does anyone have any opinions on what would be a good mac to video adapter or pci card. i'm looking to slowly build up a nice little dv studio. i've been into motion graphics on my mac and have been doing it professionally for years. but i'm now looking to take my video interests to the next level. in the coming months i'll be purchasing a new camera (canon or perhaps the new jvc when it's released, it looks pretty nice). i'll be looking to get the whole nine yards. end products will most likely be dvd for skate, snowboarding, motorcycle and things like that to go along with a friends clothing/design company that they are just getting off the ground.

but anyway i'm looking to build up a nice little studio that i wouldn't be embarrassed to say i own. since all of my work is digital i'm looking for a nice color monitor and some kind of pc to tv adapter or card to get me started.

obviously i'm a complete novice (but major enthusiast) when it comes to doing real dv video, and wouldn't compare to the real professionals in here. everything i've done thus far has been for cd roms and any video i've had to do has been with a canon elura mcII. which is a nice camera if all the varibles are perfect that day and you only need it to be 320x240.

oh, also, does anyone have any suggestions on capturing devices. suggestions on cards or software i might need to look into as well. i do all my editing in after effects. and for now have used premeire to capture. is there anything better i can get to get higher quality captures using my mac. hoping everything would be firewire so i don't have to worry about spending $5000 on an avid card or media 100 card. just looking for the highest quality for a good "beginners" price.

anyway if anyone out there has any suggestions on what components i might need or should look into, any resource sites i can check out. tips and tricks for creating my own dollies even, any info that would help steer me in the right direction, please let me know.

thanks a lot.
J.

I've been very happy with the Radeon 7000 Mac Edition board. They sell for around $120... here's a link to some info http://www2.warehouse.com/product.asp?pf%5Fid=EX11850&cat=pc&blind=

It has s-video, VGA and DVI output and you can use any two of these simultaneously with separate monitors set to different resolutions. There's a control panel "Mac2TV" that lets you adjust the s-video output as desired. I really like this feature when making VHS tapes since you can fine tune the colors, contrast and image size. For example, you can adjust overscan to show the full video frame if desired.

The card plugs into any PCI slot. This card does not offer video input though, just output. In Final Cut Pro you can select one of the Radeon ports as your external video device and output the timeline to an S-VHS recorder. One caveat: I'm running MacOS 9.2. I read some posts awhile ago that mentioned problems with this card and FCP under OS X. Perhaps they have been fixed by now, but you might want to confirm this.

If your going to do any real editing, your going to need a card to allow two monitors. The Radeon is good for that. No problems in OS X. I personally switched from Premier to FCP, but if you prefer to use Firewire instead of uncompressed, you could either go with a Canopus ADC-100, for $300, which lets you capture and output VHS to firewire, or simply invest in a DV deck. If your serious about starting up a little studio your going to need a deck. It could be a Sony DSR-11 or Panasonic 1000, or combination VHS/DV deck. With the deck you could capture and output with firewire.

excellent thanks for the input. i'm going to go find those products and check them out now.

anything to add please let me know.

thanks again.

I route my video output through my camera right now. FW from the G4 to the camera, and video out from the camera to my TV. Works great and doesn't really bother the camera one bit.

Only thing thats a bit naff is that FCP doesn't playback non-DV resolution (such as offlinert) through the FW. But thats a very minor problem :)

/Henrik

here's kind of what i was thinking. (and is most likely wrong)

i have dual monitors now.(computer not broadcast) (does that even matter)

i was thinking that i'd get a real nice card to capture with and to output to a broadcast monitor to use for color correction and whatnot. since all of my stuff will most likely stay digital i don't think i'll need (for now anyway) an output to composite or s-video. if i ever get to the point of where i send out an actual reel then i'd most likely try and jump on the DVD bandwagon (even though it's a hassle from what i hear to get it to work on everything).

i guess what i'm trying to find out most if there is a way to capture higher quality than firewire. i assume there is becuase of what claude said about using "firewire instead of uncompressed." what exactly does that mean. uncompressed meaning any other kind of input other than firewire?

i always just thought that my mac was able to capture FW better (no dropping frames and full-screen). maybe my mac is just crappy.

i'm just looking to get exactly what is on my camera onto my computer.

and what exactly is the deck used for? (do i sound like a complete idiot or what?) i assume it's for input and output. i can't seem to find those model numbers, where might a good reliable place be to look for this equipment?

sorry to ramble on there's just so much to know, too many variables.

thanks again for your help. i really appreciate your input.

Sorry, the Panasonic is AG-DV1000. Take a look at www.bhphotovideo.com/.
They have a big selection of decks just to look at and find out what they do.
As far as the other stuff, uncompressed means money. The others on here can add more. The mini-dv via firewire thing is 5:1. That's the compression rate. But with uncompressed you need a card, fast scsi drives, a fast computer, all come with a big price tag. It's great if you can afford it. I'm sure you'll be fine with firewire.

Claude

excellent thanks again for the input. there's so much i never even thought of. being tied to digital land i've never had the opportunity to spend time and learn about video in the professional realm. thanks again for your time and help.