What spec PC is acceptable for dv editing and analogue to digital conversion? Is this one ok?

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Hi, I would like to buy a PC. I am in my final year at Uni, but don't know what my plans ae for next year i.e. in Britain or not - this will affect how much I spend on a PC. I basically want to capture VHS onto CD or harddrive with very good quality if possible. Also, i want to be able to capture DV from a digital video camera. Basically I'm a beginner DV capture enthusiast based on a still image manipulating experience with Adobe Photoshop 6. I would like to capture some footage at Uni and make into a cd for mates, and also save my VHS collection from deterioration!! I'm looking at minimising my costs but I know a good system costs a lot of money. Just wondering if the folowing spec sounds good enough:

XP1600+ MAXTOR 40GB HDD 7200rpm 256MB DDR MEMORY Super ATI Radeon VE 64MB AGP VGA TV Out + DVI 16X40 DVD-ROM DRIVE 16X10X40 CD-RW ELITE ECS K7S5A MOTHERBOARD

Plus a ADS PYRO ProDV (Platinum Bundle)

Can you suggest improvements to the system or an outright disapproval. Please help me! Cheers

-- James Tinker (esvjr@csv.warwick.ac.uk), March 05, 2002

Answers

Disk space goes fast -- input avi files require about 2GB for 10 minutes. If you are going to do any editing double that to allow for intermediate work files.

I don't know what the ADS PYRO ProDV Platinum Bundle includes, but it does not appear to me that it provides analog video I/O. I am still looking for a low cost quality solution here myself.

Be aware that DVD-ROM disks cannot be read on DVD players -- only on your computer.

If you are not tied to a PC, check out IMAC.

-- Dan Miles (dfmiles@pacbell.net), April 03, 2002.


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