"Waiting for Godot" ???

[Snydley]

Am I naively waiting for a high quality, reasonably priced solution that doesn't exist nor is it likely to in the near future?

Here's my question:

Want to do home video editing. don't want to spend $ 1500 on capture card and software but I do want very good quality. Is the 450 the answer? Is it even close to the RT 2000 in quality and features? Is a Pinnacle card a better option? I need to capture from Hi8 and want to have a finished porduct on DVD. At least I think I do! Must the 450 render to build effects thus taking a large amount of time? And how much time does it take to render a dissolve for example? Sorry for my ignorance but that is why I'm here. I'm in the process of buying a new system P III 800 Mgz, 128 meg ram, 2 x 15 gig ata 100 hard drives, DVDand CDR. Is 256 Meg. RAM more realistic? An enhanced IDE controller has been strongly recommended. All tolled the price tag is steep (About $ 3500 Canadian dollars) before the capture/graphics card is taken into consideration. If I have to go to the RT 2000 or Pinnacle DV 500 I will probably have to build a system to be "video editing ready". so for me this is kind of a make or break question!

Retailers aren't really much help yet because the card is not yet available.

Thanks

P.S. - the book "Waiting for Godot" begins to make a lot of sense in your 40's!

Appologies for posting in the wrong forum initially.

[Dr Mordrid]

You could spend your life waiting for each "next big thing". What you need to do is figure out what you want then find something that does it, next big thing be damned.

Example: lots of folks are going nutsy over the upcoming Storm card, but the official specs haven't even been released! Those that have been rumored have been shot down by folks who should know. Methinks some folks just like the name

Drive subsystems: ATA66 or ATA100. Larger is better. The new Maxtors are great and affordable. There is an 80 gig model that should work great for DV & MPEG. NEVER put your captures on the same drive or drive header as the boot drive.

For DV or MPEG-2 capture cards a single video drive setup is OK. For analog it's nice to have the speed and responsiveness of a RAID array. I use the Promise Fasttrak IDE RAID cards and they've worked great. IDE based RAID is a ton cheaper than SCSI based RAID. By placing 2-4 IDE drives into a RAID array you get their additive size and a ton more speed over a single drive.

CPU: faster is better, but expensive it does not have to be. The new Celeron-II and Duron systems are 98% as fast as their big (expensive) brothers and just great for editing. 600 mhz is fine unless your device does software MPEG captures in which case you should go for 800+ mhz. This, of course, drives up the price.

Memory: I have several systems with 256 megs and it seems to be plenty. I'm sure someone will prefer 384 or 512 megs, but unless you're doing very heavy work in 3D programs like 3D Studio MAX it's not necessary. Heck, I use MAX myself and 256 has been working fine.

Mainboards: I use the Asus P3B-F, however it's now out of production (DAMN!). There are now some i815 options, but they still aren't as fast as the King of the BX's. That's one fast board....

Hardware/Software: this is where the rubber meets the road. Generally the trend is to realtime cards such as the RT-2000, DV500 etc. but these aren't necessarily the best solutions for everyone.

Some folks will do just fine with a Marvel G400-TV and MediaStudio Pro6. This can be a formidable setup as it allows you directly capture to not only its native MJPeg but to DivX, HuffYUV (great for video destined for VCD, SVCD or DVD) and other alternate/freeware codecs. You can also add a DV card to a Marvel system and do both analog and DV based on the needs of the project (DV can be horrible for bluescreening). I have four systems set up this way.

I also have the RT-2000 and it's great as long as you use one of the recommended mainboards (mine: Asus P3B-F). Stray from the recommended hardware list at your own risk. This will be true for any realtime board, but the RT-2000 in particular because of its high performance.

One nice feature of the RT-2000 is the software bundle: Premiere RT full version, DVDit! DVD/miniDVD mastering software, Sonic Music, Inscriber Title Express (download from Matrox's support site), Cool3D 3D titles and SpiceRack Lite (in the new 2.0 MEGA Pack driver release). On top of that the new MEGA Pack drivers have well over 1,000 canned effects. That comes down to a lot of functionality.

Here are the setups for my RT-2000 system. The Marvel G400-TV systems are very similar:

Asus P3B-F 6/1/1 w/ver. 1006 BIOS
PIII/850 CuMine
Gigabyte GA-6R7Pro/6R7+ jumperless slotkey
Matrox G400 Flex3D + Matrox RT-2000
256 megs RAM
Two 120 gig Fasttrak100 RAID0 arrays
AWE64 Gold

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 26 October 2000).]

[cjyo~]

BTW, the ASUS CUBX motherboard is now on the RT2000 official compatibility list. I sent my CUSL2 back for the CUBX and haven't looked back.

[Snydley]

I will read the posting on the Matrox Hardware forum but will pick up this thread to add a new posting. sorry about the confusion! The following I have posted on the hardware forum.

The information that I am gathering on this site is THE most helpful I have received so far as it is based on users' real experiences. I probably have not even asked all the right question so any and all information is very much appreciated.

Here is what was recommended to me by a computer supplier that "specializes" in desktop video.

ASUS CUSL2 Main board with Intel 815 chipsetwith ATX form factor with 133 FSB
Pentium III 733 Mhz
2 - Maxotr 15.3 Gig Ultra DMA 7200rpm 9MS 2MB drives
128 MB RAM
1 floppy
Built in enhanced IDE and FDD controller
Matrox millenium G400 video card
Asus 50X CD-rom ultra DMA 33
Diamond monster sound card
Pinnacle DV 500 Miro
2X15GB=30 GB Raid controller

Do they sound knowledgeable and correct?

On a personal side, I am a sports television cameraman in Canada. Because of my television background I realize the importance of tastefully editing down my home video. Although I have shot many great moments in sports, nothing will compare to chronicaling my daughter's life. It continues to be my most treasured project.

Thanks

[Snydley]

In my last post I included the Pinnacle DV 500 as the capture card and edit software. Actually, they said it was interchangeable with the RT 2000.

Sorry for the Freudian slip - I'm sure mentioning Pinnacle in this forum is like trying to buy a whopper at a Mcdonalds!

[Pertti]

Snydley,

If you are considering the RT2000, then I don't recommend the CUSL2 (at least for now).

The CUSL2 is a fine board for general use, and works just fine with the MarvelG400, but due to the politics in effect at Intel during the design stage of the 815/815e chipset, it is not quite up to the requirements of something like the RT2000.
The situation may change with bios updates to the CUSL2, but then again it might not.

If you want a no-nonsence, heavy duty system than can do whatever you want, then you should get a CUBX (if you are not lucky enough to find a P3B-F somewhere).

Processor, personally I would get one with a 100MHz FSB instead of paying the same money for a slower one that has already been overclocked

The Maxtor drives are the way to go, but Raid is not necessary.
As far as the HD controllers are concerned, the ATA33 found on the BX boards is still fast enough.

DV500 interchangeable with the RT2000...LOL

[cjyo~]

To add to the CUSL2 information... I just joined the RT2000 club last month and wasted a week trying to get it to work with a CUSL2 (and it never did). I exchanged in for an Asus CUBX.

The 815 chipset (and CUSL2) has a maximum AGP Aperture limit of 64mb, but the RT2000 really needs to have an AGP Aperture at 256. There is a patch for the current drivers, but a recently released beta of the next version of the Matrox Video Tools 2.0 software doesn't support the CUSL2 (yet).

As the others advised me, the older BX based boards seem to be a much more stable platform for an editing system.