Need help putting anolog video on a computer...

[RiotAJ]

...And yes, you guessed right, im a newbie to this stuff.

Anyway, i have a sharp Hi8 video cam and want to put it on the computer for video editing.
What gear(all) do i need???

How do i put it into the computer??

What format is it in on the video camera and what format do i need it to be in?

anything else that i need to know of?

[crystaldon]

Sure, there's lots you need to know. Talk about opening a can of worms! Here's some VERY simple basics:

1. Look at your video camera or player. What kind of video output does it have? The choices are usually:composite (round rca connector with a single hole in it) / svhs (mostly round connector with lots of holes in it) / or maybe something more advanced like usb or firewire, but not likely.

2. A wire needs to go from your camera to your pc. Assume you have a composite connection on your camera, then a similar connection is needed on the pc. This is where the capture card comes in. You need a video card in your computer that has the proper input. The video card is the one that the computers monitor plugs into. Years ago people bought separate cards. One for capture and one for the monitor to plug into. Now, lots of cards come with both. I'm currently considering buying an ATI All-in-Wonder Radion 32 Agp, which does most of what I want to do, isn't too expensive (around $120), and has mostly descent reviews.

3. Now you need to consider what you ultimately plan to do with all this. Create vcd's / create dvd's / put it back onto vhs (??) / publish on the web / take your pick. I plan to create vcd's from vhs tapes, then play the vcd's in my DVD player. In order to make vcd's the file format for the cd burn has to be in mpg (mpeg). In order for the format to be in mpg you either have to capture directly to mpg or do some sort of conversion. From what I can tell, the ati board that I mentioned can capture directly to mpg. Be forwarned, the conversion takes enormous time and resources, so it's better to go direct.

4. Now you need capture software. There's lots of different ones around. The video board usually comes with it, or you can get third party.

5. Now you need a cd burner and burning program that can create vcd's (assuming that's what you were doing). Most burners can burn both cdr's and cdrw's, but as it turns out, my dvd player will only play cdrw's (it's one of the few that has this limitation). The software that came with my cd burner is really lame (roxio-cdcreator), so I've recently replaced it with Nero, which works much better.

6. Now your ready. Capture / burn / play (if the stars are aligned). There's lots of potential gotcha's. This all assumes that your pc has the horsepower / the capture board behaves well / you have sufficient disk space / etc / etc / etc.

Good luck, hope your not turned off by this. It really is kind of cool once you get the whole system working. Heck, my kids were doing video productions for school projects when they were 12.