#Recommendations Wanted
7 messages in this thread
I'm doing some consulting for a friend of mine, but his questions are a bit out
of my realm of experience. What he's looking for is the most effective (read
least expensive) way to get titles overlayed on video, add animations, and do
some general editing of existing tape libraries through his pc. He has Video
Director software with a 486 DX2-66, 16mb ram, 340mb HD. I told him the hard
disk would have to upgraded immediately to do any serious video work. I
understand the concept of Genlock and overlay boards, but am unsure if there is
an all-in-1 solution to his needs. He is limited by only having one slot free
in his computer presently.
Are there any recommendations as to how he can get into video
editing/overlay/animation on a limited budget, and what kind of hardware is he
looking for to accomplish same? All suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Eddie Moore
Hi Eddie,
For the price, I don't think he can beat the results of adding an Overlay
Genlock, with Character Generation, Painting & Animation software.
Something like the GVP Personal Suite Plus comes with the Genlock/SVGA
Card, Video Director with GVP Genlock Extensions for machine control,and a
package called Curtain Call with GVP Extensions for titling and
animations. This will give him what they call a cuts-only editing system,
and run about ~$500.
With this solution he will not be recording video to the hard drive of his
IBM Compatible, therefore a hardware upgrade (other than the GVP Card
itself) will not be required. This is a 0 slot solution as he can remove
his SVGA Card from the Compatible and replace it with the GVP, and still
have his one slot free.
-John
Thanks for the info. Looks like just what the doctor ordered….and in his
price range too. I'll pass the recommendation along.
Eddie
Sorry about jumping, but…
I'm looking for a reasonably inexpensive way to get into video, for PC display
purposes only, and was wondering whether Intel's Indeo (a) has a future, and
(b) is a particularly good avenue to take. Looks like the cards can be had for
about $400.
Any thoughts?
Many thanks!
Dave
Hi Dave!
Indeo is one of a number of compression/decompression schemes that will be
fighting for market share over the next few years. They seem to be taking
the tack of software based compression and decompression versus other
hardware based systems like MPEG and MJPEG. This has advantages in that
more machines will have the ability to play indeo video, however, it takes
one heck of a machine do a decent job of doing it in software.
-John
John:
Thank you for your Indeo thoughts.
I ended up buying the card and so far have had decent luck during the short
time I've had to get it going. The video looks excellent, owing substantially
to the S-video output from my Hi8 camera. The sound, however, I have yet to
conquer due to my unfamiliarity with the Ensoniq sound card that came with my
new (flawed :<) Pentium.
This coming weekend I hope to have more time to sort the whole thing out–or at
least to get a handle on it.
Thanks again.
Dave
I am also highly interested in your results. I don't want to get rid of my ATI
Mach 64 card, so what you are doing sounds interesting. While your input is
Hi-8, what is your output? Are you overlaying things are fitting in clips
between hi-8 video?
Mark