Question:

Is it possible to simultaneously output from the AVID to a deck and output an MPEG-1/2, using a hardware encoder like Canopus Amber or something else, to a secondary computer for VDC/DVD creation? I find that AVID's MPEG capabilities are crap.

Please Help,

Dick Steele
Frondeur Films

if you mean output DV footage to a DV deck and at the same time MPEG 1/2 to a recording device then I would recommend the

Panasonic DMR-E60 , which has a DV in socket and has Variable Bit Rate VBR encoding (up to 4hr MPEG2 and 6 hr MPEG1) and uses DVD-RAM so you can erase your disks over again

using the panny as an encoder you can make a disk and read it back to your computer for demuxing and serious authoring with Scenarist etc