Latest update on my videogear saga...

[Moogyboy]

hey all

Here's where I'm at:

1) I took my Panny PV-DV100 into the shop a week ago. They said the exposure circuit was fried and the estimate was $155. I said what the heck and bade them to proceed with repairs. Lesson learned: don't screw around with video feedback, as cool as it is...unless the camera's real real cheap and/or you have the the thing RECORDING while you're frying the camera's innards. Granted, the PV-DV100 *is* cheap, but...

2) My new computer is shaping up, although I haven't put the parts together yet. The parts I have so far are:
* mid-tower case
* 2.08 gHz AthlonXP processor
* AOpen motherboard
* 80 gb hard drive
* Sapphire/Radeon 9550 video card
* basic USB/Firewire PCI card

Parts I already have lying around:
* CD-ROM drive
* 17" CRT monitor
* keyboard, mouse, all that stuff

Stuff I still need to get:
* a CD/DVD burner
* 1 gb RAM
* Windows XP
* large Firewire drive for video and audio files
* Software (most likely Pinnacle Studio Plus 9 vor the video editing part of it)

I think I'll still have a basic working system for right around $500.

3) Once the camera is working okay, I'll start thinking about a housing. Will most likely be one of those tube-shaped universal things. I don't care. If it keeps my camera dry and lets me film reasonably good images, and leaves me with enough cash to *get* to wherever I'm diving, I'm happy.

More updates as they come.

cheers

Billy S.

 

[PerroneFord]

Just a few hints from someone who produces video for part of their living:

1. Change that WinXP to Win2003. TRUST me on this one.

2. That 80GB hard drive is going to seem VERY small when capturing full frame AVI videos. Thats about 12-14GB per hour.

3. 1GB or RAM is the absoulute minimum you'd want to work with.

4. Get Adobe Premiere and leave Pinnacle alone. There is a reason the pros use final cut, vegas, premiere, or avid.


Good luck!

 

[Scubatooth]

moogyboy

i will second the OS reccomendation above as i was playing with a copy last week and its layed out at little better then xp and definately with out the fluff added XP.

a 80 gb drive is real small thats as about as small as i would want to go for my OS drive, or even my scratch drive if i did video.


then also if you budget allows , look at a athlon 64 set up as the XP chips are being phased out to ramp up production on the 64 lines, plus a 64 chip and chipset will allow you to increase your ram and capabilities as time goes on (most 64 motherboards now a days have 4 dual DDR slots which means you could load 4+ gb of ram onboard to make your system work the most effective.

trust me spending more money on your editting rig it will save you time in the long run, as i learnedthe hard way by trying to use a slow system for way to long with out getting the right hardware to get the job done.

FWIW

Tooth

 

[AevnsGrandpa]

Hi Moog,

While I cannot comment on the OS, differences already mentioned, I have XP SP2 and have no problems. I will say for best results you will need to go with 2 hard drives at least. One for the OS and programs and one for your video capture and data storage. Trying to use the boot drive as your capture drive will hamper your performance alot. A 80 gig drive for your boot drive should be fine, but I would go with as big as you can afford on the capture drive. I personally use an 80 right now, but have a 120 for data storage. All of mine are internal EIDE drives.

1 gig of RAM will be great also.

As far as the editing software, it depends on what your goals are. If you are wanting to product Hollywood quality videos and DVD's with all the effects and layers, then yes I would agree, go with Premiere or Vegas or similar. I myself use Pinnacle Liquid Edition Pro. If you are just using it to produce video or DVD's for home and family, there is no reason you should not go with Pinnacle Studio 9. I used Studio products since version 1 through 8 before moving to the professional line and it is the most user friendly and easy to use COMPLETE editing and producing home package there is. All the upper end products are much harder to use and most, including Adobe Premiere are just editors and you have to buy another product to get it burnt to DVD. Studio is a good one stop production package, allowing you to capture, edit and burn or output to a specific file type all in one package. (No I do not work for Pinnacle, I do event videography at home)

Hope this helps in your decisions,

Jeff

 

[PerroneFord]

Hi Moog,

While I cannot comment on the OS, differences already mentioned, I have XP SP2 and have no problems.

XP uses a FAT32 file system. Meaning your largest file size will be 4GB. This is great if you work with small videos. If you try to dump a full frame (720x480) video over firewire and capture it, you'll make it about 10-14 minutes depending on compression before the operating system shuts you down. Moving to a NTFS such as Win2003, eliminates this issue.

Yes, you don't HAVE to use Premier or similar software. But at some point, you are going to want to produce projects with titles, overlays, music, and maybe you'd like to color correct them without the PC falling over on itself. This is where having more RAM and professional software pays off.

Personally I use a Canopus suite, and have Premiere to do my re-compression work. It's all about what you want and what you can afford. You're going to find that 80GB hard drive VERY limiting though, if you intend to capture to it.

 

[Otter]

XP uses a FAT32 file system....

Actually XP used NTFS since its really NT Version 5. You can CHOOSE to use FAT32, but for reasons mentioned above PLUS others, you wouldn't want to. I'd be curious what the difference is with 2003 other than UI.

Having multiple projects going on concurrently...some stalled, others not. When I put my system together a couple of years back, I selected a MB with RAID, which allowed me to install up to 8 IDE devices. I just bought my 5th drive for the system a WD 250GB drive for $69 (on sale), bringing me close to a TB of storage online. Now a-days, I would probably go with the faster MB and use USB 2.0 external drives (not USB 1.x, due to speed).

As for housings, I am not familiar with your specific camera, however, but if you can get access to controlling white balance, aperture (exposure), and manual focus you will be much happier. The more generic the housing, the more often you loose control of these functions.

 

[PerroneFord]

Dammit.. good catch on the XP. I forgot about the whole XP Home/ XP business consolidation thing and going to NTFS. Sadly, I am typing on XP right now and didn't think to check first.

Sounds like you have a nice setup.

 

[Moogyboy]

Yeah, I wasn't planning on using the 80 gb HD for storing video or anything; I'm eventually going to get a Firewire drive of at least 120 gb for that. As for memory, my MB will allow up to 3 gb of RAM, but only if you use DDR2700 type memory. Go up to DDR3200 and the maximum RAM goes down to 2 gb. I honestly don't know whether the higher speed or the extra gb of potential RAM are more important. Eventually, when I can afford it, I'll probably get an Athlon64 MB and processor, but by that time it'll be almost obsolete...I hate having try to do creative stuff on the cheap!

As for what do I want to use the software for...well, besides purely functional editing, which is what I see so much home videos as being (ie stringing a lot of video clips together with a canned music track underneath, hehe), I want to start experimenting with narrative and creative editing since actual filmmaking (of the zero-budget variety) is something I'm interested in. I personally am not a big fan of splashy transitions and special effects--simple dissolves and fades are all I have any interest in, not to mention those "film look" filters--so I would figure that even a relatively basic editing software would be okay as long as I can edit the clips way I want to, I can move sound clips around with some degree of flexibility, lay out titles my own way instead of having to use cheesy template style things, etc. I realize that Premiere is really the way to go, but I think I could probably get by with less. I'm a little concerned now, though, because the reviews of Pinnacle Studio on Epinions and Amazon are mostly negative, people saying it crashes all the time or something, while others say it's the most amazing consumer video software available at that price point. Ai ai ai!

cheers

Billy S.

 

[Moogyboy]

As for housings, I am not familiar with your specific camera, however, but if you can get access to controlling white balance, aperture (exposure), and manual focus you will be much happier. The more generic the housing, the more often you loose control of these functions.

Yup, I'm aware of that...the Canon and Sony owners have got a lot of options in that area what with all the different housings available. I envy them, you know? Unfortunately, universal generic housings are pretty much all I've found that will fit a lowly Panasonic like I have. As to the controls, it does have manual focus and shutter speed, and at least a several-setting white balance, but the last two are only accessible through menus, and the MF via a little thumbwheel thingie. Likely I'd have to set the focus to infinity, the lens to wide angle, and the others to whatever manual setting works best, and have at it. Question: if my white balance choices are auto, "halogen" (meaning, I guess, tungsten incandescent lights), and daylight, which would be most appropriate for uw work?

cheers

Billy S.

 

[MikeC]

Just a few hints from someone who produces video for part of their living:

4. Get Adobe Premiere and leave Pinnacle alone. There is a reason the pros use final cut, vegas, premiere, or avid.


Good luck!

Hmm, didn't Avid just buy Pinnacle? Wonder if the Pinnacle NLE sofware will get killed or improved???? Maybe relabeled as "Avid for Home"?