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Todd P. wrote:

Today, I stopped at Best Buy and discovered the HP Pavilion Slimline s3400f, which had a lot of what I'm looking for ... except it's a PC.

Well it's ok. It's limited because of the Vista Home edition as the OS. It also has very little RAM, you'd need to up grade that to it''s full capacity of 4 GB.

Secondly, it is only expandable to 4 GB. A Mac Pro can take much more, and you would need that RAM.

Thirdly, a Mac Pro has 2 quad cores, this one only has 2 dual cores.

It only has a single firewire port and it doesn't say 400 or 800.

This is a low end, bare-bones machine for what you want to do. DO NOT use low end machines for what you want to do.

The additional investment in a high end, powerful machine will make work go faster, and reduce your headaches.

1. Import video from a digital videotapes. I don't even know the proper name of a digital video deck. At work, we connect the camcorder to the computer via FireWire, which puts a lot of extra wear on the camera.

To tell you the truth I don't know about these either. But the ones I've found by googling are in the $1000 range or higher, and seem to only have composite analog inputs and outputs. I suspect a professional deck might be higher in cost. The advantage of digital cameras is that they also have firewire ports so you can transfer digital without going through an analog connection. Which is what you want. Other wise you will lose things in the translation.

2. Import video and images from memory cards. I doubt there's anything better for that than a card reader, but what do I know?

I would agree that a card reader would work. Buy an all-in-one printer like the HP officejets and get it built in. Very cost effective.

3. Digitize music from vinyl records.

I'd still use a Mac. I like the software, it's better designed in the interface.

4. Digitize VHS tapes.

Here you will have to go from an analog converter into the computer. Datavideo makes converters, most are in the $500 and higher range. There are others.

5. Burn CDs and DVDs. Using the computer to do that can't be the best solution if I want to do this a lot.

To mass produce them, yes, there are better ways than using the computer. However, you only need to make a master in order to mass produce and you still need the computer for that. Lableing needs to be done, either on appliques or printed directly on the disc. Relatively inexpensive equipment is available.

That HP did not list that it had a built in minidv deck unless I missed it.

Professional DVCAM decks are around $5000 on the low-end up to $20000 on the high-end.  All of them can be had with Firewire ports.  All of the full size decks can load the mini-style tapes.

As for the rest; AJA Video makes some very nice Firewire capture cards that can handle just about anything.

-mark

Hmmm, you're right, it doesn't seem to mention it. However, on the display model I saw at Best Buy, I was able to flip down the silver panel at the bottom and it at least looked like a place to insert a minidv. I'll bet now that was what the specs refer to as a pocket drive bay. Yeesh, maybe I'm more ignorant than I thought.

The device I'm looking to name is shown in Diary of the Dead but I can't see it well enough to figure out who made it. The movie has been posted to YouTube; the scene I'm talking about is here around the three-minute mark, to the right of the laptop.

Last edited by Todd P. (2008-07-14 7:08 pm)

Yep, "Holy smurf!!!" I presumed a deck would be more cost-effective than buying a cheapish minidv camcorder and importing from that via FireWire, but apparently not.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I'd even need a device for minidv right from the start. I'm thinking more of testing these waters by passing out fliers at senior centers and the likes, offering to make a fairly low-priced family movie DVD out of their photos and favorite music. A good scanner and USB turntable (both already ordered) would probably suffice.

This is a quick look at Sony's website for mini dv tape deck

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servle … Id=1004295

It works great and play DV/HDV , does the analogue to digital conversion.

A friend of mine as it and uses it to prevent wear and tear of is Sony HDRFX1
http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servle … Id=1000282


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An all-in-one provides multiple uses which makes it more cost-effective.

Yes it is expensive to keep in ink, however, the ability to scan, copy, fax as well as the built in card readers make it versitle, and good for space saving. If you need specific high speed or high resolution scanning, most individuals will not be able to afford the hardware or justify it.

avkills wrote:

Those type decks are great if all you need to do is plop your mini-dv / mini HDV tape into them and capture over firewire to your computer.

That's what he said he is doing, just import over fire wire.

avkills wrote:

Professional DVCAM decks provide pro connections for analog input and output and XLR audio in/out; which is pretty much mandatory in the live staging and show world.

Don't feel too bad though; a professional HD camera for studio use costs around $100,000 just for the camera head (at least the Sony one does).  And you need a lens and a studio back + lens controls + camera control unit to make it actually usable.

Another option would be to just rent whatever deck/camera the job calls for.

-mark

Todd P. wrote:

Now, I'm exploring some freelance possibilities that might include video editing

I know XLR, gen lock or whatever other connection is essential in a TV studio, but for for a starting freelance that might do video editing, it's a bit over kill.

The suggestion of renting the equipment for the first few time is a good start, You can try different equipment and brand, see which one suit you.

The two piece of equipment I pointed at are prosumer so yeah they lack certain feature but does what he wants to do: import over fire wire, analog to digital conversion.


Or he could get a RED  camera and he would have all the pro input/output at a fraction of a studio HD camera.


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Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. It's been very helpful.