Best Mpeg2/DV Card

[haqau]

Hi everyone!!

My brother wants to go into the video editing business (using computer) for Weddings and parties.

Being in a IT for over 10 years I can build him a PC but I am struggling with the VIDEO cards... Can someone please help me to find out about the BEST card for this purpose?

What he wants is to input raw data via his digital camera (or even analogue - if possible but important) and do some HOLLYWOOD effects, edit/merge scene, put external voice/sound and output back as DV and Analogue format. What are my options here?

Thanks in advance

[haqau]

[tom28]

I believe the Pinnacle studio DV500 Plus is an economical solution:

-You just bought a brand new Digital camcorder, but how are you going to get all of your great digital footage into your computer?!
With the DV500 Plus, that's how!!
-The DV500 Plus is a PCI card with IEEE-1394 (Firewire) port that features Real-time DV Video capture & Editing
-With the included external breakout box you can connect both Analog & digital equipment easily
-Other features include: real-time multi-track Audio mixing
-Real-time image correction
-Real-time 16:9 widescreen video effects
-Real-time effects, transitions, & real-time video previews
-Web Streaming media creation with Real Media, Windows Media, & QuickTime formats
-Includes: Adobe Premiere 6.0

Cost $499-$599

Other options are the Studio Deluxe without Adobe Premiere 6.0 for $299, and of course the Matrox RT2500:

The Matrox RT2500 takes Video capture and Editing to the next level. With the PCI card you can capture your video via Analog or Digital sources and edit it in realtime on your PC. The RT2500 lets you work with two video streams and a graphics layer and any of these three layers can be edited in without the need for rendering.
-Native DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, & MPEG-2 editing
-Y/C Composite, IEEE-1394 Firewire, S-Video Input/Output
-Accelerated MPEG-2 output for DVD & CD authoring
-Accelerated MPEG-1 output for multimedia and Video CD authoring
-RealVideo, Windows Media, & QuickTime output for Web video streaming
Includes: breakout cable & device for analog Audio & video connections, IEEE-1394 Firewire cable, Adobe Premiere, Inscriber TitleExpress, Sonic Foundry ACID Music, Sonic Solutions DVDit! LE, Adobe Photoshop LE, Pixelan Video SpiceRack Lite, Matrox DVD Player, Matrox MediaTools, Terran Media Cleaner 5 EZ, & Ligos LSX MPEG LE

if he is a professional, those are good options.

[Allan55]

Hi,

All? digital cameras should? output a digital signal. This is usually Firewire/IEEE1394 although I've heard of a few using USB.

Just get the matching interface into your computer. Win98-2 and later directly supports firewire cards... just plug-in and go (maybe you'll get asked for the Win CD)

Digital Video (DV) capture software is readily available; often bundled with firewire cards (see previous post)... but you get what you pay for. I use ULead Video Studio 5 (full) for long captures but it isn't stable; sometimes it works for hours, sometimes it hangs in minutes ( I'm trying to decide if v6 is worth it). I use MainActor which was bundled with my Dazzle Hollywood Bridge (looks like a camera on firewire) for short captures... at least until I switch everything from Win92-2 to XP.

I use no-name firewire cards. I just ensured they have the Texas Instruments chips. These seem to be the most compatible with the most stuff (e.g. it is the only one my Dazzle likes).

Editing software is another matter, most of the cheaper stuff, epecially ULead Video Studio, is wierd and cumbersome to use; but I do use it for basic cutting. High-end stuff like Premiere has a really steep learning curve. I'm wondering about Pinnacle System's Studio 7 right now. Their software for their DC10+ capture card was OK.