Colossal Computer Video Buyer's Guide

by Tom Patrick McAuliffe
March 2002

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In the pages ahead, we've laid out a wealth of editing tools for you, both software and hardware, in easy-to-compare grid form. With more than 350 products in 10 categories, you're sure to find something you'll like.

The continued merging of desktop computers and digital video has made it possible for anyone to edit a video masterpiece. And a wide variety of computers and applications exists for every pocketbook and user, whether hobbyist or pro.

While DV has matured and streaming video over the Internet has grown up, this past year was like the Debutante Ball for DVD. DVD burners crashed through the $1,000 price ceiling, and are now tumbling down the stairs into the $500 basement. With more hardware manufacturers and models entering the market monthly, the number of software tools needed to author DVDs has exploded from a few to a few dozen. Video veterans are not surprised by the computability issues and format wars, which are surfacing in these early days, but many of these problems should be solved in the next year.

The bottom line? There is a gaggle of products available in a myriad of categories, at a huge range of prices, for editors of every level of experience. And that's what the grids on the following pages are about. We surveyed the industry, sampled available products and summarized the data in these buyer's guide grids. We hope this points you in the right direction for further research in making your computer video decisions. We are confident, since there are so many good products available, that while your final decisions may be difficult, they will, in the end, likely be good ones.

Turnkey Editing Computers
Climb into the driver's seat, turn the key and away you go; that's the name of the game with turnkey systems. Turnkey video editing computers range from entry level machines with the most basic editing software, all the way up to complete, studio-ready professional systems. The price range is equally diverse, starting at just about $1,000 and approaching the price of a new car at the high end. The Turnkey System grid, therefore, covers a lot of ground.

Besides the price and basic specifications of the systems included in the grid, which represents only a sampling of the complete market, there are a couple of very interesting features to check out. As mentioned in the introduction, we can safely predict that 2002 will be the year of the DVD, and this is reflected in the number of systems that already come with DVD burning hardware and software. Even if a particular system on the grid doesn't yet have DVD hardware, it is the rare vendor that does not offer it as an option. Another intriguing feature is the Digitizer/Capture Card column, which describes the keystone of any computer video system. Cross-reference the cards listed here with the Internal Capture Card grid for more information about this equipment.

Laptop Editors
Compact and lightweight, FireWire equipped laptops have made editing on the go a reality for those who really need it. While desktop workstations are generally better suited to the demands of everyday video editing, the faster processors and larger hard disks of today's editing laptops mean that you can actually get serious work done in the field without trudging back to the studio. One feature to consider is the inclusion of composite or S-video-out ports. While most laptop editing systems use the IEEE 1394 standard to get DV data in and out, the additional video-out feature on some computers allows you to view the output from the computer on a television monitor. Perhaps this feature was initially developed with business travelers who needed to display presentations on a TV, but it also turns out to be an eminently useable extra for video folks.

Editing Software
What is a computer without software, besides a very expensive doorstop? Although it is beyond the wisdom of modern video editing software to answer rhetorical questions, these applications do everything from capture to print-to-tape. At the most basic level, editing software programs are easy to use and robust. Beyond trimming, titles and transitions, there isn't much else most hobbyists need. For $100 or less (many are included with hardware) these beginner applications are the closest things we know of to the proverbial free lunch.

Above $200, editing software becomes more complex and more difficult to learn. These more professional applications have features critical for more advanced work, but difficult to summarize in our grid. To really sort out these programs, more research is required. Most editing applications have demonstration versions available for download from manufacturers' Web sites, so make sure you try before you buy.

Internal Digitizer/Capture Cards
If your current computer is fast enough for video, you might consider a capture card as your first foray into the world of computer editing. A word of caution is in order, however. This is not for the faint of heart or the weak of knees (see the Word to the Wise - Capture Card Installation Warning sidebar). If you are comfortable installing new cards in your computer and are ready to deal with driver installation and updates, then by all means, go for it. At the simplest level (and happily, the cheapest), generic IEEE 1394 cards (branded FireWire or i.LINK) are easy to come by, easy to install and are (in most cases) "automagically" supported by your operating system. When you do your research, look for OHCI-compliant cards to insure compatibility with industry standards.

Most of the cards in our grid are more that just generic $30 cards. In some cases, the basic card is enhanced with the inclusion of a quality piece of software designed to work with the hardware. More advanced capture cards include video inputs for composite, S-video and even component signals. Another feature to look for is real-time effects. In most cases, it takes time for your computer to draw or render modifications made to video. Some of the more expensive capture cards have special hardware processors dedicated to rendering effects and transitions in real time, which can save you a little. Whether you need real-time effects or not, our grid should help you sort things out. This is an especially important grid when used in conjunction with the Turnkey Systems grid, since many of those machines use capture cards that can be found in this grid. If you don't want to install it, find the card you want here and then go to the Turnkey grid to find the machine of your dreams.

CD and DVD Authoring Software
DVD-writing hardware is on the shelf at your local retailer today. While it may come with the software you need to burn DVDs, you may want to create the slick menus and features that you've seen on the discs at the video store. The process of creating those menus not to mention the titles, subtitles, multiple angles, multiple languages and so on - falls into the realm of DVD-authoring applications. Further, video and audio media needs to be encoded and prepared in a very specific format to meet the DVD standard. These are some of the features that you will find on our grid. It may sound complicated, as most new technologies do, but the software we've seen so far has been much easier to use than most video editing applications. We have confidence that you'll be a DVD veteran in short order.

Titling Software
Most video editing applications come with some sort of tool to place text and titles in your video. In many cases, these utilities are quite good and do everything you need, but if you find yourself wanting to do fancier effects or you just need more flexibility, there are specialized software titlers to meet your needs. Today's titlers offer font scaling, a variety of colors and special effects, such as gradient spreads, drop shadows, 3D text and vector drawing tools. The more advanced solutions also provide animation features, which allow you to fly text around on the screen or allow multiple layers of graphics with varying levels of transparency or true 3D rendering.

Music Creation Software
The ability to create your own legal music for your videos is within the grasp of musicians and non-musicians alike. At one end of the spectrum are products that automatically create a complete music bed, based only on a duration of time and a choice of musical style or genre. Somewhere in the middle are a host of products that allow those with a good ear, but not much musical ability, to create songs using professionally recorded loops and samples. At the other end of the spectrum, we find tools to help competent composers score a piece of music with MIDI and other tools. While our grid covers a huge range of products, there is sure to be a tool that matches your needs and musical abilities at a price you can afford.

Special Effects Software
A plug-in is a third party software add-on that provides significant features that a host program doesn't have. Plug-ins offer you a different, and hopefully better, way to accomplish a chore. Most of the major editing software packages, both video and audio, support plug-in technologies (especially the DirectX plug-in structure on the PC). Plug-ins are popular for special effects and for compositing. This is a very broad and sometimes specialized category of products, which contain tools that might be targeted at color correction and tools that can create the muzzle flash special effect on a gun, for example. By combining various graphics with their own treatments, you can achieve stunning visual effects.

External Digitizer/Capture Cards
External capture devices are the less-intimidating brother of internal capture cards and typically do not involve screwdrivers or bloody knuckles to install. Many plug in to USB ports on newer computers or even into an IEEE 1394 port. While there is a range of products here, most are simple Web camera and television capture devices that grab smaller (320x240) images for basic editing and less-than-full-screen output to disc or the Web.

3D Animation Software
3D animation software has always been popular with a certain segment of the video editing population. The most basic tools create logos, text and title sequences. If you are not familiar with this expanding area of computer technology, many of the columns on our grid will appear quite technical in nature. Whether you need to subtly enhance your real-world video or create your own virtual universe, the sampling on our grid will point you in the right direction for further research.

Take Your Pick
With so many computer video solutions to choose from, it's easy to see that it really is the best of times for video creators. We hope that our Computer Video Buyer's Guide will help you find all the tools that you need to enhance your video productions.

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