Looking for Advice ?

[Chris Lucey]

I am new to the editing scene. I currently have made some small production DVDs with FCE using a Mac G5 Dual 2.0. I currently use Hi-8 and will be getting into a new camera such as the GS-400 or maybe even a GL2. I want to start using a CRT or monitor to monitor output before writing to video. I am also considering a capture card something like a Canopus. I would like to know which monitor/CRT would be a good choice not only for the present but the future. As well which Canopus, should i start with something like the ACEDV or move up to something a little better. I want to be able to grow in the future but need to keep it realistice for the time being as well. Do you have any suggestions of a good monitor/card combo ?

[Rob Lohman]

Why are you looking into (capture) cards like the ones from
Canopus? Is there a specific reason?

As to monitors, are you looking for a computer monitor or a
broadcast monitor to watch (and judge) your footage on?

[Chris Lucey]

No real reason, i was told they are of good quality and the prices seem not to bad. They seem to do what i am looking for. Are there other good cards out there one should consider ? As for the monitor i just need something that i can watch output on. Even just a good quality CRT with good inputs on it will work just fine. At the present time i edit mini DV and old Hi8 using FCE. I can probably see FCP in the near future. However saying that i need equipment that one can learn on as well as expand with as well. Any other ideas ? Are there any studio resource websites ?

[Chris Hurd]

Canopus is a great outfit, but their capture cards are PC-only so they won't work with your Mac set-up. Regarding monitors, we've had so many questions about them lately that I think we might need a dedicated forum for them. In the meantime, the Search tool is your friend -- you'll find lots of discussions about monitors here!

[Chris Lucey]

Sorry, am i missing something ? I was looking at the DVC110 and it says compatible with PC and Mac OS DV editing systems. Did i miss something ?

[Rob Lohman]

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Lucey : No real reason, i was told they are of good quality and the prices seem not to bad. They seem to do what i am looking for. -->>>

And what things are you looking for?

The reason I bring this is up is that most people do not use such
cards anymore, for the following reason:

1. they restrict you to one or two editing platforms

2. support for drivers and new operating systems seems to be a bit of a let down

3. they don't add as much as they used to

4. price

The two major things still going for such cards usually is "real-time"
effects/color correction (where real-time can be defined in different
ways) and easy analog in and out.

Whether this weighs against the downsides is up to you. Most
people use a simple OHCI compliant firewire card/port to capture
from the camera. With most camera's you can also use the camera
to get analog out for monitoring purposes or recording to tape for
example.

Most modern camera's also seem to support analog in so you can
directly convert that to DV or use two-step process to get it done.

You could also get an analog <-> DV converter unit so you can
do all of this without a camera (or capture board), as long as you
have that OHCI compliant firewire board (cheap!).

One last thing: whether you really need the real-time "performance"
of such cards depends on the speed of your computer, the NLE
application you work with, what kind of effects you are going to
use and whether you can wait for rendering or not.

If you do a lot of encoding a card with a hardware accelerated
MPEG-2 encoder might be interesting, but I have no idea of the
quality of such systems.

All-in-all it should not be a "given" to go with such cards in my opinion.