Well what Type of stuff do you want to do with it???
At work I use a Video editing workststion worth about $25,000, but I can Build a Compareable Type system Myself for about $2000....
I would Recomend a P-4 Extreme Edition CPU at 3.4ghz with 1.5mb of L3 Cache with a Motherboard supporting SATA and with a Intel 875 Pe Chipset, with 2 200GB SATA Drives.....
But for Video Capture/Editing Hardware you can get away with something simple like the Canopus ACEDVio which is About $250 ,It captures Both analogue and Digital Material IN DV Format..The card becides haveing Analogue and Digital Inputs also have a Real time Analogue Output so you can preview in real time the Video and any effects on an external interlaced TV set..It is also compatible with all High end Editing Software Like Premier and Vegas and Adiv Express ECT...The actual Editing Software can cost as Much as the Hardware...I"m lucky cuz I work as a video editor and Have access to Most of the Best Video editing and effects Packages available and My Boss Doesn"t Mind us takeing Programs Home with us so we can do some work at home....The $25,000 Editing workstation I use at work is so expensive because of the Software, I have most of the same software at home so I guess my PC is worth allmost $25,000 just because of all of the software that i use on it....
If you explain exactly what Type of stuff you will be doing with it then Maybe I can give you more direct advice and save you some money from not buying stuff that you really don"t need.....Cheers
Thanks for that input. Basicaly Im looking to make videos of my freinds at funtions that we attend. Such as Dirt Bike competetions, Truck runs, etc. I want it to look clean though. Somthing that I can convert to DVD and allow them to watch at home on there DVD as if we were watching on of those movies that I see in the motorcycle shops for sale. Whats funny is my brother started recording theese events with his $200 camcorder the old vhs type and Im thinking wow that looks like crap. Imagine what a liitle Ingenuity and a good cam could do. Hence the idea was born!
So if you are Looking to Transfer Analogue Hi8 Type footage to your PC and transfer it to DVD and have it Look Better than the Original then you are Basicly Out of Luck because there isn"t Much you can do it Improove Image Quality but there are devices that can remove the Parts of the Video that make it look Bad Like Filtering out the Backround Noise in the Image and to Sharpen the Image and to adjust the Color Properties, and Most of this is Not really done by an Special Type of PC though the faster the PC the Quicker the rendering would be.....
Here are some Links to some Hardware Analogue/Digital Converters that are Made especially for what you want to do ....
These are the Best that Money can Buy for the Type of Stuff you want to do and with some Good editing software Like Premier pro or Vegas Video 4/5 you will be able to really do a Nice Job on some Not so nice looking Analogue Footage....You do not need a fast PC to use these Devices but would be good to have for the Video editing because rendering and encodeing will take forever on a Slow PC...Cheers
I was looking at alienware and they have somthing like this? Is this overkill? I hope I dont like some dope with $$ to blow just trying to get the best overall long term.
Alienware Full-Tower Case (420-Watt PS) - Space Black
Enermax EG465P-VE 24P 460 Watt Power Supply
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology 3.4GHz
Intel® S875WP1LX Motherboard
2GB DDR SDRAM PC-3200 - 4 x 512MB Module
NVIDIA Quadro® FX 1100 128MB 8x AGP w/Dual DVI
36.7GB Western Digital Raptor(tm) Serial ATA 10,000 RPM 8MB Cache
250GB Western Digital Caviar® SE Serial ATA 7,200 RPM 8MB Cache
Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD±R/W Drive - Black
3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive - Black
Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme Pro Suite Video Editing System
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy 2 ZS - 7.1
Integrated 10/100Mb Intel Ethernet Adapters
Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - Space Black
Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 - USB - Space Black
$4500.00
Thats a Nice System But way over Priced you could Build a Compareable system for half that price...
Matrox Makes Nice stuff but also Verry Expensive for what it does, I have a Matrox RTX100 In my Work Computer and it is a Good system and has it"s own Realtime Hardware Transitions,Filters and Effects which is what makes it so expensive but they are really not needed if you have a Good editing Program and a Fast PC which can Do realtime effects and Transitions useing the Power of the CPU...
And if you are going to have a PC with 2 Hard drives you Might as well get 2 that are exactly the same to you can use them in a Raid Array..My Work PC has 5 Hard drives, One 120gb for Software and the Operateing System and 4 ATA/133 120GB 8MB Cache 7200rpm Western Digital drives in a Raid array which is far More than I need for Drive speed and much less expensive than getting SATA drives for the extra ATA/17 in speed which you probably wouldn"t utilize anyways when running in Raid....
And If you can get away with useing Software effects and Transitions and are only useing Material Shot with a High End DV Cam then you could simply use a $10 firewire card to capture the Footage and use the DV Analogue Passthrough on the Camcorder for any analogue Material you needed converted to digital...
I"m just trying to save you money on stuff you might not need or things that are Overkill because you said "Within the bounds of rational spending"...
You know even a single ATA/133 dedicated drive is Fast enough to Write Full resolution Compressed DV or Uncompressed AVI or Quicktime at 30fps without any Chance of Dropping Frames and haveing a 36.7gb 10,000rpm SATA drive when Captureing Uncompressed AVI would Only hold about 30 minutes of Footage and at that price you might be better off with something larger and less expensive......
Well anyways It"s your Money and the system you are Looking at is an awesome system very simular to my work system but if you are trying to not spend so much money and not get stuff you probably will not need you can build your self a Custom system with a ATA/133 Raid system that will actually perform Much better than a Single SATA drive will, and getting a Capture device that uses Harware Effects isn"t really Practical when your CPU and Premier or AVID Express DV can create just as Good effects and More of them and in real time..3 or 4 Years ago Video editors had to pretty much use Hardware effects Because the CPU"s were less than Half of the speed they are Now so rendering the Effects would Take forever Just to Preview them but with the advent of CPU"s Faster than 2ghz and 3ghz software can do the same thing in the same Time.....
Well anyways Just my opinion.....Good Luck and have fun with whatever system you end up getting....Cheers
I have an ads Dvd express usb unit that does video capture in mpeg 2 dvd compliant format. This device
does not recognize macrovision therefore anything is available to be recorded. Software video dvd formation seems to be faulty, in that it remultiplexes
the video in order to make dvd video files. The software seems to have difficulty in putting the video in sync with the audio. This is overcome by processing the file numerous times in segments of less than 20 minutes each--I have found that segments of 10 minutes work excellently. I also have a Matrox g450etv capture\video card but can honestly say the ads dvd express is a superior capture device
