How did YOU start video editing?

[mrtristan]

We've all obviously found this place, because of a common interest in some form of video editing.

How, or why did you start?

When I built my first computer, I put and ATI AIW card in, with plans of backing up tv shows. I fiddled around for a bit with it, but my first significant project was capturing, encoding, and burning our wedding video. I wanted it to come out as good as possible, but DVD burners were hideously expensive at the time. So, I messed with Tmpgenc's settings, until I found something that fit on a cd and was of decent quality.

I recently bought a DVD burner, to replace my Plextor cd burner, which died on me. My current interest is in backing up my DVDs. My son will be old enough to ruin them soon.

I still have my AIW card, but I'll probably get rid of it, soon. It's been buggy for years, since I half broke one of the resistors on it, while tinkering with my computer's guts. I'm not sure if I'm going to get another one, since I hardly ever capture off cable, anymore.

Anyway, what brought you here and what's your most recent video obsession... I mean interest.

[Rookie64]

I started doing film and video editing way back in college (mid '80s)
Then started doing my own video editing with my pro editing features on my video camera from 1990 on

Started doing my own captures for the computer in 1995

And got more into editing with Vegas Video


At first, it was all for the computer...then I drifted into VCD and eventually DVD-R a year ago.


None of that brought me to the site though - I had some questions about capturing settings for DVD and wanted to learn how to author a DVD

also had some trouble installing my latest capture card...since the computer's original video card was part of the motherboard and wasn't removable.

The first thing that brought me here was to check for DVD Player compatibility.

[Faustus]

Many moons ago I got a cheap referbished capture card from a company that was going out of business. It cost me about $120 and captured 15fps at a really low rez. It was a neat toy.

[Will Hay]

Analogue family video to DVD, period.

Will

[rallynavvie]

Started on Toast and analog editing/mastering with SVHS equipment in high school. Was the technical director for our high school news program every time I took the class. Some of that school's funniest segments came from when I was with them, though my part was only one of a several that made for some great content those years.

Didn't really do any video stuff at college, my program was for something completely different and I never had time between working full-time, going to school full-time, and trying to get seat time in between.

When I finished I still had my old Dell 1.6 P4 (now my internet machine) and got a good deal on a Sony MiniDV camcorder and thus started my digital video era. It has driven me to purchase two wonderful workstations over the past few years as well as open up a small part-time biz to make some extra cash on the side.

[northcat_8]

I started just screwing around with Ulead Video Studio 6 (I think)...just playing around making slide shows, and goofing off. Then I bought a Happaugge WinTV Go card, started watching TV on my computer...turned some of that into mpg and avi...still just goofing around.
Then I started capturing VHS tapes using the card and made my own private little football highlight film. A few players saw it, wanted a copy so I ran 36 copies of an AVI file. And the following year I bought a Pinnacle AV/DV Deluxe (S-Video, RCA, Firewire capable) capture card, bought a Pioneer DVD burner and it's been all downhill since.

That has lead me to adobe...photoshop, premiere, after effects...which took a little while to learn each one.

Then I started thinking, "if I can make a DVD, then I can copy a DVD" and that led me here and the rest is history.

Had I known how much time I would spend on this hobby and how much money I would have spent on it.....

EDIT:
I too have started a small business out of it and have even extended it to doing some logo work.

[Ripper2860]

I started quite a few years ago by taking "personal" videos of me and my wife and trying to superimpose a "black bar" over the face. Could never quite get it right so we just started wearing black electrical tape over our eyes while making the videos.

That experience introduced me to video editing, etc., and I've been addicted ever since!

[thecoalman]

The original plan as most was for home video. Had trouble with my card (which I never resolved) so I ended up here. Still not happy with the captures I'm getting so the home movies are sitting on the shelf yet. That'll change shortly as I'm purchasing some good equipment soon, probably a ADVC-100 and a TBC(sigh). Maybe a DVStorm.

On the other end the DV footage has moved along quite nicely, I even have two commercial vids I did. Hehe the competition for my coal business hates me wait until the digital guys meet me. I present the $1k a year 5 page hosting package from a local provider, the others are the same. http://www.emcs.net/silver-hosting-plan.htm

[Will Hay]

...it has driven me to open up a small part-time business to make some extra cash on the side.

Ditto.
W.

[Capmaster]

I started quite a few years ago by taking "personal" videos of me and my wife and trying to superimpose a "black bar" over the face. Could never quite get it right so we just started wearing black electrical tape over our eyes while making the videos.

That experience introduced me to video editing, etc., and I've been addicted ever since!

<tears have finally subsided enough to see the keyboard> LMMFAO
There goes the right nut. It's laying on the floor now next to the AC adapter Damn you Ripper! I didn't see that one coming

Ohhhh ......shit!!! ...... OK. I'm better now <stomach is still spasming>

Ohhhh ......

I got started in the hobby 2 years ago July. The previous 6 months I had been waiting for the price of blank DVD-Rs to come down to a level that's less than a commercial DVD movie. They were $38/each for 1X media when I started waiting

My wife and I had been accumulating VHS movies and home videos for quite some time. We had this huuuuuge collection that was not only space-consuming, but deteriorating every time she vacuumed in the room (which wasn't often enough :P ).

Finally in June of 2002 the price of Princo (I know ....) media dropped to $1.38 and I started ordering stuff. My first capture device was an ADS USB Instant DVD. I picked a USB device because my main PC at the time was a laptop ...a very expensive Compaq laptop and I wasn't about to ditch it. I also bought a Panasonic "Rambo" LF-D311 1X DVD-R/DVD-RAM burner and mounted it in an external firewire enclosure.

Buying the IDVD was a big mistake because it didn't capture audio - just video. The audio was grabbed through the PC soundcard "line in" input. What a piece of everloving shit that box was. The kicker was that the Cirrus CS92210 prototype design that the IDVD was based on has a primitive audio "traffic cop" built in which pseudo-syncs the audio using an analog gate. Sync would still be bad because of the PC sound card, but it probably would have helped. ADS, in all their wisdom, left this feature out to save a buck or two on the unit. I have spoken personally on the phone with ADS' president, Mike McCoy, and let him know what a nightmarish two months that was for me. Whores .....

It was a lip sync nightmare. The following 2 months I learned more about MPEG capture, software filtering, demuxing and remuxing, WAV file resampling, and many other things than anyone should need to learn ...all in an attempt to "correct" the audio/video sync. The problem was that the video and audio were captured by two different devices, with two different clocks. Sync was hit-or-miss ..usually miss. The IDVD capture app allowed you to add a delay to the audio, but the problem was that the delay was constantly getting longer and longer through the capture as it drifted more. Anything longer than 45 minutes was unwatchable. A 2 hour movie would have a 1/2 second sync delay by the end of the movie.

I found a buyer for it on e-gay and even told him all about my problem. I'm not one to rip anyone off so I was brutally honest. He still wanted it, and paid me $80 for it.

I bought a Snazzi III USB2 external box. This beauty had hardware lock and used the Philips SAA7114 front-end - the same one that made the Dazzle DVCII such a great card. But I still had occasional sync problems, so, after researching it I bought a Datavideo TBC-1000. Bye-bye sync issues

That's where I'm at today. I have a desktop PC but I still use the Snazzi for VHS capture. 2,400 or so DVDs and 2 years later I'm done with my archiving project and now I capture as needed.

[ps2daddy]

I bought a powermac G4 about 4 years and DVD burner about 2 and I had to figure out how to pay for that stuff!!!

So I started videotaping weddings and adding effect and putting them on DVD. (Along with picture slideshows for special occasions using iMovie and iDVD still trying to get Final cut pro and DVD studio pro down well though)

Actually working on my PS2 got me really excited about a DVD burner.
Which got me into P2P file sharing, learning HTML, DVD backup, Modchip soldering, modchip programing, PS2 repair, pc repair, mac repair, xbox modding, xbox chippping, and repair and a few other things

I guess you could say the PS2 was my gateway drug I am hooked on techno stuff now

[jimmalenko]

I started quite a few years ago by taking "personal" videos of me and my wife and trying to superimpose a "black bar" over the face. Could never quite get it right so we just started wearing black electrical tape over our eyes while making the videos.

That experience introduced me to video editing, etc., and I've been addicted ever since!

ROTFLMAO

I started with the inevitable download and re-encode of XXX.xvid.avi movies.

I also dabbled in fitting all 2860 of Ripper's home made porn onto the least number of CDs possible

[Will Hay]

I started quite a few years ago by taking "personal" videos of me and my wife and trying to superimpose a "black bar" over the face. Could never quite get it right so we just started wearing black electrical tape over our eyes while making the videos.

That experience introduced me to video editing, etc., and I've been addicted ever since!

Man, that is toooooooooooooo funny for an office environment.
Thank you for that.
If I get fired, I'm blaming you ripper
W.

[yoda313]

Hello,

I got my computer used from my brother in-law about three years ago. It had a dvd-rom (my first) and I got curious. I'd heard about divx and all that stuff but never had the equipment to try it. So I got online and started hunting. I eventually found this website and my life got easier.

Two years ago I bought my hauppauge wintv pvr250 to do vcd (no dvd burner yet) to make vcd's. Best investment for my computer I ever made.

Last fall I bought my dvd burner and never looked back. I've been addicted to this sight and digital video for awhile now.

Kevin

[CoasterCreator]

I think I was always into Video editing since a very young age ....I recal using an old beta and Sat. Capture/ Edit ( of course very sloppy ) on to VHS tapes and then show it to all my neighbors on their TV at night ...( I used an off air UHF device to send them the "broadcast" I think you had to be on channel 30,,,,off air anttena of course )
I guess that is what planted the seed

[Doramius]

I collect rare and hard to find movies and wanted to keep them preserved as best as possible. This was the best way to do it available to me.

[indolikaa]

I started quite a few years ago by taking "personal" videos of me and my wife and trying to superimpose a "black bar" over the face. Could never quite get it right so we just started wearing black electrical tape over our eyes while making the videos.

That experience introduced me to video editing, etc., and I've been addicted ever since!

I, too, fell into the vcdhelp.com trap while attempting to edit pornography. Being nowhere near as creative as Ripper, I found my anonymity by making sure the camera was never focused on me. This was not only done to ensure my identity could not be established, but to also comply with various local and state obscenity laws.

Oh, and to ensure my wife's identity remained anonymous, I made sure I was always caught on camera having sex with other women.

[Capmaster]

I started quite a few years ago by taking "personal" videos of me and my wife and trying to superimpose a "black bar" over the face. Could never quite get it right so we just started wearing black electrical tape over our eyes while making the videos.

That experience introduced me to video editing, etc., and I've been addicted ever since!

I, too, fell into the vcdhelp.com trap while attempting to edit pornography. Being nowhere near as creative as Ripper, I found my anonymity by making sure the camera was never focused on me. This was not only done to ensure my identity could not be established, but to also comply with various local and state obscenity laws.

Oh, and to ensure my wife's identity remained anonymous, I made sure I was always caught on camera having sex with other women.

Noble gesture. I think I'll use that too

[IAIHMB]

Long story short, I was trying to burn downloaded movies on a DVD+R to play on my standalone DVD player. I hate learning how to do something without learning exactly how it works, so I ended up learning alot more than I had originally planned.

[VideoTechMan]

Video editing....excellent topic. I remember starting out with a PC I first built...had 128MB of RAM and had the Pentium II Processor......ahh the old computer days. I remember buying the Pinnacle DC30 Plus bundled which came with Premeire 5.0 and the analog capture card.....and yes while I was able to capture some video it sucked, was sloppy and had no accuracy as far as frames went. I remember making my first transition, a clock-wise wipe, and when I showed it to my mom, i noticed that there was a slight pause before the transition took place . Then I got into reading more about video editing and how it was done, and realized I needed more equipment to make it all happen. I also think thats how I got into my love for Premeire, because of the interface and how it can edit video. Being 5.0 version of course it had no DV support at all at the time.

I didnt find this site until early last year, when I wanted to venture more into video and perhaps find a forum to join to get more info, and thats when this site came in.

Now look at me, have a high-end computer I built and a newer laptop, and have all the hard/software I need to build a really nice production. Thats about my history! I eventually plan to make this a career...to be a video editor or motion graphics producer, and give trucking the boot once and for all.

VTM

[racer-x]

About 5 years ago, I bought a Mini-DV Camera and couldn't stand having to plug it into a TV to view the video. I bought a 1394 card and the rest was history. I started making SVCD's, but quickly migrated to DVDR when it came out.

I learned so much the first few years, it's scary. It seems that the only difficult things these days, is coming up with creative ideas. The exacution is always much easier.

[thecoalman]

...had 128MB of RAM and had the Pentium II Processor......ahh the old computer days.

HA!!! I can beat that. I had a P233 with 40 mb... Still have it because it will run my finacial software if I need it. Won't be doing much video editing on that And what's wrong with trucking that's a fine career choice.

[VideoTechMan]

...had 128MB of RAM and had the Pentium II Processor......ahh the old computer days.

HA!!! I can beat that. I had a P233 with 40 mb... Still have it because it will run my finacial software if I need it. Won't be doing much video editing on that And what's wrong with trucking that's a fine career choice.

well....ive done trucking for awhile and its just not for me....in addition to the fact that I miss out on alot of the local stuff, and cant really meet people either in a social setting. Ive met alot fo drivers who love being out there, but not for me though lol. I have more technical skills that I want to put more into use and video is definitely on top of the list.

VTM

[pyscrow]

three score and 10 years ago I started out with super 8, a razor blade and tape. I am still at it.

[Hardcoreruss]

Avi NTSC porn to Pal VHS to flog to my mates.