I wish to purchase a new PC for DV editing.

Given that I have a reasonable understanding of the PC hardware requirements, what card/software configuration can best support my requirement of utilising not only recently captured DV input(Sony TRV320E), but also my Video 8 analog tapes over the years, for output to (subsequently) VHS and CD-ROM.

Rob Stewart, ,

Two possibilities here. Check if your Sony DV camera supports converting an analog input into DV. If it does you can connect your Video 8 camera to the composite input on the TRV, then the Firewire/iLink connector from the TRV to the PC and capture the old footage in pure DV format. If it does, all you need is a standard basic Firewire card.

If the TRV320E model is more 'consumer' oriented it may not be able to do this though. An option then is to buy a more professional video capture card that offers Firewire as well as analog inputs, and can convert the analog into DV as it records. Cards like the higher end models from Pinnacle or Canopus, or Matrox can do this. But you're looking at over $1,000 roughly. The cheaper option could be to simply connect the Video 8 camera to the Composite input of the DV camera and dub the old footage across to a DV tape. Then capture it to the PC later. Shouldn't lose too much quality in the process.

As for software -- again budget can be a deciding factor. The best 'consumer' software around would be Ulead Video Studio or Sonic Foundry's Video Factory. For something more powerful and versatile, look at Ulead Media Studio Pro, Sonic Foundry Vegas Video, or the king of Video software Adobe Premiere. All support both analog and DV and can capture and edit in DV format no problem. Getting it back out to tape can be a problem though, as, in my experience, playing the timeline out the Firewire port back to the camera to record to tape can be problematic. Premiere seems best, but it is still causing problems (for me personally at least). You can then dub it to VHS tape from the camera. If you get a more professional capture card with Analog inputs and outputs, outputting top VHS should be a simple matter of connecting it directly to the composite (RCA) output on the card. This can also be used to connect a TV monitor so you can better see what you are doing when editing -- very important when working towards full quality tape output.

To CD-ROM -- render/export your final edit to an AVI or Quicktime MOV format. Select a multimedia frame size, frame rate, and check the data rate checkbox with a rate of around 600 kb/s . Use a common software compressor like Sorenson or Indeo. or you could save it to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format to create a Video CD or Super-VCD. Or maybe even MPEG-4, though this will only run on a PC with the right MPEG4 player software installed.

Philip Moore