videobear
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May 19, 2006, 5:14 PM
Post #3 of 6
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Re: [oddball] Advise for a beginer
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1. You have to be able to convert the analog video output from the camera to a digital form. Some video cards (ATI All in Wonder) can do this, but for best quality, you should get a card (or box) that will convert the video to DV format. See the various "ADVC" offerings from Canopus, http://www.canopus.com
2. Your computer should have a second hard drive, preferably 50GB or larger, to store the video data. DV files take up about 13 GB per hour of video.
3. Once the video's on your hard drive, you may want to edit it. Some of the Canopus offerings come with editing software. Or, you could use the "MovieMaker 2" software that's bundled with Windows XP. Or, you could look into a more capable program, such as Sony Vegas. It all depends on how involved you want to get with this project/hobby.
4. The edited video has to be converted from DV to MPEG-2 format to go onto a DVD. Some editing software can do this, or you might want to look at a DVD "authoring" program. In addition to converting the video to MPEG-2, an authoring program lets you designate chapter points and make DVD navigation menus.
5. Finally, your computer must have a DVD burner installed.
There's another way to do this, which might be cheaper and simpler, although you won't have as much flexibility in terms of editing the video and designing your DVD. That would be a stand-alone DVD recorder. This is a box that looks and works much like a VCR. Video from your camcorder goes into the inputs, and the machine records it onto a DVD. Panasonic makes some nice ones, and so does Pioneer. Prices start around $250 or so.
Regards,
Doug Graham
Panda Productions
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