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What Makes the Best Computer for Digital Video Editing? (page 2)

Video Capture/Firewire Card

To edit video on a computer, you need some way to get the video from the camera or VCR onto the hard drive. This is the role of the video capture card (or, more commonly, the FireWire or IEEE 1394 card). A digitizer card can take an ordinary analog video signal and digitize it (change it to a series of ones and zeroes). A FireWire card allows transfer of digital video from a digital camcorder or VCR to the hard drive. Video capture cards vary widely in price and performance, but the only real concern with a FireWire card is whether or not it works and continues working - the resulting video will look exactly the same as it did when you shot it, regardless of the quality of the FireWire card. Some capture cards have special hardware that improves rendering speed and performance during editing.

Software

Editing software is the interface between your ideas and a finished product. Software used in video editing covers a wide range of different types and capabilities, including nonlinear editing, photo and graphics manipulation, audio editing and special effects creation, to name just a few. Once you've got the basic system together, the software provides the means to make your video dreams a reality. It's what you'll spend the most time learning to operate - and the most time blaming when things don't work properly - so don't skimp here; be sure to find the software that works best for your needs.

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