What do I need to edit video?

[jam20002]

Silly question, but what do I need to edit video?
(OK... I've got the camcorder and a firewaire port.)

But in terms of hardware what is recommended?
(I've got plenty of hard disk space.)

1. How important is a fast hard drive?
2. How important is a good graphics card? What is recommended if this is important?
3. What software is recommended?
4. What else is important?

Thanks.

Jam

[Gees]

You need to read the Guides. Start with these: https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?howtoselect=1;54

Good glossary on this site too. Ask away when something makes no sense.

They are not silly questions. :c) But getting spoon-fed all the answers will not help you learn in a way that's really useful.

Fast harddrive is important.

[The village idiot]

I normally use a good sharp razor blade and splicing tape.

[housepig]

follow Gees advice - read the guides.

you can edit video on a surprisingly modest setup (I used to do it on an AMD K6/300 with 64Mb RAM), but the faster your system is, the better performance you will see.

7,200 rpm hard drives are a must if you are capturing video. Faster processors and more ram will help in the editing and rendering stages.

for software, it depends on how much hand-holding you want, what your needs are, what your budget is, etc. You may be able to do all the editing you need with Virtualdub, which is an indispensible tool in any case.

more information on your goals is needed for more precise answers.

[jam20002]

Em...
I've spent 10 minutres reading thourhg loads of the links.
But... there doesn't seem to be a guide that gives me the information I want.

Fancy giving me a link?

[housepig]

Em...
I've spent 10 minutres reading thourhg loads of the links.
But... there doesn't seem to be a guide that gives me the information I want.

okay, what are you trying to do?

I'm going to make a different recommendation to someone making movies or music videos than I am to someone capturing tv shows and editing out commercials.

As far as video card, most any modern vid card will be fine - desktop video is not demanding like gaming, most anything with 16mb of ram will be fine.

what software... refer to my first paragraph. I still don't know if you need a Non Linear Editor (NLE) [ie Premiere, Vegas, etc] or if a simple cut editor will do (ie Virtualdub).

what else is important - patience. preplanning. understanding your tools and your aims. knowing when to scrap what you are doing and start over.