Posted by Scubajam on 10/17/06 04:17

I'm generally learning more than contributing on this forum, and I
thank all for that.

I've been using Ulead software for 5 years. Never could afford a MAC.
Been shooting HDV for 1 year now on a Sony A1U, specializing in
underwater video. (off topic: just returned from a great trip taking
video of great white sharks in Mexico).

Ulead makes several programs. Their two primary editing programs are
Video Studio, now version 10, which is the amateur version, but as
mentioned and I've heard from others, is a VERY good program, exp for
HDV.

I use Media Studio Pro 8, which is their latest pro version. Each
timeline has up to 99 tracks of video, plus up to 99 tracks of audio,
and you can actually put an unlimited number of timelines into a single
project with the same 99 tracks of each. Their Smart Compositor is
somewhat of an exclusive feature I'm told, and is very effective for
opening and closing. Other than that, watch most any commercial film
or TV show and you'll see simple cuts and crossfades. No fancy
transitions to distract. One local pro uses a simple amateur editing
program (only cuts and crossfades in editing)
, then After Effects for titles and credits.

The one feature MSP8 uses for HDV is proxy files. When you capture the
HDV file and first load it onto a timeline, a proxy file is created.
(this can take a while, however) The defaults are similar to DV, but
you can set it for smaller resolution/screen size, etc. In essence,
this creates a small file for editing that is a copy of the HDV file.
So now most any 4 yr old or less computer can edit HDV in real time,
using the lower res proxy file. It's great for emailing and
collaborating. Scrubbing is in real time. All edits and effects are
in real time on even a slow computer. I've got a reasonable dual core
with 2 gig desktop, but even edit HDV on my 4 yr old laptop with
external drive with no problems. The proxy file is really a clever
idea. When you are finished editing, render process goes back to the
original HDV file and renders to whatever you want.

By the way, for testing on the cheap, Video Studio 10 will create a
HD-DVD on a standard 4.7 gig DVD-R, playable on Toshiba and some other
HD-DVD players. Only limitation is about 20 minutes time. Burn this
on your standard DVD burner on standard DVD media.

Try Ulead consumer Video Studio, and/or their pro Media Studio for free
for 30 days. It'll work just great on the PC you already have. Then
buy what you want, $80 or $500. And no long list of plug-ins at extra
cost either when you do decide to buy! Upgrades have run $200 to $300
for the pro version. With the extra $4,500 go on a great vacation and
start your next documentary!

On your budget, you could buy a laptop, a desktop, both Video Studio
and Media Studio, and their DVD burning DVD Workshop (even though both
editing programs come with burners), and more, and still have $$ left
for a great weekend with the missus. Get as many 300 gig hard drives
for $79 at Fry's (www.outpost.com) as you want, and add them inside, or
daisychain Firewire enclosures for external drives. Personally, I
recommend forget the RAID. That was for when drives and motherboard
busses were slow; RAID sometimes actually slows things down now and
I've heard of dropped frames. Just backup regularly. I've not dropped
a single HDV frame in 10 months, and I USUALLY leave Outlook and 30
other TSR';s running. I can surf and do other (although not graphic
intensive) tasks while rendering.

I happen to be a bargain hunter, just my nature. Still, worth checking
out, and you can do it for free with the system you have.

Jim McGauhey
Washington State

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+
Gigabyte K8 Triton nForce 3 motherboard
GeForce FX 5700 VE 256 MB video
2 Gig RAM DDR400
Windows XP Pro SP2
120 Gig IDE HD C
160 Gig IDE HD for video
250 Gig ATA HD for files
300 Gig ATA HD for video
300 Gig ATA HD for video, swap, & backup
Ulead Media Studio Pro 8 (HiDef)
VideoStudio 8.0
Toshiba 16X Dbl Layer
Hammer 16X Dbl Layer

Cameras
Sony HVR A1U Hi Def
Sony DVR TRV740 Digital8

Specialize in underwater video








leekazimir@gmail.com wrote:
> Original poster here. I want to thank everyone who has so far posted
> in these threads, it's already given me a lot to research and think
> about. I see the debate's getting a little heated at times, but that's
> cool with me since I'm learning from all sides.
>
> I should have mentioned in the original post that I already own a
> decent PC (3.0 ghz Pentium 3, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive) that I could,
> should I decide to stick with PC, spend the money upgrading. I'd add 2
> or 3 gigs or RAM, a few hard drives, maybe a new video card and
> definitely a new HD display. Then I could go with the software you
> guys have mentioned, such as Vegas 7, Ulead, Premiere Pro, maybe a
> combination of the three.
>

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