Attn Video Editing Guru's - need a little help!

[LarryJoe]

I have been doing simple video editing for a bout 2 years with my TV Wonder and Virtual Dub under 98SE. I am to the point where I do some side work for easy cash. Mostly corporate. Under XP I had to "upgrade" (I use this term lighly) to MMC 7.1, which totally sucks in almost every way. I could go on about the TV Tuner, but for now lets talk capturing. It only captues mpeg's at xxx by 240 (240 is the max height). The 98SE MMC used to capture avi's at up to 640*480.

Regardless, I have a project due Friday and it is a simple one. My problem is that when I try to cut a peice out of a longer mpeg with Virtual Dub, the video and audio are out of synch. The whole thing is 30 seconds and it is very noticable.

Any tips here? The file I am working with is not an avi, but a vcd compliant in synch mpeg. I have tried everything within virtual dub. Any other programs I can try?

Lastly and not nearly as important right now, but what is the absolute best DV Capture card that will let me plug in an analog source as well (rca jacks)? Time to ditch this TV Wonder for capturing.

Thanks,

LJ

 

[LethalWolfe]

Capture cards w/firewire and analog i/o are pricey.
Matrox RT2500 ~$900.00
Canopus DVStorm SE Plus ~$1000.00
Sony has an analog to DV converter box, and it's $350-$400. But the the extra step of convering analog to DV (input) and DV to analog (output) can degrade the video quality.


Lethal

 

[pulse8]

Don't listen to Lethal, he doesn't know what he's talking about.



J/K


Anyway, I've used Sony's converter box many times and the quality is very good from what I've seen. The beauty of the other products he mentioned is that they will also do real-time effects. The Matrox RT2500 will do some 3-D effects real-time as well. I'm not sure about the Canopus, though.

 

[yazz]

you may want to take a look at VCDgear..
that may be able to do what you are asking.

but for video stuff....
i agree with LethalWolfe
take a look at the Matrox RT2500. it is a consumer level capture and render card for video. it has s-video, rca, and firewire inputs. it can do 3D-reatime effects but mainly it will cut hundreds of hours off of your 2D video editing time because it renders at realtime. if you want anything higher than that get ready to fork over some real cash. the Matrox DigiSuite with discreet's edit 6.0 software ( Discreet's webpage ) will run you in the $15,000 range and that is without the computer and harddrives.

 

[LarryJoe]

First off, thank for all the suggestions. I did some research as well, and boy these suckers are expensive. I only have an 8mm Sony analog video camera at the moment and am in the market for a DV Camera. I am thinking of taking some of that cash for the expensive cards you mention and putting it towards the camera and then throwing a Dazzle card in. No, it won't do analog, but I guess I can get by with the TV Wonder for those tasks and move on to the real digital stuff. What do you guys think of the dazzle and can you reccomend a good DV Camera for $1,000 or less? The Dazzle card is currently the only XP compatable firewire card out there I think.

On my project, I totally forgot about the XP built in movie maker and gave that a shot last night for my simple project and it worked very well! No, it is not that powerful and will only leave you with a WMV clip, but for my purposes (a few files to be inserted into a Powerpoint pres) it was a savior. Very easy to use. If you have not messed with, take a look, it is great for quick editing and scene splitting.

Thanks again,

LJ

 

[rbV5]

I'd look at the DV Wonder, for $49 US, may work well with your TV Wonder to give you the analog/digital inputs you're looking for.

Note from ATI: Drivers supporting the DV WONDER are available as part of Windows XP.

You may want to reinstall the MMC software as 7.1 was better for me than 7.0 (with my Radeon card however) and was able to capture up to 720x640 NTSC. Perhaps you need to do a clean install? Also maybe try Vegas Video for mpeg editing, I don't use it but I've heard people rave about its mpeg editing capabilities (generally if I'm going to edit, I'll capture Raw AVI>Edit>recompress to final rather than capture mpeg to begin with)

Also sites such as Doom9 and VCD help are valuable resources for all things PC Video.

 

[LarryJoe]

Thanks rbV5. As far at MMC7.1, it is a known issue right now concerning the resolution limitation of the TV Wonder and the 7.1 drivers. I love vcdhelper and will checkout your other links. Although on the DV Wonder, I have just about had it with ATI and the sucky driver support. I am thinking about never ever buying anything with their name on it again.

LJ

 

[pulse8]

<< you may want to take a look at VCDgear..
that may be able to do what you are asking.

but for video stuff....
i agree with LethalWolfe
take a look at the Matrox RT2500. it is a consumer level capture and render card for video. it has s-video, rca, and firewire inputs. it can do 3D-reatime effects but mainly it will cut hundreds of hours off of your 2D video editing time because it renders at realtime. if you want anything higher than that get ready to fork over some real cash. the Matrox DigiSuite with discreet's edit 6.0 software ( Discreet's webpage ) will run you in the $15,000 range and that is without the computer and harddrives. >>



If anyone would fork over $15,000 they should get a nice Final Cut Pro system on a G4.

And I wouldn't really consider the Matrox RT2500 to be consumer. It's more a prosumer product than anything.

As for cameras, if you really want to do good work a sub-$1000 camera won't really cut it. I'd say get something along the lines of the Canon GL1 or the Sony VX2000.