Very OT Video Editing

[davidd]

Hello

As a new dad I've bought a nice JVC DV cam to take lots of baby video and also maybe the odd bit of the car I'd like to be able to shove it onto a pc and edit it so I can make cheesy VCDs etc.
I can get the software but was wondering about hardware, my initial thought was to buy a firewaire card and just use that, however I've been told that if I buy a video capture card I'll be able to use that to control the camera and offload the processing from my CPU to the card making things happen a bit faster.

Anyone got any comments? Suggestions as to what to buy? Obviously I'd like to keep it as cheap as possible.

Cheers

D.

[lotusfan]

the old standard video capture system, such as miro and hauppage etc, can't control the camera, thats what firewire does.

[Nacnud]

Windows XP on my laptop needed no additional software to drive and capture clips from the Firewire.

It's coped with two different brands of camcorder and even managed to make sense of an old analogue tape inserted into the digital camcorder !

The version of Windows Movie Maker that comes with XP must be the first usable version. It's only got very basic editing facilities but it does the job and the video compression supplied is amazing.

[scruff400]

One or two telly programmes are being made with just that sort of stuff - a PC, a Firewire card and something like Premiere..(though it is being 'graded' with pro gear for transmission..) No reason why it shouldn't be cheap and accessable to everyone!! IMHO.

Edited..


edited hahahaha!!!

>> Edited by scruff400 on Monday 30th September 10:51

[Basil Brush]

My old man uses a Pinnacle card and gets pretty good results. Not too pricey either.

[igg]

Use a Pinnacle card and Pinnacle Studio 7 software myself - worked first time!
Only thing to watch is the amount of Hard Disk space you've got; 'cos downloading video onto your computer to edit etc. simply eats hard disk space.
Regards
Igg

[roop]

I use Firewire with a DV cam and a geet big hard drive. Works for me. (as 80's cop 'Hunter' would have said)

[scruff400]

I use...

nope, not going there.

[Bodo]

quote:
I use...

nope, not going there.

avid?
Piaf?
Henry?

>> Edited by Bodo on Monday 30th September 18:22

[Bodo]

quote:
>> Edited by Bodo on Monday 30th September 18:22

see, I use my browser to edit

[scruff400]

Flame, Inferno, DS|HD, Quake, Symphony, DVNR, 2 terrabytes of storage...

All that rendering time means PH...

(In charge of Avids - 14 )

Then there's the Audio stuff...



It's better than working..

Sorry - i've just had a good day..

Edited...

...giggle: edited!!!

>> Edited by scruff400 on Monday 30th September 18:30

[Bodo]

if
{Flame, Inferno, DS|HD, Quake, Symphony, DVNR}-process uses >90% CPU
then open browser|
goto www.pistonheads.com/gassing

edited to debug

>> Edited by Bodo on Monday 30th September 18:39

edited to compile

>> Edited by Bodo on Monday 30th September 18:40

[davidf]

quote:
Anyone got any comments? Suggestions as to what to buy? Obviously I'd like to keep it as cheap as possible.

D.

This is really simple. Buy any of the current Mac range from Apple, even the cheapest (eMac £899 inc vat). They all are capable of top notch video editing, and come with the software you need to edit video, plus tons of other stuff. If yo ugo for the next model up, you can burn your own DVD-Video discs, with software so simple a kid could do it.
So don't drive yourself crazy with card intallation and dodgy software, just get the whole package in one go.

[scruff400]

Final cut pro. DV Express. Premiere. All good tools, only a pro would complain about AVR77 res and other anorak stuff, I think the best solution would be firewire card and one of the cheap programs that we've all mentioned on here, if your mates like it... You won't get walking with dinosaurs graphics or blue planet grading/colouring, but you pay me for that

[davidd]

I've ordered a pinnacle studio DV 8 card and s/w and I'll be using premier. I have a decent enough system and it is easy enough to shove in a better processor and more disk space if needed.

Thanks for all the advice.

D.