CompuServe Thread

Tom: >Does anyone have some good info (or know where I can go to find it) on hardware/software requirements to edit hi-8 video on my computer…< Have you checked out DIGITAL VIDEO Magazine, a monthly published by IDG about desktop video and multimedia both, or the pro-video 'zines VIDEO PRO and VIDEOGRAPHY, which usually have sections on DTV? VIDEOMAKER also does a good bit on desktop/non-linear video… >I wish to save the results of my work back to videotape. Does this mean I won't need as much hard drive space as if saving to disk?< Ah…no, not to the best of my knowledge. It helps to think of videotape more like your printer than like a disk drive–while that's where you're finally intending the stuff you're working on to go to, I don't think it's used as a work-in-progress storage medium (the throughput's too slow to use 8mm videotape as anything other than a long-term backup storage medium). >What are the recommended minimum system requirements?< Seems the numbers I've heard bruted about on this forum suggest you'll need *at least* a 486/66 computer or Pentium (if DOS-based) or a Quadra or PowerMac (if Mac-based) with 16 megs of RAM (and 32 or 64 meg are preferred) and about 1 gigabyte hard disk space per 10 minutes of digitized video (not positive about the 1 gig per 10 minutes, but I'm sure it's in that neighborhood). You'll also need a digital video card capable of capturing and outputting video @ 60 fields per second at 320 x 480 pixel resolution (got those numbers from VIDEOMAKER's monthly "Nonlinear Editing PriceWatch" box, BTW–another good magazine to check out). Both Miro's DC1 and Fast's Movie Machine Pro come highly recommended by others on this forum (couldn't say definitely myself, since I've never used either–darn! <g>). Those are, I think, $1,000 – $2,000. BTW, I'd be glad to hear any elaboration on my figures above, which I freely admit are approximate. Hope this helps, Tim Liebe Contributing Editor, VIDEO Magazine