Turnkey Video Editing Systems (page 3)

Market: home enthusiasts, small businesses.
Video editing appliances are standalone editing machines that do one thing: edit video One example is the Casablanca Avio DVD from MacroSystem US, which retails for about $1,500. This is an excellent choice for the computer-phobic. The Avio connects to an ordinary television and is ready to edit video right out of the box. In DVD quality mode, it can store more than two and a half hours of video. It accepts S-video, RCA and FireWire capture from your DV camcorder. It will output to your camcorder, TV or even to DVD and has the ability to connect two monitors for simultaneous use.

Screenplay by Applied Magic comes in at just over $3,000 and provides a host of exciting features. A lot of what Screenplay does happens in real time, such as brightness, colors and slow motion. For most video tasks, you won't have to wait for rendering. The software supports a dozen different storyboards, more than a hundred custom transitions and outputs digital video via the FireWire jack. It also includes a CD-ROM drive (for music) and an 80 GB hard drive for storage. Setup time from opening the box to editing videos is about ten minutes.

Eager not to be discovered stealing the bride's thunder, I tried to sum things up quickly. "There are lots of turnkey video editing solutions for all sorts of people. The great thing about them is that they come out of the box ready to go and there's limited setup involved. There are laptops and desktops and dedicated appliances: what you choose will be based on how much money you want to spend and what type of editing you want to do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take this opportunity to run to the buffet while you're all clustered around my table."

Kyle Cassidy is a video artist and freelance writer who lives in Philadelphia with his cats Milla and Tatiana.

A VEA or Video Editing Appliance is a piece of hardware specifically dedicated to editing video. Unlike a highly-customizable computer, VEA's have fewer options that require configuration and are perfect for someone who doesn't have a computer, doesn't want a computer or doesn't want to configure a computer to perform video editing tasks. Looking something like a VCR, they are component devices that connect to your video camera, a screen or television and a supplied mouse and keyboard. Unlike a computer, a VEA's usage is limited: it's configured to do video editing and video editing alone. This also means that you're not going to be playing Return To Castle Wolfenstein 3D on it during your down time.

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