Spend $2K or just add burner to my PC - never burned a DVD

[09norcim]

Hi all!

(Want to get into DVD burning)

Current Desktop: 1.1 G AMD, PC Chips 810LMR motherboard, Windows 98 SE, 256 PC133 SDRAM, 20 Gig HD (16 GIG empty), CDRW with Nero 5, 400 Watts Power Supply.

Desired Use – DVD burning, and converting Hi8 camcorder movies to DVD

Dilemma – Can this system handle dvd burning after increasing memory to at-least 512 MB RAM, adding DVD burner, another large HD and a video card (hooking up Hi8 analog to desktop)


If it can handle – then do I need to upgrade to WIN XP PRO?

And if you be so kind

New HD…..Is higher buffer required? How much at minimum?

New Burner – Any Brand/Model suggestions. Higher buffer absolute

Is Nero good for DVD burning – I can upgrade Nero 5 (OEM version no DVD option) to Nero 6 at $49.99

[Cricket90]

09norcim

my first piece of advice actually my second is check out this link

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/181153.php

it has alot of great info in it for a new video person

also make sure your mobo is capable of the upgrades u wish to do

i was looking on google and found your mobo to be mostly upgradeable

cept maybe the audio card being on board u might find probs with it.

and I also recommend upgrading to Xp pro in my opinion it is far better more stable to what u would like to do.

hope thsi is a help Im new too dvd burning so im still learning too

Cricket

[pixel]

Yes, your PC should definitely cope OK.

You don't really need to upgrade to 512MB of RAM unless you will be running multiple programs at once, or running high bandwidth programs (like graphics editors).

I didn't check what the OS you have just now is, but you do not really have to upgrade to it unless you see a lot of benefit from it compared to the price. Also note that it will make older pcs run slightly slow because of its GUI, but you can change it to windows 98 style if it slows down a lot.

the only upgrade i may suggest is a secondary hard drive (7,200rpm). Buffer size doesn't matter from my experience (2MB buffer worked fine with me). If you plan on using a capture card you will need an extra drive to ensure the aud/vid stays in sync during capture. It is also faster to encode from one drive to the other, instead of encoding to the same drive.

[rallynavvie]

Yeah, all you need is a second hard drive and you should be OK with that system. Cache size on that drive isn't too important when you're working with video files since they're usually far larger than the cache. The cache helps for running apps quicker, so a bigger cache on your boot drive where your programs are would be more useful. Personally I'd also upgrade to WinXP since some of the newer apps won't run well with Win98, not to mention some device drivers. If you do go to WinXP than 512MB RAM isn't a bad idea since it can be a memory hog out of the box. You should be able to get 2x256MB sticks for that system (PC100?) for pretty cheap now. For a burner I'd never use anything other than a Pioneer or the occasional Sony. I have 3 Pioneers (soon to be 4) that have worked wonderfully for me. Don't use a VGA card for captures. Spend the money and get a Canopus ADVC-50 or 1394. Otherwise I've got a Dazzle DV Bridge that does the same thing that I'm trying to get rid of if you're interested (mods can delete that last part if they prefer).

Why $2000 for a new computer? Check out my post in this thread:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=187460
I put together a system for just under $800 where all you'd need is a monitor, case for it, peripherals (like keyboard/mouse), probably a 2nd HDD for video work, and software.

[bugster]

WinXP or Win2k should be used with NTFS file system to overcome the 4Gb filesize limit of Fat32, especialliy important for captures.