Video Camera (1 Viewer)

[Matt Greatorex]

I figured there are enough technophiles on this forum that I might get an informed (or semi-informed, at least) opinion on this.

I want to be able to record something, copy the recorded item to my PC, edit it/add music/etc, then burn it to a DVD.

I already have the burner on my PC. I'm hoping for recommendations on what to look for in terms of functionality with regards to both the camera and the editing software. How much could I expect to pay? how much should I pay to avoid getting saddled with something that becomes unuseable in a year's time? How easy is such software to use?

Bear in mind I'm not looking to rival Spielberg here, I just want to be able to make copies I can look back on in years to come.

All suggestions gratefully received.

 

[Minkey]

There are loads of camera out there if you do a Google on digital cameras you should be able to find plenty of reviews and recommendations (this for example looks very good. The important thing is to have firewire out (for speed and quality).

For capturing you’ll need a firewire capture card here would be a good place to start. BTW I noticed the first card on the list the ADS Pyro which is available here cheaper and comes bundled with Adobe Premier Elements which is a very good piece of capturing and editing software (worth $100) – it actually a cut down version of Premier Pro (one of the daddies of video editing)

There is also free video capture and editing software from here but if you can get a package with Adobe Elements then I would go for that

So you don’t have to spend a fortune about $300 and you should be able to get some decent kit.

Oh a couple of other things you should also bare in mind:

You will need a lot of hard disk space for capturing (a native capture of PAL video will produce 17.5 megs per minute of video !! (that's 64 gig for 1 hour) though this does depends if the card or indeed the software supports real time compression. Good news is hard drives are getting cheaper all the time and a Samsung Spinpoint 250GB goes for around £60

A decent PC – capturing and editing (well compiling) does take a lot of horsepower so you might have to be patient if you don’t have reasonable spec machine.

Hope this helps and if you want any more info post back

 

[Matt Greatorex]

See, I knew someone would be good enough to get back to me.

I shall re-read your comments as soon as I get time to properly absorb them. If I need more info, rest assured I shall get back to you.

I have a slight advantage with the cost of the camera, etc. since I'm now living in Canada and - trust me - there's a noticeable difference in the relative price of electronic stuff over here.

Thanks again.

 

[Rich]

You might want to make the leap to HD now