Which Is The Best Video Editing Card?

[AtaStrumf]

Which Is The Best Video Editing Card for Amaters. I'm not into serious work, just playing around with my Home Videos. Hi8, VHS

 

[CandyKid]

i'd like to know also.. a budget card!

 

[CandyKid]

i'd like to know also.. a budget card!

 

[AtaStrumf]

Candy Kid Do you think anybody will reply to this?

 

[Mael]

Not as many analogue cards are being made at the moment, most of the main players are moving over to digital.

I would reccomend any card made by Pinnacle, just pick one to suit your needs budget

i cbf finding a url for you, so get to it tiger

 

[codehack2]

Need more details on what your looking for..

-Budget?
-Format (Digital or Analog)?
-Editing Experience?
-Operating System?
-System Specs?
-Targeted Audience?

I do Video Production/Editing as a personal business, so I've got some experience, I just need more details to know what your looking for.

-CH2

 

[Stealth1024]

get yourself a Radeon 64 DDR with VIVO and you can do some editing with the right software.

 

[codehack2]

<< get yourself a Radeon 64 DDR with VIVO and you can do some editing with the right software. >>



Attempting Video Editing on one of these all in one video cards is a nightmare.. Half baked capture drivers, editing mpeg 1 or 2, blah.. If your even remotely serious about editing video get a seperate Video Editing card, not an all in one video card, and not a TV capture card. The time &amp; headaches that you save yourself will be well worth the extra $ you have to spend.

-CH2

 

[Stealth1024]

you might want to reconsider

I am feeding my VCR into my Radeon and not only is the quality great when watching TV, but I can record uncompressed video to my hard drive at any specified frame rate, resolution, etc. with some nifty little programs.

 

[Stealth1024]

true, I wouldn't use a Radeon for pro video editing but to work with simple video on your computer its okay (video out is the only problem)

 

[codehack2]

OK, You have got two options, Digital or Analog. Everything is going digital, so I'd recommend going digital if at all possible.

For DV..
To start out by picking up a cheap firewire (ieee1394) card with Texas Instruments Chipset on it.. Pinnacle, Dazzle, Adaptec, etc.. all make such cards. If you shop around, you can get such a card for $50 or less.

Then get a media converter. This will allow you to take Analog Video (VHS, Hi8 etc.) and convert it to DV format for editing on your computer, then once edited, you can output it back to Analog. Dazzle makes a product called the DV-Bridge, but it has lots of issues, I'd avoid it for the time being. Sony makes a media converter called the DVMCDA-2. This converter will run you about $300, but is well worth the money.

Total investment.. about $350

If your looking to go high end, get the Fast DV.Now AV, this is a complete DV/Analog Editing system, that comes with Adobe Premiere 6.0 and has a pluggin for realtime processing and effects. Price: about $550, (An exceptional value for what you get)

Be warned though, if you decide to go digital, be prepared to invest in some extra storage as an Hour of DV will take up about 20gb.

For Analog...
There are 2 predominant formats in the Analog capture arena, Mpeg 1/2 &amp; Mjpeg. Mpeg is nice because the files are small, but are extremely dificult to edit because they are so compressed. For each edit that you do, you will spend 10 times as long waiting for the video to rerender. Mjpeg is nice because it is lightly compressed, easy to edit, and has a high quality, but like DV, the files are huge.

For MJPEG,

Pinnacle DC10
Aadvantages: Cheap, Easy to use
Disadvantages: Limited editing capabilities, No onboard Audio (You have to use your soundcard input), Only Windows 9x Drivers
Price: $100

Pinnacle DC30
Advantages: Easy to use, lots of input/output options (Breakout box)
Disadvantages: Kind of pricey
Price: $500

Matrox Marvel G400
Advantages: Complete Solution (including video card), Lots of Inputs/Outputs (Breakout box), Matrox quality
Disadvantages: Must use the supplied G400 Video Card
Price: $250

For Mpeg 1/2,

Dazzle DVC
Advantages: Easy to use, lots of input/output options (Breakout box), Cheap
Disadvantages: Mpeg 1 format only
Price: $150
Note: This product comes in a variety of flavors.. USB, Parrallel Port, PCI


Dazzle DVC 2
Advantages: Easy to use, lots of input/output options (Breakout box), Cheap, realtime MPEG 2 Capture at DVD Resolutions
Disadvantages: Mpeg 2 format makes editing really tough
Price: $220

Thats enough for now.. must go before I get Fired

-CH2

 

[codehack2]

<< I am feeding my VCR into my Radeon and not only is the quality great when watching TV, but I can record uncompressed video to my hard drive at any specified frame rate, resolution, etc. with some nifty little programs. >>



Stealth1024,

Agreed, if all you want to do is capture video to your hard disk, then these are the right cards, but are you editing the video &amp; outputting back to tape??

By nature video editing is more than just capturing video. Editing &amp; outputting back to tape with minimal loss in quality is key. I'm not trying to bash the Radeon's capabilities.. I own one , it is a great card.. as a primary display adapter.. not as a video editing solution.

Regards,
CH2

 

[Stealth1024]

I pointed out that the video output was the largest problem. In order output S-Video you have to change your screen resolution, and unlike a true editing card, you can't output one thing to your monitor and another to your VCR.

 

[TGCid]

Wow there are some great posts in this thread. My dad wants me to take all the home videos that we have and convert them into VCD without as much quality loss as possible. I am not looking to edit anything just converting from analog into a digital format. With that said, which card is the best for me? Also do you guys know any sites with information on these type of things?

Thanks.

 

[Stealth1024]

If you just want to put the video on your computer, the Radeon will work fine.

 

[TGCid]

How does the quality of MPEG compressed from softwares like the Panasonic enocoder or TMPGEnc compare to the hardware encoder?

Also I am currently running an Athlon 700, and am thinking of upgrading to at least 1 gig. Would this boost performance by a lot when using softwares to compress videos?

 

[codehack2]

Rule of thumb on compression.. Hardware first, Software second. In nearly all instances, Hardware will provide a higher quality than software, not to mention reencoding in software takes forever.

The CPU upgrade, will speed up encoding, but it is still very very slow.. just to give you an idea, I've got a 1.3ghz tbird/1024mb Ram and to encode a 4 min. Mpeg2 file (DVD Quality) took nearly 4hrs. Granted this file was made up of a lot of very short 5 to 10 second clips, but that same file only takes me 1 to 2 minutes when working with DV-Format. If your looking at producing/editing DV is the way to go.

CH2

 

[TGCid]

I am pretty sure I won't be doing any DV editing soon. It looks like the Dazzle DV2 is perfect for me. Do you know if the quality is excellent or not? Thanks you so much.

 

[codehack2]

The capture quality of the DVCII is very good. One point to note though, the DVC II is not compatible with AMD 751 chipset Motherboards, not sure if that will affect you or not,

CH2

 

[TGCid]

Currently running an Asus K7M. I guess I have to upgrade to another motherboard then. Thanks.

 

[AtaStrumf]

Codehack2 you look like you know what you are talking about. My spec. is as follows:

Abit KT7A Moterboard (VIA KT133a)
AMD Duron 800 CPU
CromeORB HFS
Deskstar 75 GXP 45GB 7200 HDD
Macase 300W Power Suply
WIN98
128 MB PC133 Simple Technology RAM
TEAC 32x CD ROM
TEAC CD-RW 4x4x32
SB Live! 1024
Hercules 3D Prophet II MX 32MB (GeForce2MX)
U.S. Robotics 3 COM WIN Int Modem

Now I want to make Video Recording and Editing my hoby as I have grown tired of Photography. I have 0 experience
in Video Editing bussines but I'm very eager to learn. I need a gear to start with. I would also
like to be able to edit home videos from old VHS (or I suppose thats PAL in USA) and Hi8 videotapes.
I believe those two are anologue, but for my future footage I would like to have Digital.
So where does that leave me?
But let me stress that this is purely for home not professionall use. The audience would be me, my family and friends.
The budget?
Camera under $1000
Video Editing card under $500

 

[TGCid]

Before I go off and buy the Dazzle DVC 2, does it capture MPEG1 real time as well?

 

[codehack2]

TGCid,

The DVCII does capture MPEG1 and MPEG2 with varying bit-rates and resolutions. The other nice thing about this card is that it captures SVCD also (Super VCD). This is a higher quality format of VCD based off of mpeg2. With this format you cant fit about 1hr of video on a CDR that is playable in most set-top DVD players.

AtaStrumf,



<< Codehack2 you look like you know what you are talking about. >>



Thanks I appreciate the compliment

Here are my recomendations...

1) If at all possible go to Windows 2000. Here is my reasoning: 1) File Size, under Win9x with Fat32 the largest file that you will be able to capture will be 4gb or about 20 minutes of Digital Video. With Win2k and NTFS this limitation disappears 2)Disk Flexibility, With Win2k you have the ability to do Software raid strippings.. making 2 drives appear as one (with the added benifit of performance), you can also take selected amounts of space from multiple drives &amp; allocate it to one drive. i.e. Drive 1 has 10gb free &amp; Drive 2 has 45gb free, you can take this free space &amp; make 1 55gb logical drive.. pretty cool. 3) Added stability when editing
Price: $100

2)Get more Ram. With Ram as cheap as it is now, there is really no reason not to have atleast 256mb ram.
Price: $40

3) Grab another 45gb IBM drive. You'll need it.
Price: Not sure, but $200 should cover it.

4) Get the Fast DV.Now AV. This card has everything that your looking for to get started &amp; will scale up to your needs if you ever decide to make this more than a hobby..
Here is a link to the product page: Dazzle-Fast Product Page

Buy.com seems to have the best price on this system at $460.. Link

Price: $460

5) For the camera I'd go with a Sony D8 Camera. They have all of the benifits of the Digial format (Hi Res-BitRate), plus they play all of your old 8/Hi8 tapes and finally they record on to standard 8mm tapes, which can be had for as little as $2 each. Quality wise there is no difference between D8 and MiniDV.

Here is a little tip for getting the best price on a very nice Sony D8 Camera.. First go to BuyDigi.com and print out this page. Then if you have a Sears local to your area, take the printout to the store &amp; ask for the E-Commerce price match. They will match the price, &amp; You will be out the door with the Camera for $250 less than they have it listed on the shelf .
Price: $460

Total Investment for all of this: $1260 (give or take $100) Not to bad for getting yourself an awesome home production system, with the added benifit of being able to scale up to semi-pro production if you ever felt the calling.

Good Luck,
CH2

 

[TGCid]

codehack2,

You are the man. You have save me so much time. Thank you so much.

 

[codehack2]

Glad to be of help TGCid.

If you guys can't tell, I like to talk about video production/editing

-CH2