH TO HIGH RES MEDIA FOR COLOUR GRADE & OUT PUT.

I've been editing for 20 years and this is a standard Offline/Online approach most of the modern NLEs have made very streamlined.
I can say first hand that FCP 10.2 and Premiere 2015 do this brilliantly.
With this approach, you don't need a monster edit system, just a little patience rendering out your low res files.
I have a late 2011 macbook pro and I cut 4k footage from my phantom 3 pro with no problem.
Playing off a RAID drive or SSD will help you too.

Hope that helps,
MTM

PS - I'm Canadian, so up here, I spelled colour correctly

 

[eMaX]

PS - I'm Canadian, so up here, I spelled colour correctly

I thought it was "couleur"?

 

[bobmyers]

All great notes regarding hardware configurations. What ever your hard ware configuration, a good "rule of thumb" work flow is IMPORT INTO NLE, CREATE LOWER RES PROXY MEDIA, EDIT PROXY MEDIA, SWITCH TO HIGH RES MEDIA FOR COLOUR GRADE & OUT PUT.

I've been editing for 20 years and this is a standard Offline/Online approach most of the modern NLEs have made very streamlined.
I can say first hand that FCP 10.2 and Premiere 2015 do this brilliantly.
With this approach, you don't need a monster edit system, just a little patience rendering out your low res files.
I have a late 2011 macbook pro and I cut 4k footage from my phantom 3 pro with no problem.
Playing off a RAID drive or SSD will help you too.

Hope that helps,
MTM

PS - I'm Canadian, so up here, I spelled colour correctly

Thanks for sharing-- I am editing in Premier Elements 12.0 -- can the video files be converted to proxy files in that app? I see that it is no problem in Premier Pro

 

[dmcgrew]

Using the latest top of the line MacBook Pro. Its a beast. Its eats 4K video for lunch. So smooth editing with Final Cut Pro.

 

[MattyDread]

All great notes regarding hardware configurations. What ever your hard ware configuration, a good "rule of thumb" work flow is IMPORT INTO NLE, CREATE LOWER RES PROXY MEDIA, EDIT PROXY MEDIA, SWITCH TO HIGH RES MEDIA FOR COLOUR GRADE & OUT PUT.

I've been editing for 20 years and this is a standard Offline/Online approach most of the modern NLEs have made very streamlined.
I can say first hand that FCP 10.2 and Premiere 2015 do this brilliantly.
With this approach, you don't need a monster edit system, just a little patience rendering out your low res files.
I have a late 2011 macbook pro and I cut 4k footage from my phantom 3 pro with no problem.
Playing off a RAID drive or SSD will help you too.

Hope that helps,
MTM

PS - I'm Canadian, so up here, I spelled colour correctly

I thought it was "couleur"?

28449"]Nothing prevents you from recording in 1080p on the P3P until you can upgrade your editing suite to handle 4K.[/QUOTE]

I only record in 1080p otherwise I don't get to watch my videos -

 

[jaywils]

Ok guys, really really need some input PLEASE! I think my Adobe Premiere Pro 2015 settings are preventing me from having lag free playback during editing. It starts out fine, then 15 or so seconds into playing a clip before I start slicing it up, huge LAG (1080p 60fps and 4K). Here's my machine specs below. I recently did the upgrades in RED, the original specs are the #'d bullets. To clarify the lag is with 1080p 60fps footage.. or all footage mostly. I've tried changing the GPU settings.. Nothing seems to help. Do I need to render the footage first? What's the proper way to start an editing session. I think my laptop, with the upgrades is enough juice to handle it for my simple editing needs and color grading. Nothing huge or major edits here. Just need lag free settings. THANKS!

Asus Q551LN-BBI706 - Convertible notebook.

1. 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-4510U processor
   • With a 3MB L3 cache and 2.0GHz processor speed with Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz.
2. 8GB DDR3 memory (2, 4GB chips, only one is removable and upgradable to 12 total)
   • Expanded to 12GB total (max) with Crucial DDR3 upgrade.
3. 1TB hard drive (5400 rpm)
   • Upgraded to Samsung 500GB SSD (Windows 8.1 and PP2015 saved here here)
   • Moved 1TB HDD to CD/DVD Bay and have it as my media drive
   • I wiped this things clean and started over with a new windows and new adobe products.
4. Nvidia GeForce GT 840M 2GB video card

I use PremierPro CC on a fairly decent PC and it will sometimes lag on 1080p clips. Just hit ENTER and let it render the clip, then play. If you make another edit on that clip, you'll have to render again.
You need a lot of horsepower to edit 4k, especially a high-end video card. The GT 840M is mid-range and probably the choke point, IMO, and I don't think you can upgrade that in a laptop, but you might try lowering the preview resolution to see if that helps.

 

[Peen]

5960X 8c/16t @ 4.6ghz
64GB RAM
2x 980 GTX TI
Lots of SSD and PCIe SSD's

Also have a 36 core 72 thread server at work I have used and 128GB of RAM,
But I find my 5960X to edit better. It works much better then my 4790K at 4.8ghz

 

[Zigs]

For those of us feeling our way into 4k editing, here is a solution to at least help move you to where you might want to go . . . and it's free. Sony makes a piece of software called Catalyst Browse. It exists to tap the information and full color gamut of Sony's 4k chips. With it you can browse 4k (and 1080p) clips, adjust colors and transcode clips into much more manageable formats. It's not complex, but you will start sucking the full capability out of your Phantom's 4k potential. Most of us are going to deliver via the net anyway. You will still need an editor to put together your story, but you'll have the capability to make things much more manageable. BTW, it's available for both MAC's and PC's.

See how it works and you'll probably have some better clues on which way to go for hardware.

-zigs

 

[REBELimgs]

28449"]Nothing prevents you from recording in 1080p on the P3P until you can upgrade your editing suite to handle 4K.

I only record in 1080p otherwise I don't get to watch my videos -[/QUOTE]
I don't think you know how it works.

 

[Matty4]

I bought a P3A mainly because I didn't have a computer or a TV that is capable of handling 4K (and for the extra cost of the Pro I got a second battery, case, ipad etc, etc).
3 weeks after getting my Phantom I went out and on the spur of the moment bought a new iMac 27" with the 5K Retina display, would've been perfect for what I need.
I don't plan on doing any serious editing, just trimming down to what I want to keep.

Still happy with my decision though. Now just gotta convince SWMBO to let me upgrade the TV to a smart 4K one......