Build a PC-Based Digital Video Workstation

From the heady days of the original Video Toaster to the portable DV tape revolution, PCs have played a crucial role in modern video editing and production. What once took a room full of equipment and trained professionals can now be handled with just one desktop computer and a small -- in both size and quantity -- array of support gear.

Gone are the days when Windows PCs took a back seat to the Macintosh and Amiga for desktop video dominance. Today a wide variety of video-editing suites and bundles are available for every conceivable segment of the digital video market. Cable-TV stations, local news organizations, industrial video production shops, even independent hobbyists are all using PC-based video.

But a slick editing suite or multi-headed hydra of a capture card won't go far without a suitable workstation to live in. This Recipe tells you how to build a top-notch video platform for your budding professional clients. The workstation is more than adequate for paying video production work, but at the same time, it's well within the price range of dabblers, who may not need higher-end items such as the dedicated preview monitor. A pro configuration should come in under $4,000 street price. Lower-end systems could be built with smaller drives and omit the premium preview monitor and ring up closer to $3,000.

Ingredients

Here's what I recommend for building a powerful video-editing PC for "prosumers" and entrepreneurs:

• Integrated video production and editing suite. A number of companies supply these systems. For this Recipe we used Pinnacle's Systems Liquid Edition Pro 5 ($750 retail). It includes a dedicated video card based around the ATI Radeon 8500, a video input-output breakout box, and Pinnacle's Edition editing software.
• Base workstation-grade PC. To power the video system and provide as much real-time effects capability as possible, supply the customer with a high-end PC. Windows XP Professional is the OS of choice. We used an FIC K8-800T board and AMD Athlon64 3200 . The board provides RAID, eight USB 2.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and IEEE1394 ports (optional, since the Pinnacle configuration includes IEEE1394.) Equip the PC with a minimum of 512 MB of DDR400 RAM and a basic, 40 GB or larger boot hard drive.
• Video hard drive. Provide at least one hard drive above and beyond the boot disk. This drive will be dedicated to video storage with 8 MB cache, a sub-10-msec. seek time, and interface of no less than ATA/100, and a minimum 7200 RPM speed. Hitachi's 120 GB 7200-RPM SATA drive is a good starting point. Adding more storage will let your customer store more video for creative and professional projects.
• Primary display. The primary display is used for loading and editing video. The Pinnacle video board provides DVI output by default, and while a VGA adapter is included, I recommend taking advantage of the board's full quality by going with a high-end LCD panel. Video production often requires opening several animated and preview windows at the same time, so no less than 1280 x 1024 resolution and a high pixel refresh are crucial. For this Recipe, I used the Viewsonic VG710b, an LCD with an extremely fast (16 msec.) response time.
• Preview monitor. Video workstations also need a preview monitor, the display that shows the actual video feed as it will appear on the final broadcast or tape. In theory any television that takes a composite or S-Video signal will do, but true preview monitors are high-resolution, reliable tubes that display the full size of the video image. Also, most consumer televisions cut off an area around the image known as overscan. Sony's 13-inch PVM14L1 is a good entry-level preview monitor.

• Second video card and monitor (optional)The Pinnacle board is not dual-head. If your customer wishes to use Windows and the editing software in a two-monitor setting (not counting the preview monitor, which is used for live video feed, not for a separate application space), build in a PCI graphics board. To keep the two video cards in the same driver family for ease of maintenance and upgrades, look for an ATI Technologies Radeon-based board. For example, ATI's Powercolor Radeon 9200 R92P-D3L supports DVI-out if the second monitor is to be a duplicate of the first.

17 Steps To Building a Video Studio

1. Build the core of the PC by installing the motherboard, processor, and boot drive in a tower case. Install the boot HD as the primary master disk. The case is best left to the customer's preference; some prefer clear-window, glow-tube arrangements, while others prefer a basic metal tower. Ensure that the power supply is at least 400 watts. In general, aim large to allow for more drive bays and easier access for any future upgrades.

2. Install the 512 MB of DDR400 RAM by snapping two 256 MB modules into the memory slots.

3. Install the video disk or disks, preferably on their own controller -- either the secondary IDE controller or the RAID controller, depending on the customer's storage size preference and budget. Keep all other drives, including optical drives, off of this controller. The controller should be available solely for video loading and saving.

4. Install the Pinnacle Liquid board in the PC's AGP slot. The front edge should snap and be held in place by some sort of lever or standoff when a firm fit is achieved.

5. Connect the Pinnacle audio-video breakout box to the Pinnacle Liquid board. The connector is a large square affair, impossible to mistake for the DVI or 1394 port.

6. Connect the Pinnacle Liquid board to the LCD monitor through the DVI port.

7. Connect the preview monitor to the video out port -- either composite or S-Video -- on the breakout box.

8. Power up the PC, and install Windows XP Professional. The desktop should be visible on both the preview monitor and the LCD. This is normal. The preview monitor will show editing video once projects are installed and in progress.

9. After the system reboots, install newer ATI drivers by inserting the included driver disk. When prompted, select Express to automatically display the newer Radeon display driver. Reboot when this step is finished. This screen shot shows the ATI software loading.






10. Insert the Pinnacle Liquid Edition 5.5 editing software CD. Select the language for installation, then choose the video format type. For the vast majority of customers in North America, this will be NTSC. However, a specialist or foreign user may wish to have the software preconfigured to work with the PAL video standard. Check with your customer if you are unsure. When installation is complete, reboot the PC.

11. A DV-addressable video device, such as a digital video camera with a FireWire/IEEE1394/i.Link port, will prove useful for initial testing. If you have one, connect it now to the 1394 port on the breakout box. If you do not have a DV video source, connect an analog video source such as a VCR to the composite or S-Video input on the breakout box, along with stereo audio.

12. If you did not already do so as part of the Windows XP installation, format the volume that will be used exclusively for video projects as a single NTFS partition. Open Administrative Tools/Computer Management, select the Storage/Disk Management module.

13. Launch the Pinnacle Edition editing software. Note that Pinnacle opens its own virtual desktop atop Windows, complete with its own Start bar. As shown in the screen shot below, this helps organize the Edition tools and open windows.






14. Configure Edition to point at the dedicated video drive by selecting, in the Edition desktop, Start, Control Panel, clicking the Site tab and choosing Media Management Settings, then pointing the program to the proper volume on the stand-alone disk, as shown in the next screen shot.






15. If your customer plans to use the system primarily for cinematic or HDTV editing and post-production, preconfigure Edition to work with 16:9 ratio video. Go to Start/Control panel, click the Site tab, select System Settings/General/Video Display. Double-click the default 4:3 and change it to 16:9, as shown in the screen shot below.






16. Click the Output Select button in the Edition desktop tray (the small monitor). If the preview monitor is connected to the breakout box's composite port, select CVBS. But if the preview monitor is on the S-Video port, select Y/C.

17. To perform a test DV capture, select Start/Tools/Logging Tool to begin a recording session. Use the Mark In and Mark Out arrows, or the corresponding number windows, to define a small snippet (under 1 minute) of video to be captured. Use the Capture button to start the recording.






Congratulations! While nearly any PC can grab still frames or video sequences from digital tape with a cheap IEEE1394 card, the system you've built can do much more. This specialized editing hardware and software can help take your users from creative spark to professional results.

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JASON COMPTON is a technology writer who has covered topics ranging from 8-bit entertainment to supercomputing for more than a decade.

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