Case
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Mar 16, 2006, 12:26 AM
Post #5 of 6
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Re: [MikeW] Where do I go from here?
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I am reluctant to give too much advice to anybody I don't know very well, and I certainly don't know Mike at all. In fact, the fact that Mike's editing system bit the dust a year ago, and he is still not back in business really has me stumped. Also, I fully understand why his customers are foaming at the mouth. I also don't understand why Mike thinks that $4,000 will be required to get back into business.
First, let me say that leasing the equipment may be a way out of his jam, as another post suggested. Leasing is not my preferred way to do things, but in certain emergencies, leasing makes a lot of sense.
I don't know what kind of system you think you need to get back into business. However, if your operation is like mine....that is, you work exclusively in DV acquistion, and you deliver your products mostly on DVD and CD, with very few VHS tape jobs anymore, I think you can get into business with a minimum system for a lot less than you quoted us. This is especially true if you have a monitor or monitors, keyboard, and some hard drives from the old system. Anything you can salvage will lower the cost of the new system, including a license for the operating system and all your essential software.
As I mentioned in a post in another forum today, I recently bought a "bare bones" system to replace my office computer. I ordered a case with power supply and mothrboard (3.2 Ghz HT Pentium, 1 GB RAM) installed. My "bare bons" system also included a 100 GB drive with Windows XP installed. Also I got two DVD drives, one a reader and one a burner. The cost of this minimum system was about $850, parts, assembly, testing, shipping and three-year warranty. Delivered. I attached my keyboard, mouse and monitor and fired it up. Then I added my RAID 0 controller board and hard disk drives for fault-tolerant RAID 0 to protect my critical business data. Installed my office software, and away I went.
Moreover, I could have saved a couple hundred dollars if I had re-used a Windows XP Pro license, cut back on one DVD drive, and assembled it myself. I would have traded a day or two of my time for the money, which did not make sense for me. But it might make sense for you.
Now, this system was ordered for my replacement office system, but the point is that it would also serve quite nicely as a low-end editing system if I had needed it for that. All I would have needed to add was a couple of A/V hard drives, which I would have put in swap trays so I could move them around between machines, etc. I could use a DV camera for my tape deck input and output. Many cameras will also serve as a pass-through device to convert between the analog and digital world if you need to make VHS tapes.
This system as an editing system would not snap your neck with its performance, but it would do quite nicely in a pinch. This for under $1,000 using your old monitor, keyboard and mouse. And considrably under $1,000 if you re-use your old OS and do your own assembly.
So, I don't know what you expected to get for $4,000. But like I said, if your operations are like mine, and you deal in DV mostly, you don't need $4,000 to get back into the saddle. Your $1,000 or less won't put you on a racehorse, but it won't be an old nag either. What really matters at this point is that you get back into the saddle and on down the road and satisfy your customers.
Case Marsh
Marsh Video Productions
Easton, Maryland
"The Land of Pleasant Living"
www.marshvideo.com
(This post was edited by Case on Mar 16, 2006, 12:30 AM)
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