PC Config

[karan_and]

Dear Members,
I am sorry for posting yet another config related post but would appriciate any kind of valuable input.
We at our facility have decided to install a PRO audio workstation for taking up Film & Documentary work.
I have managed to find suggestions and configs for a really stable home/semi pro user system but would like to obtain few usefull tips regarding things that can be added to a setup for more amount of flexibility and ease of use.
Budget is not too much of a constrain.
Also....We'r thinking in terms of getting the Pinnacle Miro Motion Dc30+ video capture card for grabbing video.
Is there a better option.

Thanks a tonn for your input,
Regards
Kay

[Joe Hannigan]

DV & Firewire capture seem to be the best way to go thse days, at least for semi-pro stuff, regarldess of what brand you use. They should all get you INTO the computer, in terms of AVI or MPG2 files.

For PC work, there's Adobe and Vegas - both good for video editing & pre-DVD Authoring. (My own personal experience SCREAMS for Vegas.....smarter, eaiser, and absolutely no crashes whatsoever in a year and half solid useage.)

As for audio, there's a few good ones out there for PC, depending on how deep you need to go. Both Vegas and Adobe have better-than-basic audio editing complements now. (Adobe now incorporates Cool Edit, and Vegas uses Sound Forge.)

If you need more than that for deep audio tweaking & mixing, there's plenty of good PC software out there. My own preference is MAGIX's Samplitude 7.0. (soon to be 8.0)

Once you've got your audio & video sorted out, you'll no doubt want to burn to DVD; the newest and most popular standard. Vegas comes bundled with DVD Architect and Dolby 5.1 surround AC3 functions, as well as mutlitple audio track capablity. (Stereo, AC3, etc.) Not sure what Adobe has, but I'm sure it's comparable.

On a good PC (P4, 2.6 GZ or higher) you should be fine with any of them. It just depends on what you're comfortable with, after you've done your capturing. This thread should be a good place for you to hear from others with similar experience.

There's a lot of good ways to get the job done, these are just what works for me.

[macouno]

Well Final cut Pro, Media 100 and Avid are all more pro software than what Joe mentions.... But I myself love Vegas as well... especially cause you don't have to pre render every effect to see it... a lot of the pro software needs you to do that unless you buy some very expensive hardware.

Have a good look at cubase for audio... I think it's the best out there for pc.

[Joe Hannigan]

um, Final Cut, Media 100 and Avid are all MAC systems, aren't they? (Not sure what platform Kay is on, I can only comment on PC/Windows stuff.)

Glad you like Vegas too. Forgot to mention the real-time preview, perhaps the main reason I tried it in the first place.

Funny; many Samplitude users are ex-Cubase. Not sure what features made 'em switch, but of course much of this stuff comes down to personal preferences and what makes ya comfortable...

Fortunately, there's a lot of good choices out there, regardless of what side of the fence you're on.

[macouno]

Heh yeah... But there's a pc version of avid. I just thought I'd list the ones I've sat behind... the more options people have to look at ;)

I'm ex-logic/protools myself but that's mac also.

BTW: I've found adobe encore (dvd creation) better since it has more options than dvd architect, but it is much less intuitive. I haven't tried the new version of dvd architect though.

O and I have a pinnacle capture card as well... not the one you mentioned... but it does the job well and I bought it myself since the reviews were all real positive about pinnacle... the interface is quite usable as well.