help with sizing etc...

[anna_maria]

Hi,

I am rather new to this thing.. I have worked a lot with computers before, but never with capture cards or things like that.

What I have is a bunch of old video tapes that I really really like. However the quality seems to get worse and worse every year, so I got this idea... why not see if there is a way to convert them to DVD?!? Then I found this site, so now it all seems to be going smothely...

I have to buy a new pc (have been wanting to do that anyway for ages) and have seen that quite some CUP and hard drive storage space is required... what wold you recommend? Also, anything else I should think of when I buy my new PC? Also, do you think it is possible to get the capture card and everything else into a laptop? That would be the best, but rather expensive I would guess...

Thanks!
Anna-Maria
Sweden

[El Torro]

well, there aren't any NECESARY requirements your comp has to have to work with VIDEO, i think with modern computers (1.8Ghz at least) you'll be able to convert smooothly all files you want.... I think that i'd be wise to buy enuf RAM memory, cuz that's quite important... and yes, it is possible to put Capture cards into Laptops!

good luck!

[freebee22]

my 2 cents on this is, if you are going to use a laptop to do your capturing, you might get a lot of drop frames... I have tried this on a toshiba with a built in firewire port to capture from a digital camcorder and it has a lot of drop outs.. the processor on that is PIII 1.2ghz.... so far from my reading I come to a the conclusion that you need a fast harddrive... because I have a PIII 500 and I was able to capture video with no drop outs after I change my hardrive to 7200 rpm ata 100 which is regular now....so my recomendation to you is..

1. get a fast hardrive like western digital 7200 rpm with 8meg buffer
2. get a fast enough cpu that your badget can allow coz when your rendering the video, that process takes a long time...
3. memory, I have a 256 ddr on my computer and it works fine, but like El Torro said get enough memory, it won't hurt to put alot than to put a little...remember if you are using XP its minimun is already 128 meg...

hope this help