4K video editing - what computer?

[Bobby]

I got a GoPro hero 7 black as a nice ‘long service award’ from work last week.... love it except my PC can’t manage to edit the videos . Seems that my CPU (4th gen i7) does not support the new HVEC codec, and my graphics card is woeful by more modern standards.

It’s been a while since I looked at computers, any recommendations for something quite beefy but without breaking the bank?

Cheers

[Wombat]

Shirley its just a "download the right codec" issue?  Must confess that precise format is not familiar to me.

My 4th Gen i7 has no problem editing 4K video, but not in that format.  Mine are packaged as MP4, at 100MB/sec, from my Sony A7Rii.  My GoPro is a bit older than that, being a 3+, so no help there...

[Bobby]

Sorry the codec is a red-herring really, it can play & has a crack at editing but it's dropping frames/really struggling... hardware that supports the codec natively should have a much better chance!

[Ham]

An i7 Haswell should have enough grunt to do 4K editing. How much memory? Gotta SSD? I'd go for both before consigning an i7 to the bin. What speed i7?

[ian]

Hmm, I can edit h.265 4k on a 3.2 GHz i5.

[Bobby]

Huh. 16GB, SSDdrive, i7-4790...

from some reading, this may be a goPro Quik problem specifically... what editors do you use?

Thanks for the replys, this could save me a ton of cash! 

[Bobby]

this... https://gopro.com/help/articles/block/hevc-minimum-system-requirements

[Ham]

Ah, so unless you really need that little bit extra compression, use WinX DVD Video Converter to convert HEVC/H.265 to H.264. VLC might do that job, too. HEVC is just extra compressed, by the sound of it, so it isn't the 4k video that's causing your issue but the decompression on playback.

[grams]

4790 is Haswell, which is three generations before Kaby Lake with HEVC hardware support.

(Like a few things these days, the code names are more meaningful than the “i7” marketing name)

[Ham]

An i7 Haswell should have enough grunt ....

In case that leads you to think "Gosh, here's someone that can identify the generation of processor from the number" I use an i5  4690 Haswell, and I've recently looked at the cost benefit of swapping to an i7 compatible with my motherboard which would help run my VMs (answer: not enough)

All that translates into it being likely that you will be in a similar position, to upgrade will be a motherboard/processor swap at minimum. If you need the additional compression of the H.265, or you just fancy an upgrade, then it might be worthwhile, otherwise just convert to H.264 and you will have plenty enough power to do the editing.

Finally what are you using to play your video? Part of your issue may be Windows. Try VLC, it may be as simple as that.

ETA doh! grams =/= bobby, regardless of the similarity of the avatar.

[ian]

iMac 2017 with Adobe Premiere Pro. I don't do anything fancy though.