Well I am not expert, but I have been working with ( ok struggling
with) Video for about a year now. A decent video card will make a big
difference when working with DVD or Video editing. It is not so much the
speed but the quality of the 2D image. And after all, when you are editing,
you are trying to control output quality. So you want to be able to see it
frame by frame in a pristine state. Nobody can do this at a consumer level
better then Matrox. I use a Matrox G450 32 meg dual head and a Matrox G200
PCI Marvel 16 megs.
You do not need a game or 3D modeling card like Nvidia and Radon excel at
making. And you don't need more then 16 megs of video RAM because you can't
output video at high resolutions and color levels. DVD playback on a
monitor is typically 800 X 600 16 bit color. 2D and Video is what Matrox
is designed for, and this is where it shines. They actually make a
professional G200 2500 series capture card that runs around $1500. This
is a very popular card among pros. You will always find them used on eBay
in the 750 to 1200 range. There are more expensive professional models as well.
For the consumer you either want a Matrox Parhelia, or perhaps a Marvel
G450eTV. When it comes to 2D or DVD editing, the Parhelia is the standard
by which other cards are measured. DVD editing is what Matrox targeted the
Parhelia for. Even though it is a consumer card, a lot of professional
shops are using it for DVD work. Note that Matrox has abandoned the Marvel
line as well as consumer video capturing cards. But the Marvel are still
useful cards, and the G450eTV has Win 2000 and XP drivers with Video tools.
I have been using a Marvel G200 TV (circa 1998) that I got really cheap
three years ago on eBay. And have just last week purchased a G450eTV Retail
Box on eBay for 100 bucks. The seller told me he paid $350 dollars for this
new retail box six months ago but couldn't get it to work on his setup. I
have never had a problem getting a Matrox card to work and I have been
using them for over a decade. On the other hand, I and many others, have
had lots of problems with Nvidia and Radon, but that is typical with
products at the bleeding edge of performance.
The Marvels are 15 in one cards with TV. You can record TV, capture
external sources and output to a TV or a VCR. The G450eTV requires a 600
Ghz processor and comes with it's own video tools although you can use
third party programs for capturing. There are drivers for windows 2000 and
XP however there will not be any new drivers posted for Marvel cards. The
G450eTV is dual head in the sense that you can output to a TV, while at the
same time using your monitor for other things, You can also clone the Video
output on your PC monitor, or run the TV output simultaneously in a small
window on your monitor. They are readily available OEM for anywhere from
100 on eBay remanufactured to 180 brand new OEM on Pricewatch. If you buy
it used, make sure it comes with all the special cables. The manual,
drivers and current BIOS flash can be downloaded from Matrox.
There is also an older G400 or G200 Marvel. With the G200 you can only
record in Windows 98. These have external connection boxes but they don't
have the dual head capability and the 400 is a little bit slower then the
450. The manuals for these are available for download. I would recommend
reading the manual of any Matrox card you are considering purchasing.
Matrox on line support forums, and warranty service, are very good.
When Video editing, the two factors that are important are CPU and hard
drive speed. Single CPU speed is the most important consideration. Hard
Drive speed is important for capturing at high quality codecs....but if you
just want to record TV or capture VHS at mpeg-1 for playback on a computer,
then it isn't so important. You do want at least a ULTRA 66 7200 RPM drive.
If you want to go all the way, a 15000 RPM Seagate SCSI Cheetah would be
great. Or a couple of 7200 RPM drives in a RAID 1 setup. Fast capture
speeds mean less dropped frames and higher video quality.
RAM isn't an issue in video editing. Back when RAM was expensive and most
people ran with 16, 32 or 64 megs it was a consideration. But now days when
256 megs is common it is no longer an issue. 256 megs of RAM is fine. Your
not loading a single large graphic file into RAM to edit. You are loading
Video clips, and your CPU and or hard drive will be your performance indicator.
Of course the best way to capture is to use an external device, such as a
Dazzle Bridge or something comparable. But you need to be capturing a lot
of VHS tapes to justify the expense.
Video editing is the most dynamic area of the computing industry. It
changes every day, and everything can turn around 180 degrees over night!
There is no easy way to learn how to work with it, because it is so
dynamic. It is a steep and fluid learning curve. It is one of those
interests where you can't throw enough money at. After a while it will
start to make sense to run the fastest dual processor setup you can afford,
with all sorts of speciality external devices. And there will be no end to
the upgrades.
I would advise anyone to move into this slowly and learn some skills before
you start spending serious money on hardware and software you don't fully
understand. After you struggle with it, you will know what is available,
and what you really need to buy to do what you want to accomplish. I tried
lots of different video editing software before I found one that I could
actually work with.
Nothing has been more frustrating, or given me a bigger headache, then
learning how to work with video!
And I am still a loooooong way from being proficient !
That said, it can be a lot of fun!
Rode
The NOSPIN Group
http://freepctech.com
At 08:37 AM 9/20/2002 -0300, you wrote:
>. They would all
>tell you that a faster CPU and more memory will make for faster production
>and more money in the digital video business. A faster, bigger hard drive
>will help with frequent defrags will help tremendously too!
>Howard in Fortaleza, Brazil
>
>video card has very little to do with video editing performance, any card
>will do in fact. What you are looking for, is something that good at 2D,
>and inexpensive. Matrox card is good at 2D, but their price is always rip
>off (compare what they can offer). You may look for a ATi card, maybe one
>of early ATi card (eg R7500) which is very good at 2D as well, and cost much
>less than Matrox, plus reasonable 3D performance at its price (Matrox is
>hopeless at 3D).
>
>video editing performance is very much depending on CPU, RAM and HDD.
>
>Jun Qian
>
>
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