Video Editing Hardware under $100

[Akaz1976]

I am looking to buy a gift for my bro and he is into video editing. His current system specs are:

Athlon XP (1800+)
512MB DDR RAM
WD 120 GB SE 8MB Cache
Geforce 2 GTS 64DDR

What could i get him to improve his editing work that would be under US$100 or there abouts?

Akaz

 

[Schadenfroh]

tv tuner(with video capture) or a video card?

 

[filmmaker]

He's gonna need software and the only thing I can think of in that range is Pinnacle Studio 8.

Otherwise he's going to need better software, I separate hard drive, a camera, a better video card, and a decent sound card.

 

[Remedy]

A second HD for his scratch base work. Nothing worst than losing your OS and your ruff draft work on the same disk. If he already has this, I think most people use the Leadtek 2000 TV tuner card/Cap card. Under $100. I would also pick up a Matrox G450 or 550 card with Dual VGA's for future upgradability. That combo would be my choice.

 

[Remedy]

I would look into Vegas4 from Sonic Foundry. Praised by many.(including me)

 

[filmmaker]

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
I would look into Vegas4 from Sonic Foundry. Praised by many.(including me)

Right, but you're going to find that it costs about 400-500 dollars. If that were the case, I could offer some other suggestions, but he originally asked about the 100 dollar range.

 

[Remedy]

Sorry, didn't know P8 was that cheap.

 

[Akaz1976]

Sorry forgot to add that he already has ATi TV Tuner card (dont know if it does vid cap tho) should i still buy Leadtek 2000 TV tuner card/Cap card?

So far recommendation seems a Matrox Card + Leadtek 2000 TV tuner card/Cap card.

Akaz

PS> How much of an advantage is matrox card over GF one he already has? keeping in mind he does play games (tho very little and usually just Civ 3)

 

[Willoughbyva]

If he is into video editing he might have a better idea of what he needs for around that price.

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: Akaz1976
Sorry forgot to add that he already has ATi TV Tuner card (dont know if it does vid cap tho) should i still buy Leadtek 2000 TV tuner card/Cap card?

So far recommendation seems a Matrox Card + Leadtek 2000 TV tuner card/Cap card.

Akaz

PS> How much of an advantage is matrox card over GF one he already has? keeping in mind he does play games (tho very little and usually just Civ 3)

I would swap out the ATi for the Leadtek if it was me. Alot more robust IMO. The Matrox card was just an example. But he can always pull one of these in favor of his GTS right now. I think the 2 will blow you over your $100 mark though. Dual CRT's are a god send when you upgrade in the future(2004).

 

[Akaz1976]

What good is dual out? since he doesnt have an extra monitor! are u recommending that i get him the dual out so that he can get an additional monitor down the road?

Akaz

 

[cmdrdredd]

what kind of motherboard does he run? If he has IDE RAID in it CompUSA had a 40GB Maxtor drive on sale and you could drop 2 of those in there for RAID 0 (available after rebates for $50)

BestBuy has a rebate on Maxtor 160GB 7200RPM drives that brings them to $99.99

 

[cmdrdredd]

or if you can drop another $40 you might want to look into a DVD burner so he can take his videos on DVD for the family/friends/fun

 

[manko]

You probably should ask him more details about his system, without seeming too suspicious. If he has the ATI TV card and he's already using that for capture, another capture card won't be much of an improvement (plus all the headaches of tweaking new drivers - video editing hardware can be finicky).

If by any chance he has a miniDV video camera and doesn't already have a firewire card (or port on his motherboard), that might be a good choice...so he can step up from analog capture to digital. Videoguys has a couple solutions in your price range, including the ADS Pyro card and Pinnacle's Studio DV (which comes with a firewire card). Most retailers will also have a few reasonable firewire cards.

As others have said, a hard drive might be the best and safest choice. Doing video work, you can never have enough storage space, so you can't go wrong with a hard drive. (...unless he already has all of his 4 ATA slots occupied by hard drives and optical drives.)

 

[Akaz1976]

Well got into a discussion with him regarding how his video editing was 'going'.

He mentioned thinking about upgrading his mobo next as it doesnt have either a firewire or USB port. So i am thinking i should get him that.

What would be a good mobo for vid editing needs that would go with Athlon XP 1700+?

He also mentioned something about a DVD writer but thats gonna be over my budget from what i understand

Akaz

 

[Akaz1976]

Any recommendations on the mobo that woudl be good?

Akaz

 

[Pauli]

Another 512MB of memory is my vote. You can never have too much system memory when editing video.