The end of capturing for me...

[SnoopX]

I recently visited a friend of mine who I hadn't visited in a while and saw he was now into video/image editing and production. I was chatting to him about my latest hardware the WinTV2000 XP Deluxe and how I had started a project to convert my DV tapes to DVD PAL format. I told him I was having trouble coz I thought my PC wasn't powerful enough to do it.

I then noticed he had a system which I remember by the name of Media100 which is around 55,000AUD. This thing had inputs galore and was so amazing. He was capturing from DV tapes straight onto his RAID HDD setup and they were untainted and uncompressed files at amazing speed and detail. He would then edit them and author them onto DVD and store the originals on DV tape. He had this piece of software which was solely designed to work with text on a video, such as credits and titles. He had something else I think which was called Ifinish or something like that, which had unbelievable editing functions.

After seeing this operation I think I will just use my new hardware to listen to the FM stations and maybe watch a few minutes of TV from time to time. I was simply blown away...

[mkelley]

The Media100 is nice -- we have a very comparable high-end NLE (cost around $20K+). But using firewire capture on a decent computer nowadays can easily match the capabilities.

I capture analog video nowadays using the Dazzle Hollywood Bridge, which works terrific and is easily the match of our high end NLE. We edit in Premiere (which has a dedicated titler as well, just like our NLE) and other than a *slightly* slower workflow (it's a little sluggish scrolling the timeline compared to our suite) I much prefer it.

So don't feel bad -- you can do what you want for a lot less than the Media100 (indeed, nowadays I can't imagine setting up a studio going that route).

[housepig]

Snoopx -

you're right, you better quit now, because you'll NEVER, EVER get good results on anything less than that system.

we should probably just replace all the guides on this site with a note that says "don't bother trying unless you have $50,000 worth of hardware"....



- housepig

[SnoopX]

Thanks for an informative/interesting reply mkelley, pity I can't say the same thing about housepig, which sounds like a very fitting nick by the way...

mkelley:

I suppose I was in awe (is that how you spell it?), when I saw the setup. I guess for most people converting/capturing/encoding is a hobby like anything else. For me however, it was just trying to get something done. And when I saw the power of his system, I couldn't justify spending the endless hours on my sh!tty PC specs.

[mkelley]

Snoopx,

Part of what you might be interpreting as the power of his system may just be his familiarity with it. We've all been with someone experienced in anything, be it tennis, a video game, someone painting with oils, and seen how wonderful they are at making even the most difficult thing for us seem easy. Tools are just that -- they do not grant the user any special gifts or abilities, and while there is no doubt having the right tool is important, what's probably even more important is the skill of the tool user.

I can promise you that if you take a much cheaper set of tools (such as Vegas Video, or Premiere, coupled with a firewire capture system) and get proficient with them you will impress people just as much as your friend impressed you. Learning your tools is the critical part of the process, and the slickest production suite in the world won't do you any good if you don't know how to use it.

So hang in there and you'll find you can do just as much as your friend -- in the end it's only the bottom line that matters, and I also can assure you that no one will be able to tell the difference between a DVD produced by Media100 and one produced by a less expensive setup as long as they are both done correctly.

[housepig]

Snoopx -

sorry, I should have put <sarcasm> tags around my post....

it just frustrates me when people get into the mindset of "I don't have X, so I can't do anything if I don't have X".

and I've been dealing with that attitude on a lot of different fronts lately, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you.

- housepig

[SnoopX]

housepig
Thanx for clearing that up. I also apologise for having a go at your nick

mkelley
You've got a fair point there. I've decided to upgrade my PC to something much higher which is not only going to help for captures, but also for things such as games. I will look into firewire ports and hardware to get an idea of the price range. I already have Premiere so I'll look at purchasing Vegas Video as I have heard that it is a good piece of software.

Thanks for the advice/help...

[2fives]

I just upgraded from a P3 750 to a Athalon xp2000 and am happy as a pig in **** that I can finaly do some video editing. Some of the editing processes were painfully slow on the P3, not to mention it had a lockup problem.