Disk based video files quickly consume hundreds of megabytes, so compression technologies quickly became a leading factor in allowing video editors to squeeze their video selections to smaller sizes. Many solutions were based on fast machines, stuffed with RAM and storage, filled with add in boards offering their own specialised circuitry, video outlets and compression chips. There are lots of ways that digital video gets used. There are cinema quality effects that are transferred back to film, different levels of broadcast quality, in-house productions that are seen only by company and the increasing presence of little tiny clips streamed across the Internet that appear jerky and sputtering on our screens. Resolution is intimately tied to the quality, size and manageablilty of files.
Speed governs the throughput from disk to screen and from disk to the central processor.
Cost, of course, is the money you'll be putting out for the system. Yank any corner and the others will move. Over the next few weeks BitDepth will be chatting with people who have dealt with video in different ways and at varying levels, each with the goal of optimising that eternal triangle to suit their business and creating the best video possible.