Advise needed with Ist video editing

[efm2]

Hi guys,
I am planning to try my hands on video editing for the first time. Nothing professional stuff but I just want to transfer some videos to DVD. I have an old Sony Handycam CCD TRV35 NTSC and a new Sony DCR-PC109. Any advise or precautions that I need to know before I start? Is an external HDD a must or I can just edit it in my eMac? I plan to just edit, burn it, and delete the file afterwards. Is this a good idea? I won't be doing this in high volumes but maybe once a month. BTW, I'm using an eMac 1.25 with SD. Thanks for any input.

[Edited on 11-17-2004 by efm2]

[xineizer]

You can use iMovie to capture, edit, and output your movie to Quicktime or back to tape. It's very very easy! Just drag and drop the clips, add transitions, and drag and drop music from your iTunes. You can use iDVD to help you create your DVD.

If you have enough disk space on your eMac, then it should do just fine. I only have 20GB of free space on my PowerBook, and it's enough to capture 91mins of video, and produce an edited 60-min video.

[efm2]

Hi xineizer,
So, its iMovie first then iDVD if I want a DVD copy. I still have about 60 GB in my eMac. Thanks

[kalbo]

It is really easy.
But just a few points to remember - when you import in iMovie - make sure the format is in NTSC otherwise it won't work.
Since I am in Hong Kong and working in a school with people from different parts of the world, I always need to check the format.
Once you start in NTSC you can't switch to PAL or vice versa. don't think that's a problem with you.
Raw dv takes a lot of memory roughly 1GB for 5 mins. So you can use that as a guide.
On exporting the video - If you don't mind the drop in quality you can compress using the different codecs available.
Or you can save it in dv format which keeps the quality of the original. You can use this dv format in iDVD and the results are excellent.
Keep in mind that encoding and burning a DVD project takes quite a bit of time on my PB so it may take longer on the eMac
I have saved edited video back to dv tape and I think there is a loss.
.Mac has some tutorials that are helpful.
There are also books available that have many tips and tricks to help.
Experience is also a good teacher. I have taught high schoolers how to use it and they're still at basic level but can manage quite well.
Good luck on your project.

[efm2]

Hi kalbo,
I am currently running only 256 MB RAM. Is this doable? Or do I need to upgrade before I start any editing? Thanks

[xineizer]

Originally posted by efm2
I am currently running only 256 MB RAM. Is this doable? Or do I need to upgrade before I start any editing? Thanks

My old white iBook (with Bloom now), only has 256MB of memory. I used to use that machine for video capture and editing using iMovie. No problems.

[efm2]

Thanks. That saved me a lot of cash!

[kalbo]

HI efm2,
No need to upgrade - the school uses iBooks with 256MB RAM no problems with editing or with encoding afterwards. It takes a while to encode when exporting your project. 5 minute videos take around 30 minutes.

Looks like you have 60 GB so that's a lot of space for your projects and you should have no problems with editing.
Another note I just remembered - do not empty your trash until you are sure you have finished your project. You can restore clips easily.
I had some students who liked playing with the trash icon and lost a lot of their projects unnecessarily.
Enjoy.

[brainiac]

what is the ideal memory and HDD space requirement to edit?

medyo semi-pro po, like mga AVPs po kasi. im used to using avid express pro, ano po ba katulad na software nito na pwede sa mac? tnx

eg.

10 mins - end product
60 mins - raw materials

take note: may iba pa pong gfx and transitions and scoring

[brainiac]

does ibook needs any additonal hardwares?

capture card - Q: even if the format is from a mini-dv? doesn't d video card support any capture card functions?

HDD - external would do, right?

Memory - how much memory is advisable to do a decent editing

Video card - does ibook share memory? or separate?

processor - i really don't know how does a mac performs, in terms of speed... so how does 1Ghz of Mac perform compared to 1Ghz of a Pentium processor..

thnx.. hope u will have time to answer my questions..