Editing Question

[Mr. Blonde]

This is a stupid question, but i have to ask because its been bothering me lately. How do you edit films using the editing software, if they're recorded on MiniDV (which is a small tape right?). Is it just a matter of downloading your film on to your computer and editing? Also do any of you have recommendations on what cameras and editing software to use. I don't have a mac so the final cut pro is out but do you have any other ideas.
Thanks ~Kyle~

just plug your firewire and capture.......if you are a begginer in editing, i recommend you start with moviemaker, then start using premiere, fcp, vegas etc

[WideShot]

To edit film, thats why they make splicers

Seriously, you have to capture in maximum format (like NTSC 720x480), with something like HuffyUV codec and PCM stereo for audio. Once it is in that format saved as an avi, it will take up a LOT of space on your HDD. You can then edit them and compose your film from the individually captured shots in a project based program like Vegas or Premiere, or even Windows Movie Maker. Project based means you are simply setting the cuts, transitions, etc. for the film, and not actually compiling new video in real time... which means you don't have to save another huge video file on your HDD until you are done and ready to Render. At which point you will render in either HuffyUV for quality (again it will be huge filesize though) or if you are truly DONE with it and not going to add effects in After Effects, you can save it to high bitrate DivX, XviD, Mpeg-2, Real, WMV, or whatever to save file space. I would recommend saving it all to HuffyUV first though and then converting to one of theose formats so you preserve quality.

Theres much to learn when it comes to Non Linear Editing software.

[sonnyboo]

You edit film on the computer by transferring the film to video, and it wil have what looks liek TIMECODE on it, but ti's actually frame counts and reel numbers that correspond to the can reel numbers of your original negatice film at the lab.

After editing on the computer, you output an E.D.L. (Edit Decision List) which is the first frame to last frame of every shot in the order you edited them in your computer. Then you send this EDL and a tape of your edit to the "NEGATIVE CUTTER" atr the lab, and they "conform" the negative to your cutting specifications form the comptuer edit.

Oila!

[BilBono]

I overheard recently that the file transfer rate or something of a regular hard drive (IEDE) wasn't good enough to edit video, and that a SCSI hard drive is needed. Is that true?
Besides a firewire port and a processor faster than 1 GHZ, are there any other hardware requirements for editing on a PC?

BilBono

[CommanderGoat]

It's not NEEDED but a SCSI drive will be faster. I think you could use IDE drives ok. I would have your OS and Program on one drive, then your video media on a different drive.

As fas as other hardware. Get as much memory as you can. Memory is important. Get as much GHz as you can. Get a good video card or video capture card. And don't forget storaged. Video takes up alot of space. A DVD burner might be nice too

[WideShot]

You could RAID two SATA-150 200GB 8MB Cache's and you would be smokin'.

Ideal cutting/rendering machine for PC:
RAM: 1-8GB High DDR like 400
CPU: 3+Ghz
CAPTURE: Matrox, Pinnacle, or some other... all are pretty expensive. I have a VIVO Gf4 4800SE but I doubt it would give me very high res stuff. You need a dedicated capture card for that. But at least I can output to my DVD recorder, Mini-DV Cam or VHS
STORAGE: AT LEAST 1 200GB ATA 133, do what I said above for super fast, of course SCSI would be quicker but good luck finding a cheap 200GB SCSI
BOARD: Make sure it has good reviews and will support what you are buying
MONITOR: 21" LCD
SOFTWARE: Premiere 6.5 or 7 if you have Intel, There's Vegas 4 too

[donald gregory]

I use FCP, but if I used a PC to edit, I would use either Vegas or Avid DV.

[CommanderGoat]

Originally Posted by WideShot

You could RAID two SATA-150 200GB 8MB Cache's and you would be smokin'.

Just curious...would you RAID 0 OR RAID 1 the drives? I read somewhere that RAID 0 was better for video editing speed, but it doesn't mirror the data. I'm just wondering what's better because I'm thinking of doing this with my next system.

[Zensteve]

Originally Posted by BilBono

I overheard recently that the file transfer rate or something of a regular hard drive (IEDE) wasn't good enough to edit video

The only problem I ever had, with importing video, was using a low RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) hard drive. It was especially bad when importing analog video through a capture card... thousands of frames would get dropped.

Changing from a basic 5200 RPM hard drive to a 7200 RPM hard drive (which are very common at computer stores) mostly solved that problem. Adding a second hard drive (used for video capture/manipulation exclusively... with video software on the first drive) took care of the remainder of occasional import-problems I had.

As far as Firewire (which you have)... I use that now, with basic 7200 RPM drives, with absolutely no problem at all. (No RAID, no SCSI). The only hardware suggestion I would have is to get more RAM, if needed.

So... quick recap...

1) Two hard drives
2) Faster hard drives
3) Lots of RAM

I suspect the people you "overheard" may have had bad experiences with trying to import/export analog video on a slow hard drive.