How to Import Video into Avid Media Composer (Part Three): System and Project Settings

wolfcrow by Sareesh Sudakaran

In Part One and Part Two we looked at the basic structure, scope and workflow of Avid Media Composer. In this part, we’ll finally get things underway and learn the best system and project settings to get you started.

The computer system

Avid Media Composer is not a light application. To read the recommended system requirements, click here. To learn how to build a computer for editing read Computer for Video Editing.

Regarding the GPU, this is what Avid has to say:

NVIDIA cards are recommended; full-screen playback requires a minimum of 128 MB of graphics memory.

Regarding hard drives, this is what Avid has to say:

Distribute video tracks as evenly as possible among available drives, and target separate drives for audio and video.

The basic idea is to maintain real-time performance by selecting your drive system carefully. If you’re running DNxHD 220 files, and have four tracks, you’ll need 880 Mbps, and so on. When dealing with high-resolution files and when working in RGB 709 mode (later), you will be better off with a faster processor. I was able to run Media Composer on an intel i5 processor on an iMac, even though the requirements call for an Intel i7 as minimum – but it’s slow. Also, 12 GB seems like an optimum starting point for RAM. read more...