Thank goodness for this forum - I'm sure I will find some help here.
1st, some background - pls bear with me. Started with a P3 933, Nero 6, digital camera and scanner. Slowly, but successfully, made slideshows to DVD. Thoroughly enjoyed doing it, even though very time consuming (made DVD of my wife's two sons from baby to grown up years, using about 400 pictures she already had plus some we had taken - added music, transitions, chapters, the whole 9 yards).
Enjoyed that so much, I figured, hey, wouldn't it be neat to be able to do the same thing with MOVIES. So, purchased the Sony DCRHC46 minidv camera. Installed firewire card into the P3, as well as purchased and installed a 160MB hard drive to replace the old 40GB. Shot a test video - maybe 3 minutes long - attached camera to firewire and successfully captured to hard drive. Then went back and attempted to play around with the editing functions. Even tho the "timeline marker" advanced, the Nero 6 upper left screen flashed about the first 2 or 3 frames, and that was it. So, I'm thinking my P3 933 with maxed out 512Mb RAM is overworked/overloaded by video capturing and editing. Plus, it only has 1MB shared video RAM on the mobo.
Well maybe you folks have been here before - maybe you haven't. But I've been trying to figure out what I need to do the job. I've read on here about all the souped-up video cards and PCs. I will be buying a Dell because I have an account with them, plus since the company I work for uses Dells, I can get an employee discount. I was looking at the Dimension E310 or E510. But I keep reading that the video in these systems aren't the greatest, and something about the slots on the mobo won't accept a "normal" video card.
Sorry I'm so long-winded, but I said all that to say this: My question is: Is it not sufficient simply to meet the software (Nero 6 in this case) system requirements of:
"For real-time capturing and burning:
- 1.6Ghz Intel® Pentium IV processor or equivalent
- 128MB RAM
500 MB disc space for a typical installation of all components
Up to 9 GB available hard disc space for DVD images and temporary DVD files
Graphics card with at least 8MB video memory and minimum resolution 800x600 pixels and 16-bit colour settings. 24-bit or 32-bit true colour is recommended. Installation of the latest WHQL certified device drivers recommended"
I don't intend to buy any additional software; I don't intend to use this PC for any gaming purposes - it's sole function will be for capturing, editing video and producing DVDs. I don't even plan to hook it up to our DSL line.
I am about to live up to my screename, trying to figure out what to buy. I don't want to go overboard (funds are limited, even with the Dell account), but I also don't want to get a new PC, then be sick because I didn't get enough workhorse, and still unable to comfortably and efficiently produce DVDs.
Any advice would certainly be appreciated.
Many thanks, and your patience with noobs exceeded by no one.
You really need to say what the max amount you can spend is, and if you are able to build the system if you buy parts.
Also put currency in as well.
You aren't going to be able to re0use any parts by the look of it, but a basic machine can be built with what you need it to do for a few hundred £££ Sterling, as you shouldn't need a monitor, keyboard, mouse and could at a push re-use the HDD but would be better off just getting a new SATA2 drive for about £40 for 80+GB.
