video capturing etc.

[shaolinstylee]

I'm looking to go into the video capturing business (for fun of course.. lol).
Either way, doc or steve or whomever, I was wondering what hardware and software you guys are using.. it seems to vary in price as much as cars. I'm obviously not looking to go to Mara or anything, but was thinking of Adobe Premier to start out with. I need to get one of those port things that will accept s video and rca cables and such.. any suggestions for a guy on a budget?

[doc]

We use Adobe Premiere. Pinnacle is also good for "just starting out", and has eome good capturing abilitiy. I've used Ulead Media Pro in the past, but, at this point, in my opinion, Apple's Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere seem to be the best.

We use a professional Sony camera, and also use a Panasonic DV 2500 for tape capture, with a custom built PC with I think six or eight hard drives and dual monitors.

If you can afford Premiere, go with it. If not, Pinnacle is a good option.

[shaolinstylee]

Premier elements, alone, is only $100... I've already been frustrated with the windows one that came with the machine....
Pinnacle Studio Plus is about the same (before mail in rebate) and you can get the mediasuite for 20 bucks more....

damn, I guess I'll start with Premier, as you are the second to suggest it...

That cpu sounds like a beast. I have dual monitors at work for roadway design... can't stand going home and trying to do two things at once..lol

Thanks for the heads up. I think with an initial $300 max investment into my comp (between hardware and software) I think I should be rocking.. now I just need to find something to record

[Steve]

Stuff I used for making videos.

The computer I built for Doc and use for making videos at Russbo Central has a Pentium 4 2.4 ghz CPU, 1 gig of RAM, 7 Hard Drives (2 of them RAIDed together with the OS and programs on the RAID)(alot of drive space is needed for video storage and I did it just because someone told me it could not be done) I have almost the 900+ gigs of it filled.

..
That cpu sounds like a beast. .......

Thanks I like my beast.

The Panasonic DV2500 tape deck has been great to use, fast foward and rewinds are bad on camera motors, get a separate DV tape deck if you can, instead of preview and capturing from the camera, they really can't handle the stress on the little motors for very long.
For S-video and RCA inputs, most video capture cards like Nvidia and ATI's have them, but I wanted to preview the video and not use go thru the computer or use a program to watch them. I found that coming out of the Tape Deck and going straight into one of the Dual Monitors was not that easy. I looked on internet and in stores around Vegas for days, trying to find a box that would convert the output from the deck to monitor (S-video to VGA). I could not find a cheap solution. I was asking all the salespeople at Fry's, Circuit City, Radio Shack and ETC., no one had a clue on how to do what I wanted. Till one day over the summer I was in Best Buy, and this 16 year old kid near the Xbox Game Section said he ran Xbox on his computer monitor. For $29.99, I bought a little box that was meant for video games to VGA monitors, but I plugged the S-Video output of tape deck into it and it has a switch on it so I can back and forth from computer or just the monitor. Works Great. Check the Video game area in the store, they have all kinds switch boxes and things to use that don't cost too much and work well.

I have been using Abobe Premiere Pro, it not easy to use, I taught myself, but is the best video editing program for Windows.(Final Cut Pro 4 is best for Apple. Premiere Pro can't be used on Apple and FCP4 can't be used in Windows). I have found that it takes a really long time to render video projects with it unless you have tons of RAM, which I think I need more of. (*Hint* Doc). I like using Pinnacle Studio too for quick edits and Quicktime Pro Version for converting the AVIs to hinted MOVs files needed for the Streaming Server.

Microsoft's Movie Maker 2 is free to download with Windows XP, I don't use it, but has alot of Packs you can get too. Nice easy program to use, but limited in its abllity to control everything I want.

The Dual Monitors are great for Premiere and Photoshop, one for the project you are working on and the other for tools, palettes and flles needed.


Anything I forget?

[doc]

Using master quality tapes in the camera is better for the motor also. Regular mini dv tapes tend to clog up the mechanism a lot faster. And, an expensive tripod is in order. The usual tripods are plastic, and tend to get "sticky", which leads to jerky movements on the camera.

Sounds like you got everything else.

[Steve]

Everything but that I have a tons of videos to complete really soon before you kill me.

[shaolinstylee]

Thanks again....

I have movie maker (or is it 2) that came with my machine.. but it seems way limited, and bogs down really easy, like when you try to do two things at once.

You guys rock... just in case anyone was wondering.