CompuServe Messages

Paul, your setup and emphasis on low quality digital editing has me now thinking along these lines. Here's were I am now (aplogies if you've seen this post before) … I'm a rank amateur (and 25 yrs with 35mm photography) shooting Hi8 with a Sony TR-700. I am looking for a good video editing suit, preferably PC/Windows based but I would accept a non-computer solution if need be. I'm having a very hard time getting a fix on decent amateur gear … anything good appears to be in the pro ranks only and consumer photo/video shops do NOT carry any of it. Performance is the primary consideration but price follows as a close second. So far I've had strong recommendations from 'prosumers' for Videonics stand alone editing suite (EditSuite, MX-1 Mixer and TM-2000 Titler) and ///FAST Video Machine Lite for Windows. Both about $2200. For lesser cost I've come across Great Valley Products Personal Suite Plus built around their G-Lock VGA+ card (uses the slow Tseng ET-4000 chip) and G-Lock modified versions of Video Director 1.5, PrimeTime and Curtain Call. Have you heard of any of these? This suit doesn't do A/B roll but does do fade to and from graphics. Scroll, fades, wipes, etc. titles. $499 from Electronic Mailbox. I do just have this one in hand but haven't put it on a PC yet. I'd also like to try out Abbates Video Toolkit for Windows and maybe FutureVideo's V-Station 3300 edit controller also for Windows (this one has GPI and will trigger Videonics' MX-1 for SFX if one wants such a mix). The candidates mentioned in the above two paragraphs are much less expensive than the ///FAST or Videonics suite solutions but if they are 'inadequate' then it's the ///FAST vs. Videonics. I don't have to have A/B roll initially (fade to and from graphics is ok) tho I'd like it eventually when I add another source (probably Sony EV-S7000 Hi8 deck). I'm also using a Mitsu U-82 S-VHS deck for recording which has only IR control and this, of course, is limiting. I really ought to have a machine controllable interface on this deck. Now enter your influence on low quality digital editing, esp. Adobe Preimere and now … The computer stuff I'm taking about is not NLE, only edit control, titling, graphics and effects. I'd like to mix some simple NLE with tape editing but all who've used the consumer priced stuff say it is totally inadequate for video output. It seems to me that if this low res NLE stuff [Paul, recognize your influence? <g>] could be used to setup the EDL then turn this over to the tape edit control software a lot of wear and tear plus much shorter edit times could be obtained. So, I'm looking to this sort of 'hybrid' consumer level solution. For this reason I am biased toward a computer based edit controller and therefore titler, graphics, special effects, etc. BUT if the programs and hardware don't measure up the Videonics solution is a solid one. Just limited in this sense. Paul, something like VideoBlaster RT300, MicroVIDEO DC1, Snap Plus VL, Video Wonder, Snappy Video Snapshot – all with JPEG compression – come to mind. Most are packaged with Preimere tho the ads show the older 1.1 version. Now you are Mac and I'm PC, but maybe you can advise or am I totally out in right field? Thanks. -jts