I need some advice

[kingsway]

I am thinking about buying a video capture card for my computer in order to edit some short super 8 films. My computer is not so hot and I am wondering if there is even a capture card that will be compatible with it.
PC- authentic AMD
running windows 98
128 mb of ram
32 bit memory
22 gb of free hard disk space

I don't know that much about computers so if there is some more information that I should have included above, please tell me.
I wouldn't need to edit anything over fifteen minutes long, and most of them would only be around 6 or 7 minutes.
I would be transferring the super 8 to mini DV and then putting that in the computer. Any advice on simple editing programs would also be appreciated. I dont need to do anything that fancy, just cut, blend, and add sound.
Also, I don't understand what you mean when you talk about if a card will capture stop motion or not, could someone explain this to me? I know what stop-motion animation is but I get the feeling you guys are talking about something else.
To anyone who replies, thank you!

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[hightreason]

The one thing you did not include is CPU speed. Whether or not you can capture and edit footage may be dependant on that. Otherwise, your computer seems fine. I, personally, would like a little more memory than 128 Mb to edit movies although that's probably not required. If you can though, bump it up to at least 256. I have 1 Gb of memory in my editing station. You really can't have too much.
If you are only going to transfer from Mini DV, check into getting a firewire card. Since Mini-DV is digital, a firewire transfer would be completely lossless. You would lose no picture quality. This only works if your Mini DV camera or deck has a firewire plug. These days, most do.
As far as editing programs, if you buy a firewire card, lots of them come with a video editing program like Ulead Studio or VideoWave for free. These programs, while they aren't great, are usually easy to use and provide all the tools for basic cutting and transition effects.
Hope this helps.

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[seekaee]

I noticed that the new Nvidia G-Force 4 MMX cards have video capturing capabilities. It might be a good buy as not only do they have 64 megs of RAM, but woulc probably help with the rendering process( the cards are made in mind for advance 3D programs like Autocad and Quake Arena). Alos, they're pretty cheap too( $115 bucks).

Windows 98 is fine, but I think Win 2000 is better.XP still has a few bugs left that should be worked out by the forth quarter.

Take a look at pricewatch.com.They allways list a lot of good deals.



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[kingsway]

thanks for the info, guys. My processor is one gig. Any other suggestions on good cards? It looks like I will be using Premiere to edit (got it from a friend). I will be buying a capture card in the next two to three days, so any last minute advice from anyone would be great. Someone said I should get a Pinnacle card.

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