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Videoguys mid-range NLE shootout (Aug '05)–
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Here it is, the latest version of one of our websites most popular and important articles!! Almost 3 years ago I wrote our first DV capture card shoot out. At the time I selected "under $1000" as the cut off point. Well, like everything else in the world of technology, the products have not only gotten better, they are more affordable then ever. That is why I selected $500 as my cut off point last year. In 2002 most of the products featured are $300 or less!! This years shoot out gets a little bit more interesting because one of our real-time cards, the Pinnacle DV500Plus, has dropped in price to $549.95 – so I am including it in the shoot out.
All of the cards in this article will run on an old Pentium III or Athlon system of 500 Mhz or faster. If you are getting a new machine, make it a P4 or Athlon at 1Ghz or more. You want to give it lots of RAM – a minimum of 128 megs, 256 or more is recommended. The more powerful & faster the computer, the better your overall editing environment will be. The speed and power of your computer will have no effect on the video quality, it will simply make everything work faster while you edit. For best results I urge you to configure your computer with two drives. The first should be about 10GB for your OS and all software. Then I recommend a dedicated drive (the bigger the better) for video. DV footage eats up 13GB per hour, and you need room for your raw footage and temp files. This drive does not have to be SCSI, it can be an UltraATA EIDE drive. For a detailed listing of what hardware we recommend and what you should avoid, check out our recommended systems page.
Before we get into the under $500 portion of the shootout, lets talk about the cards you can get for around $100. If you've been to your local computer or electronics super store, or read the circulars in your weekly paper, you've probably seen many different solutions advertised. While all these cards are very similar, and all support the OHCI standard, we only recommend two products in this category Pinnacle Studio DV 7 and the ADS Pyro DV. Why are these the only two we recommend? Easy – because both of these companies have been actively selling and developing computer based video editing solutions for years. Pinnacle and ADS were pioneers in the development of low FireWire NLE solutions. The other cards are made by companies with very little knowledge about video editing. They are simply selling a commodity product bundled with the cheapest software they can find.
If you are on a very tight budget and this is all you want to spend, either of these two cards is a good place to start.
PyroDV $79.95
This bundle ships with Uleads Video Editor software. Video editor is pretty easy to use, but it is also pretty limited. The reason we recommend this card for under $100 is the card. The Pyro card is the most versatile and recommended OHCI FireWire card in the industry. It works great with Ulead Media Studio 6.5, Adobe Premiere 6, Vegas Video and Avid Xpress DV. We like the Pyro card so much that we give one away FREE with every Xpress DV purchase. Why do we do this? Because we know the installation is a snap and it works perfectly under Win98se, Win2K, Win ME & Win 2K. It also works great in Pentium III, 4 & Athlons. When you get a Pyro you get a card that works great and one that you can add new and more powerful software to in the future. That's a winning combination!
Studio 7 DV $129.95
The Studio software is definitely the easiest to use software you are going to find for getting started in digital video editing. The interface is very easy to understand and the editing is very intuitive. You can choose to use either a storyboard or timeline method for your editing. Just because it is low cost, doesn't mean you'll make cheap looking videos. Pinnacle has integrated “Studio versions” of the same Premiere plug-ins found in their more expensive real-time packages into the Studio software. You get TitleDeko titles, Hollywood FX 3 D transitions, Alpha Magic wipes and Quicktracks soundtrack creation – all integrated into Studio. Even cooler is the Smart Capture utility that allows you to grab a low-resolution proxy version of your video to edit with. When you are done editing it goes back and automatically captures the video you have selected for your final movie in full DV resolution. This can save you tons of disk space!
Pinnacle Studio Deluxe $299.95
This brand new offering from Pinnacle combines the Studio 7 NLE app, Express DVD/ VCD authoring software and new hardware that supports both FireWire and analog video. This makes it by far and away the most affordable solution for editing your years and year's worth of video footage. The breakout box gives you both RCA and S-Video jacks for input and output. All your footage – VHS, 8mm, Hi8, S-VHS or DV is captured in real-time into DV files. You can hook up a television to the output of the breakout box to view your projects exactly how they will look on TV. You can also go directly out to your VHS or SVHS VCR to make copies of your video for your friends and family.
When I was reviewing our recommended $100 solutions earlier in this article I told you why I like the Studio software so much. Well, Express is just as easy and simple to use for authoring as Studio is for editing. You'll be able to burn your videos onto CDs and/or DVDs -if you have a DVD burner. When you combine the ease and features of Studio 7 and Express with this very versatile hardware, it's easy to see why this is such a good choice for so many of you.
Ulead Media Studio Pro DV $ 249.95
This is our exclusive bundle we have put together with the folks at Ulead and ADS. You get the full version of Media Studio Pro 6.5 including the new DVD plug-ins plus a Pyro DV PCI card and FireWire cable.
I've been a huge fan of MS Pro since version 2.0. The editing interface is pretty easy to use but loaded with all the cool features you want. I think it is easier to pick up then Premiere is. You get more 3D transitions, better titling and easier to use 2D/3D motion capabilities then the base Premiere package gives you. Like Premiere, MS Pro accepts 3rd party plug-ins, so you can add programs like Boris FX, SpiceMaster and even Hollywood FX. With version 6.5 Ulead has integrated DVD encoding and authoring tools into MS Pro. This makes it a great starting point for beginners who want more power.
ADS Pyro Platinum $279.95
The Pyro Platinum is a tremendous value. You get our top rated Pyro DV hardware with the FULL Adobe Premiere 6.5 for $279.95. Even if you already have FireWire in your computer, you aren't going to find a cheaper way to buy Premiere 6.
Make no mistake about it, Premiere is the standard for affordable non linear editing. It is an excellent program, loaded with features and capabilities. Premiere supports the most 3rd party plug-ins. It is this plug-in architecture that makes Premiere the NLE app of choice for our real-time cards. With version 6 Adobe added support and integration with generic FireWire cards. As a result you can now buy Adobe Premiere bundles with a FireWire card for under $300!! If you plan on getting a real-time card down the road, getting started and learning Premiere now is a very good idea. We've got some great tools to help you master Premiere quickly and easily. If you invest a few extra bucks and get our Getting Started Video and/or CD-ROM tutorials, you'll be editing like a pro in no time!
Pinnacle DV500 Plus $499.95
When this card began shipping over two years ago it had a $999 list price. Since then Pinnacle has added numerous new features, improved the software in the bundle and most importantly dropped the price.
What does the DV500Plus give you that you can't get in the Pyro Platinum? Real-Time editing. Real-Time editing means that transitions and FX can be played directly from the timeline without rendering. Lets say you want video 1 to gradually dissolve into video 2. We call this a cross dissolve. Before you can see how your 5 second cross dissolve will look with the other cards you would have to render it. This could take anywhere form 25 seconds to a couple of minutes to render. The more FX and transitions you have in your production, the more rendering you'll require. With the DV500 Plus' Real-Time transitions and FX you spend all your time editing and making your video better, not waiting.
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