[thelist] Advice on video editing

Chris Johnston fuzzylizard at gmail.com
Tue Dec 7 09:24:34 CST 2004


On Tue, 7 Dec 2004 09:15:20 -0500, Brooking, John
<john.brooking at sappi.com> wrote:
> 
>    Hope this isn't off-topic. (Video editing produces output that can be
> posted to websites, eh? ;-) ) My sister is interested in getting some
> video editing software for her husband for Christmas, and asked me for
> some advice because I "know about computers". Of course, I know nothing
> about video editing; I don't even own a camcorder. So I thought maybe
> some here might have some quick thoughts. The situation is that her
> husband owns a Sony Digital Handycam and a Dell 4600 Series, but he's
> not a video professional, so I'm assuming this will be mostly for home
> use.
> 
>    First, software. She's seen reviews for Pinnacle Studio 9, ULead
> VideoStudio 8, and Roxio Easy Media Creator 7. Anyone had experience
> with these, and can recommend them? Or any other recommendations?

I have heard some really great reviews of Pinnacle Studio 9. Also, if
he wants a little more professional software, Avid offers a free
version of their DV editing software (DV = digital video).

http://www.avid.com/freedv/welcome.asp

> 
>    Also, neither of us are certain about connection the camera to the
> PC. I did a little reading on "Firewire", which my sister saw referenced
> somewhere, and also on MemoryStick technology, which Sony mentions on
> its product description for the camera. Are either/both of these
> technologies involved in interfacing the camera and the PC? Probably the
> PC doesn't have an interface for either of them already, so I'm assuming
> that a card of some sort will have to be bought for whatever technology
> the camera requires?
> 

You will most definitely need a firewire (IEEE 1394) card on the
computer. You can either pick up a dedicated firewire card, or pick up
one of the new SoundBlaster Audigy sound cards. Most of these have a
firewire port on the sound card.

You will probably want to stay away from memory stick. This is
basically Sony's equivalent to flash media and should only be used for
still shots.

If your friend would like to get into video, keep in mind that video
takes a huge amount of disk space. One thing I would suggest would be
getting a second hard drive just for the video. In addition, the
faster the computer, the faster the hard drives and the more ram, the
better the video editing experience. There are some hard limits on the
low end that your friends computer will have to be above in order for
him to even attempt to do video editing.

Hope that helps.

-- 
chris johnston

www.fuzzylizard.com

"For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals and
something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination, we
learned to talk."
Pink Floyd


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