PC editing question

[shakes]

Alright, i'm sorta new to this.. so bear with me.

I'm wondering... when it comes to pc editing and getting a capture card to do so... do i have to worry about audio? I mean.. when you capture footage from your video camera.. will it capture the audio as well.. or do i have to get a higher quality card for that...

the reason i'm asking is that i'm shooting synchronized sound... and i wanna be sure i get the right software and hardware for it..

if someone could answer my question and maybe quickly outline what i need as far as PC editing goes (How much harddrive space and such) I'd greatly appreciate it..

Ayz

[miker]

Most low-end capture cards require that you also have a soundcard already to capture the sound. Any PCI soundcard would do, but you gets what you pay for...

As for hard-drive space, it all depends. The latest 40GB IDE drives are good enough to keep most people happy. Get 10GB minimum I'd say. You can also compromise between quality and hard-drive space...

[shakes]

Well i'm actually gonna go PC shopping soon.. so i just wanted to know what i should get with it...

so are there Video/Audio cards combined..?


Thanks a lot anyways though!

Ayz

[miker]

I think the Pinnacle DC30 range also captures the audio.

To be honest though you will almost certainly want a separate soundcard too, since the 'sound' on the capture card will probably only playback sound from captured files, ie codec specific. It'll be no good for wave editing or games...

Check out the G400 (G200?) and a cheap Sounblaster16.

I used the original Mystique/Rainbow Runner combo with an ISA AWE64 for two years with no complaints. Now I have DC1000 and SBLive :-)

[marti-c]

The Dc 30 card does capture the audio along with the video. You do not need a seperate soundcard. The audio output comes out a 4 plug phono output socket on the card to your desired display or recording device ie tv monitor setup beside your computer. Indeed having a soundcard messes up the dc30 as you have to goto control panel/ multimedia and disable it every time you want to capture or output. Obviously you will be using your computer for other things apart from editing ,so a soundcard is still useful to have on your list. ( and if you want to play back any saved avi files from premiere then youll need one to hear through the computer ( once youve switched back the settings to your soundcard) As for hard disk space, yip your gonna need a big un. you can capture about 15minutes on a 1 gig size. The big problem is that you have to be selective in the clips you digitize . Capturing every one of your rushes soon fills up the drive. You also have to leave quite a bit of space for the temp file that the card originally captures to before u save it as a file. Also if you want to save the final edit as a avi file your talking big ( about 1 minute =250mb)these figure are obviously full tv quality ( equivalent to beta sp or hi-8 signal through your yc (luminence chroma ) cable (aka s-vhs) if you drop the quality for lets say a small web type quicktime movie then obviously the file size would be smaller.

[marti-c]

The Dc 30 card does capture the audio along with the video. You do not need a seperate soundcard. The audio output comes out a 4 plug phono output socket on the card to your desired display or recording device ie tv monitor setup beside your computer. Indeed having a soundcard messes up the dc30 as you have to goto control panel/ multimedia and disable it every time you want to capture or output. Obviously you will be using your computer for other things apart from editing ,so a soundcard is still useful to have on your list. ( and if you want to play back any saved avi files from premiere then youll need one to hear through the computer ( once youve switched back the settings to your soundcard) As for hard disk space, yip your gonna need a big un. you can capture about 15minutes on a 1 gig size. The big problem is that you have to be selective in the clips you digitize . Capturing every one of your rushes soon fills up the drive. You also have to leave quite a bit of space for the temp file that the card originally captures to before u save it as a file. Also if you want to save the final edit as a avi file your talking big ( about 1 minute =250mb)these figure are obviously full tv quality ( equivalent to beta sp or hi-8 signal through your yc (luminence chroma ) cable (aka s-vhs) if you drop the quality for lets say a small web type quicktime movie then obviously the file size would be smaller.

[shakes]

Alright, thansk a lot everyone...

I really appreciate the help.


I was talking to the guy i'm gettin' my pc from.. and he was offering me a PCI-all-in-one-wonder-card.. or something like that.. video in and out and all that stuff... but he wasn't sure if it was what i needed..

does anyone know?

I can't afford to spend to much... is this card gonna give me good quality?

I wanna edit a feature i did on it for submission to a few film festivals...

Any help appreciated as always..


Ayz

[darthshawn]

The dc30 is probably a very good card, but not cheap. You can get the Pinnacle DC10+ card for a lot less, and it captures video quite well. They say it is not supported by Adobe premier, but it works quite well with it. For this set up you have to use the line in on your soundcard to capture the audio.

[marti-c]

Ok so if the dc30 is out of your reach i would start looking at the matrox range. The tv edit dual output card has had rave reviews . I think the model is the G400. I would steer away from the all in wonder as although this card is an all rounder , i have heard its not particularly good at anything. ( i think the matrox comes in at 200ukp)

hope this helps

see ya
marti

[This message has been edited by marti-c (edited November 12, 2000).]