Newbie with questions............. « Videomaker Community Forums

jaybird67k
Member

OK, I've been thinking about taking the plunge into editing for about 1 year and reading about video editing for about 2 months now on the net trying to gather all the info I can before dropping alot of cash.

My goals are to be able to make short clips of my Motocross racing of me and my buddies and edit them and burn them to 650 MB CD's.
I would also like to take alot of my A/V HI 8mm tapes and convert them to D/V and Author these into DVD's since these are mostly family media.
I will also have some SVHS tapes to convert.
I currently have a A/V HI 8 Sony but soon to purchase the Digital 8 Sony with Firewire.

I know that my PC will need alot of upgrading(Mother Board w/ firewire, P4 CPU, 1 Gig ram, dual Graphics card, a couple of 120 GB HD's) but I'll buy all the necassary parts and install them. My current PC is as follows.

MB=Gigabyte 7VTXH+
CPU=AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2100+ 1.7Ghz
GC= NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 128MB
Ram= 512 MB DDR
SC= Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II
HD= Seagate 40 Gig

There is so much different NLE software and Hardware out there that it is a bit overwhelming for a new comer. I have a few questions.

#1 What makes real time editing or rendering, is it the software, hardware or a combination of both.
#2 What is the difference between a on board Capture card and a external converter like let's say the Canupos ADVC 110?
#3 What is the difference between Mpeg2, Mpeg4, ect....will I need an encoder.

The only editing I ever have done was some Dazzle stuff 5 years ago, It was old but had nice interface. I'm looking for any input I can get here.

Thanks, Jason

Posted 7 years ago #
Anonymous

#1 What makes real time editing or rendering, is it the software, hardware or a combination of both.

Both. Although hardware can do a good deal to speed things up, it can also complicate some things. From your goals, it doesn't sound like Realtime output would be a big concern. What you want is "Realtime Preview". That way you can make all the neccesary changes while editing and then do a final render at the end.

#2 What is the difference between a on board Capture card and a external converter like let's say the Canupos ADVC 110?

They both do pretty much the same thing, convert analog video into digital 1's and 0's that you cna manipulate on your computer. I like the Canopus external converter because you can take pretty much any analog source and connect it to your computer from the firewire port. And it will be 1 less card in your computer.

#3 What is the difference between Mpeg2, Mpeg4, ect....will I need an encoder.

Those are all compression codecs. DVD's are encoded as mpeg 2 files, some new HD-DVD material is coming out in Mpeg4. Most software these days will come with an encoder in their program so you can output to different formats (more include quicktime, windows media, real player etc.) If you want to make a DVD, there will be a step where the video gets encoded to mpeg2. As far as capturing, try to leave the footage in AVI for editing. The computer can handle that fairly easily.

Now all this info, you probally want some good links for editing software. Well, here ya go:

Sony Media Software - http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/vegasfamily.asp

These guys make my favorite editing program Vegas 5 (~$600) and their little brother, Vegas Movie Studio (~$99) is just as easy to learn and operate. These would be the programs I reccomend.

But there are other options out there:
Adobe Premiere Pro
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/main.html

And the little brother, Premiere Elements
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/main.html

Ulead makes Mediastudio Pro
http://www.ulead.com/msp/runme.htm

and Video studio
http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm

Now how do you choose which one is right for you? They all have demos. So download them and try thme out. Look for one that is logical to you and play around with them. See which one you like and then go from there. If you need any other help feel free to email me at kingkool68@gmail.com Good luck!

Posted 7 years ago #
jaybird67k
Member

Thanks alot for the input.

Jason

Posted 7 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Russell gave you some good, solid info but left out one title you should definitely consider for editing -

Studio 9+ by Pinnacle ($99). This software will let you do everything you need - including burning to DVD or video CD. It had tons of transitions and special effects.

Why video CD and not DVD? Checkout meritline.com. You can get printable DVD's for the price of CD's. If you also get an Epson R200 or R300, you can print directly on the DVD's and deliver a very professional-looking product.

Also, if you want a system strictly for video editing, stay away from VIA and NVIDIA chipsets and AMD cpu's. Build an all-Intel system with at least 512 RAM, preferably 1 gig. Have two harddrives, one for your system files, and programs (120gig or better) and one for video files (160 gig or better). Keep both drives (but especially the one for video files) defragged regularly.

Do not put any software on the system other than what you use for video work and - and, if you can help it - do not hook it up to the Internet or network it with computers that are. If you can manage that, then you will not need anti-virus software (if you're careful) and that will keep more system resources free for your video software.

On my own system, I didn't take that last step and am still doing OK.

Good luck!

Posted 7 years ago #
millman221
Member

I'd definitely go w DVD burning over VCD. Splurge and pay 60 bucks for a low end DVD burner (more, if you can for a higher line model).

The picture quality is MUCH better on DVDs, and I think you'll find more players can accomodate home burned DVD-Rs or +R better then VCDs.

Posted 7 years ago #
compusolver
Member

I'd like to clarify one little detail from that last post, about the quality of a video DVD being much better than Video CD -

CD's and DVD's are merely storage devices. They really don't care what type of files are saved on them or how much quality you put into those files.

A DVD will hold much more (about seven times) than a CD and therefore you can usually use your best quality video, whereas best quality might limit you to twenty or thirty minutes or so on a video CD, but unless I'm really uninformed about something - I know of no reason you can't put good quality video on a video CD other than the limitations of storage space and in fact, I often put good quality video on 50 meg business card sized CD's.

Posted 7 years ago #
Comitar
Member

I would also like to take alot of my A/V HI 8mm tapes and convert them to D/V and Author these into DVD's since these are mostly family media.

http://www.wellspent.org/Product?p=25546

It is the Belkin VideoBus USB2 Capture cable. I have an A/V camera, HI8, and I have to use this to captuer my video always because I can't put in any PCI ports on my PC and I can't buy a new camcorder. It drops frames like crazy, but I haven't noticed it in the output.

And of course, Vegas MovieStudio+DVD for editing. Nothing compares. Except maybe Premiere Elements, however I haven't checked them out. Maybe I'll download a trial tonight...

Posted 7 years ago #
flattrackvideo
Member

Jason,

As you can probably tell from my screen name, I also videotape motorcycle races. My Pro racing # was 67J (1965-1968).

If you haven't already found out, motorcycle racetracks are a hostile environment for camcorders.

If you don't already have one, you should get a filter (uv is fine) for your lens to protect against "roosted" debris. One filter has already sacrificed itself for my lens.

In addition, I use blue paint masking tape to seal around the videotape access door and anything else that might let dust in, but doesn't have to move. You can even cover most push buttons with the tape and they will still work. When you need to change video tape or at the end of the day, just rip off the masking tape. The blue masking tape leaves no residue unless you leave it on for a couple of weeks. Sometimes, however labels, especially those feature advertising stickers will come off with the blue tape.

Either of these tips can prevent big repair bills.

Happy taping and ride safe.

Don
v1291

Posted 7 years ago #
Korak
Member

It is the Belkin VideoBus USB2 Capture cable. I have an A/V camera, HI8, and I have to use this to captuer my video always because I can't put in any PCI ports on my PC and I can't buy a new camcorder. It drops frames like crazy, but I haven't noticed it in the output.

The Belkin USB VideoBus II was a great capture device Â– like 5-6 years ago; I should know as I had one. It is USB 1.x compliant Â– not USB 2.x Â– meaning you are limited to a max resolution of 352x288. It was also notorious for the dropped frames that you are experiencing. The biggest problem I encounted with the dropped frames was with A/V synchronization; at times the output would resemble a very poorly dubbed martial arts movie from the 60Â’s.

You would be better served by saving up more money and getting a Canopus (or other) converter box. It may cost more up front, but the amount of time and energy saved (from when you go back and redo hours and hours of tape) in the long run will more than make up for it, not to mention the overall improved A/V quality.

Posted 7 years ago #
compusolver
Member

When you buy your DV camera, be sure it has S-Video inputs. That will make it easy to get those analog hi-8 videos into your computer.

Until then, if you buy the Pinnacle Studio 9 product, be sure and get the one with the video capture PCI card. I've seen them for $99 - including software AND hardware.

The software alone is well worth $99 and that will keep you from tying up money for the capture card.

I recently acquired Vegas and Premiere Pro yet I still find myself using Studio 9 because it usually does everything I need and is easy to use.

Posted 7 years ago #