Hi!

I currently have a Sony-TR2000 (Hi8) camcorder and some hours of Hi8
recordings in PAL format.

I suppose that Hi8 is about to die :-) and I wish to get these recording on
DVD
(all raw-materials also). I lost track of the camcorder/editing development
sometime in 2000 and I dont
know the technology very well.

My spec is as follows:
1. I wish to convert my Hi8 from the TR2000 camera to DVD format with a
quality "that is worthy the camera quality".
[TR2000 was (and is) a fairly good quality camera and it feels silly to have
bought this high priced camera to get
good recordings just to give it away 7yrs later on a shitty videocard :-) ]
The recording are mostly outdoors, light-rich recordings.

2. Once I have the recordings on DVD format I wish to be able to to editing.
My functional requirements are:
to be able to add title to a video, possibly subtitles. To to do editing in
general and also insert editing - insert recorded movie in the middle of an
exisiting recording and still keep the (stereo)audio (it used to be tricky
in the analog world). All this with a quality
"that is worthy the camera quality" :-)

My question is; what kind of a minimus configuration am I talking about to
achieve this? (Regarding PC and videocard)
Which spec-figures are of interest?

Frank

"Frank" wrote in message...
Gee, this is one of those times when you can crack the same nut any number
of different ways., and I guess it ultimately depends how much you want to
spend, and what sort of capability (in terms of capture, storage and
editing) you want.

If all you want to do is capture the video from your camcorder, turn it
straight into MPEG2 and burn to recordable DVD, all you need is a cheap
capture device (there are plenty of USB based software and hardware capture
gadgets around nowadays that will accept an S-Video signal), a DVD recorder
and some easy DVD making software (Nero Vision Express etc.), which will
give you the ability to do some very basic cutting before burning to disc.

If you want more editing capability, the best option is to capture in DV
format, but to do so you'll need a fair bit of hard disk space (DV weighs in
at around 12MB/min), some good editing/DVD production software (Pinnacle
Studio 9 is cheap, powerful and easy to use), a DV capture device, and a DVD
recorder.

There are again options with the DV capture. You could go for a standalone
DV bridge like the ADS Pyro Link (which would need Firewire on the target
computer), or a PCI card like the PMS SweetSpot, which is about the most
versatile, best quality capture card available at any price. The SweetSpot
has the added advantage that you can capture in DV or MPEG2 format, and it
can also accept Component (Y/Pr/PB) or RGBS/RGsB video in addition to
S-Video and Composite, enabling you to connect set-top digital TV boxes and
so-on as capture sources.

Another option if you want to capture in DV would be to buy a cheap Digital8
camcorder. Many of these will transcode regular Video 8 and Hi 8 tapes into
DV, but this would likely work out more expensive than using a Pyro or
SweetSpot.

If you do want to edit, a powerful CPU will help speed up rendering of
effects and final video, but to a large extent, the qualities of the video
card are secondary. If you have a Matrox card of course, you can use the
multi-display features to get things like real time previews on a connected
TV, depending on which software you use.

HTH!
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace .nospam with .com in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com
Get the most out of your digital photos www.dabsxpose.com

"Richard Hopkins" wrote in message...
Obviously didn't have my thinking head on when I wrote that, as DV really
weighs in at nearer 200MB/min, so you must plan your hard disk requirements
accordingly if this is what you plan to use as the primary on-disk
storage/editing medium.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace .nospam with .com in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com
Get the most out of your digital photos www.dabsxpose.com

Hi!

Thank you for feedback!

Frank