Experienced beginner.....

[johnnydiver2003]

Can you spare time for some guidance?

Want to go into the underwater video business..(shoot guests above and below the water burn to DVD and sell).....Have Panasonic mx 300 (3ccd, 1.8 mega pixel, digital tape/sd memory card PAL version) camera and housing, Have Ikelite housing for SONY TRV-940, TRV-950, PDX-10 but no camera yet...thinking of the PDX-10 only because it's the only one I can still buy factory fresh...

My question......1) What specs should my PC have, hardware and software. 2) reccomendations of hardware for burning of DVD's.

I have shot lots of video and photos while working as dive instructor...but never learned to edit...Have 8 months till I plan to head to Central America in my Pick-up truck to look for business opportunity...Want to start getting my equipment and editing skills in order before I leave...(thinking of doing wedding videos as a sideline to the diving videos when times are slow)

Look forward to any suggestions...Thanks and regards...Johnny

 

[tkring]

There are a lot of knowledgable people in this forum so I have no doubt you will get good advice. Unfortuantely, I don't have anything to offer but good wishes. I wish you much success with your endeavors. Please keep us posted on your progess.

 

[larsdennert]

It depends on how fast you need to turn around the DVD's. Most editing programs have to render the footage for many hours in order to burn a Disk.
1) Buy the fastest machine you can afford. I have edited Standard Def with as slow as a 1.2ghz machine though. I curently use a Dual Core 3ghz to edit HDV. An MPEG encoder card will speed up transcoding for you. They are pricey but the way to go if you need fast turn around.
2)Software, Hmmm there are some programs that will edit native MPEG like Womble and allow the minimum of trascoding. Unfortunately I have not personally gone that route. Premiere and Vegas are outstanding programs. Nero is stable and simple. Pinnacle will crash early and often but has a nice interface.
3) I'm partial to Liteon burners as they are very reliable and often release new firmware to support different media.

 

[Tollie]

HI,

Wow you sound like me. I too would like to add in video for guests on our boat.

I'm a complete noob when it comes to this but I have a mac laptop G4 and have played a bit with the imovie and idvd tools that come standard with the mac. I have had to get a free converter as the clips I shoot are avi files that I convert to quicktime and then pick up with imovie. You can easily add in music from itunes as well.

I figure that quick turn around is esential for guests on our day boat to buy.

I look forward to what the old hands here sugest.