boppi

Hi. I am wanting to start a Video Editing business like filming weddings and special events and making wonderful edited DVD's of the events. Plus converting VHS tapes onto DVD's with special editing like Fade In/Fade Out, Screen Titles, Credits like listing names of the people in the videos, Slow Motion scenes, adding Photos within the Video, making Slide-Shows, adding Music, having Voice Narration, etc. etc. etc.

I am having a PC built since my current PC is rather old and I do not have a DVD burner.
The manufacturer knows what I'm wanting to do but they want to know just exactly what all I'm going to need before they start building my PC. So that's why I created this thread. I am rather new to DVD's and CD/DVD burning. So if you could reply in layman terms, I would gladly appreciate it.

My PC will have the following:

AMD AM2 Sempron 3000+ processor (plenty of speed).
More than 512MB RAM. I will at least double that so memory shouldn't be an issue either.
A larger Hard Drive than their usual 80GB.
52x32x52 Cd Burner / DVD Drive (Drive D)
I will also get a DVD Burner (Drive E) but might need some product info from yall since this will be my main Drive for burning the DVD's.
There's much more my computer will have but not going to list everything to save space on this post.

Ok I know about getting a Capture Card and what I'm wanting is Capture Card that will be (1) internal, (2) be able to capture video from Camcorders, VHS player, etc. (3) have Firewire input (4) Analog inputs RCA & S-Video, (5) and capture TV signals with coaxial inputs and include TV outputs.

About the only thing I really need help on is the software for editing and burning DVD's. Also want to be able to make copies of the DVD's I burn because for example a wedding there will be many orders for a copy. So I need make sure when I copy a DVD that it will copy all the interactive menus like Titles and Chapter marks etc.

Also would i need 2 software programs for this? Like 1 for editing and the other for DVD copying? Or can 1 software program do it all?

Of course if there's anything else I might have left out please let me know.

Chevelle

My Feedback: (2)

Well you are certainly getting serious about this. Welcome to the club. A suggestion about your hardware, 1GB RAM minimum is what I would recommend. You will have large video segments active in RAM and the more RAM you have, the less disk swaping will occur. I would also recommend a 7-10k RPM dedicated hard drive that would be separate for your system installation and the video editing software. This will make things go faster since there will not be competition for OS resources, video editing software, and access to the video files.

As far as software goes, I am a HUGE fan of Vegas Video and its suite of products. They include not only the editor but the CD/DVD publisher and several sound/music programs. (I used to be a tape operator for NBC back in ancient times when it was all done on 2" tape.) Very intuitive and powerful. I also understand that the Adobe products are very popular. As you describe your intent, you are probably beyond the Pinnicle level of products.

Good luck

Crash Master

If you are serious about getting into doing weddings and special events, I hope that you have done some research on cameras. I have been looking into this same thing for the past few months and found that to get started and to produce results that look somewhat professional, you're looking at dropping some major $$'s on a prosumer level camcorder that is capable of handling the low light environments of weddings and receptions. Along with a capable camcorder you will probably want to invest in a seperate sound recoding device. Seems that most camcorders do not do an adequate job at sound capture alone. Then there is the expense of a good tripod with a fluid head, extra batteries for everything as well as blank tapes. Just for starters.

As for your computer, depending on how long the video is, you might find that even 1GB of RAM may not be enough when you start rendering for the final product. Video will eat up as much RAM and CPU speed as you can throw at it. Go with as much RAM and as fast a processor as you as you can afford. With video, more is better. You might also want to look at 7200 rpm hard drives - either SATA or IDE - in the 250GB or more size. Depending on how you plan to capture, your tapes could eat up a lot of hdd space. I have (2) 250GB IDE hdd's on m present system and when I capture in .avi format so that I can edit each frame, it doesn't take long to chew a big piece of the hdd.

If you are serious about this, I would suggest that you have a look at [link=http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/index.php]this site[/link]. They have lots of good information about camcorders and recording devices. I would say that dvinfo.net is to video producing what RCU is to rc. They even have a section for [link=http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=72]weddings and special events[/link] with plenty of good info from people who do this for a living.

I got interested in this thinking I could go at it with my little consumer level camcorder. After reading what "experts" have to say about this, I decided that I was going to have to invest between $5k and $10k to get started.

Just my .00002 worth,

autopilot

BIG fan of Vegas here, too. I've been using it for a couple of years now, after trying just about everything else out there. B&H Photo has a special on Vegas 6 for $99, but without the DVD authoring software. You could easily get the smaller Vegas Movie Studio with DVD Studio for another $89, learn your way around on that, then use the DVD Studio with full Vegas 6 later on.

jgeck90

I too would like to make dvd's i would like to go around to tracks and capture bashing on video and make a nice video with pictures integrated, I am very good at powerpoint and small picture slideshow stuff. There is 2 things i dont know much about, i dont know much about formating because sometimes i get an error when moving files or messing around saying it does not support that file ect....
-I would also would like to know the process of getting dvd's published

im sorry if im taking over this thread i can make a new one if you have a problem with itl.

fire5

I always download some video tools at http://www.oursdownload.com , such as video to ipod ,...... they are all powerful .

taetrax

I found that processor speed, ram memory, and HD space are three parts of four necessary parts to do video editing. Plan on putting in a really good video card as well. Try to get the largest memory Video card you can find and/or afford. It makes all the difference in the world!!
Just be patient and have fun tinkering it will all come together for you.