video capture cards

[daviddolores]

hello,

The news that you can use a DVCAm as an "editing deck" is encouraging, although my experience with these things is limited to visiting a production house and oohing and ahhing at their boards.

I bought a PC equipped with USB; maybe a DVCam would work with this as well as it does with Firewire (anyone?).

I see both sides. people like mattias go into this knowing that they want to make money and how to do it...but on the other hand it's a computer and they are built to be fairly adaptable to video, right? (even a PC? I had a PowerMac a few years ago that had video inputs)

I have no designs on making money editing video, especially since if someone asked me how I planned to edit their priceless work I would probably say something like, "Uh, I got some advice from this really great message board that I needed a DVCam and I'm going to figure out how to use Final Cut Pro for the project. It can't be that hard <sheepish grin>." I just want to do some *stuff* to my s8 films on my computer, you know? (words of a philistine)

dD

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[daviddolores]

p.s. thanks matt p. for the card info. i will seek out more on the "buzz" and check out the supplier called pinnacle.

and yes, just to emphasize, you are right: i am just lucky enough to have a computer in the first place. I'm not planning anything around a system, for better or worse.

i'm kind of like mattias, with less equipment and more ignorance.

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[Alex]

Gosh Matt, .your comments were a day late and a dollar short...and frankly, ruder than necesssary..

I think I covered the issue many posts back, here it is again since sometimes this forum is plagued by short attention span theatre......

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David:

My original post probably shocked you.

It's a wake up call more so for others than yourself.

Different People who I respect a lot were telling me a few years back to never buy a
computer based on harddrive capacity, gigs, or ram...

Instead focus on the EXACT application you primarily need your computer to do.

Once you commit to an operating platform / software that meets your needs, then find which computer best matches the operating platform / software you will be using.

The odds that you can reverse the procedure and have the same level of success are not as good....definitely not impossible, but not as good as doing it in reverse to the way you
are doing it.

Let me point out that you are not alone! Practically all computer purchases made by
consumers are done the way you did it.

Most people who buy computers first buy the computer, then try to figure out how to "load
it up" with what is needed to do the required task.

And the reason everyone buys this way is because of BUZZWORDS! Those cool phrases that
allow the computer salesperson to say...It's got 9 gigs with 256 ram and a cache of ......

Nothing relevant to any one application.

Here is an analogy. Would you buy a car SOLELY based on miles per gallon sight unseen or
not test driven?

Well, buying a computer should be like buying a car, just don't kick it.

-Alex



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[daviddolores]

sorry, i missed that post or i wouldn't have started a new one

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[eddie]

Ive been using the pinnacle DC30 for about a year and it is excellent. Make sure you get SVHS input and output.

The DC30 does have a few problems with Premier, but nothing unsurmountable.

If you have enough money then get a card with a firewire port. This allows you to import/export digital video frame by frame (good quality)

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[Mercutio]

I would have to agree with Alex, assuming he was being rhetorical and wasn't really suggesting that David throw out his computer. But I believe his point is valid, figure which application you need (in this case editing) based on your requirements (i.e. realtime editing, ability to composite, etc), THEN buy the hardware to support it.

But, back to the original question. I use a Media 100 le/dv, on a Mac G3 Beige, which allows me to input video via a variety of formats including DV via Firewire. I got it for $2,700 from a dealer via ebay.

From reading many related posts on other threads I notice a lot of people using Premiere. Many of my colleagues use this as a primary or supplementary editing software and are satisfied with it. Premiere 6.0 apparently supports DV, but I understand David still needs a capture card with DV capabilities. I know companies such as Pinnacle and Matrox make relatively inexpensive cards that are bundled with Premiere. Look in Videography or DV magazine for companies that sell them. B+H in New York is very respected.
Note Bene: answering these posts is getting to be pretty slippery when it comes to technical stuff, but the above is just my personal anecdotal response.

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[ulrichsd]

Alex is right, optimally you would want to build your computer around the software it is running, however, chances are David is going use this computer for things other than jsut video editing.

And I was sucked into a buzzword, "AVID." That's right. I consider myself very knowledgeable when it comes to computers and built my own computer so I could have *exactly* what I wanted. I did not, however, know a lot about capture cards or editing software, so when I saw Matrox's G400TV video/capture card (2 in one) with software made by Avid, I figured that it would have to be good. Well the software is very basic and only good for very basic home movie editing. I checked and Avid no longer has technical support for this software. At least the card is OK, comes with S-video and TV input/output, but is only a 16MB video card. No digital though. Overall, I guess $300 for a video card and an editing card istn't too bad. I now have premiere, but I haven't used it much, not yet.

Scott

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[Mercutio]

david;

I detect sarcasm. I mentioned that mine was Beige because it means it was an older model.
As an older model, it is really to slow for Final Cut Pro and it doesn't have a Firewire input (or more correctly IEEE 1394). It wasn't a statement on computer aesthetics. But its great you have an Avid Symphony, my Media 100 only plays chamber music.

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[daviddolores]

Not sarcasm, Humor, but thanks for clarifying the beige issue. I was also being facetious about my computer. No, it's not an avid symphony (i need more emoticons), it's a dell precision 420 dual processor and a fast 18MB drive with three bays for more drives (another thing i may have to buy before really getting going), 256 MB RAM. Sorry, i know, all buzzwords just like your description Mercutio. Except unlike you, I do not have the advantage of Firewire--just USB, although I believe they do very nearly the same thing, no?

--david

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[daviddolores]

Alex wrote:
>And the reason everyone buys this way is >because of BUZZWORDS! Those cool phrases >that allow the computer salesperson to >say...It's got 9 gigs with 256 ram and a >cache of ......

>Nothing relevant to any one application.

Actually, you're right. None of those buzzwords are relevant to any one application. The amount of RAM you have and the gigabyte size of your hard drive are relevant to ALL applications, and if you tried to edit video with 64 MB RAM we all know what would happen. And then, there's buying too much, which is why I only bought one of my processors now. I will buy the other one when I have learned the software and know what I can do with it (and have enough money ).

--david



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