Re: What harwares & softwares do the Professionals use?

From: Basil406 (Basil406_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 10/17/04 

Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 11:45:04 -0700

Hi PapaJohn,

Thank you for obliging my curiosity. You have a fascinating collection of
hardware and software! These things become out-dated too soon, owing to the
speed at which new versions keep coming. Whatever said, it is the brains of
the videographer that is the ultimate machinery that makes the quality of the
movies.

I agree, WMM is an excellent capture/edit core software. My challenge is
still how to stop WMM from crashing as the movie is being built. I use it for
smaller projects and for creating the excellent animated titles that many
commerically available packages do not include as basic. WMM's transitions
and title animations are awesome.

In conjunction with WMM, I use MovieMixer (Pixella's Sony version), Pinnacle
Studio 9 and MyDVD (Sonic) - usually in that order, to take advantage of the
neat features of each of them. My cameras are Sony DSC-F707 (for stills) and
Sony DCR-DVD200 (video).

I must get to the root of the problem of WMM crashing so that I could use it
for longer movies.

Thanks & regards.

Basil
Canada
-------------------------------------------------------

PapaJohn (MVP)" wrote:

> Thanks Basil,
>
> In that case, here are some notes about the primary items I use. I'll give
> you costs in USD:
>
> First off, I make maximum use of what I own, and very seldom purchase
> something new.... when I do get something new like my laptop 1-1/2 years ago
> and my first digital camcorder the first of this year, I think about it for
> a long time and then get the best I can afford.
>
> Hardware:
>
> 2 camcorders: Sony TRV615 Hi8 camcorder - about 7 years old and about $750
> at the time - does great in low-light situations, has S-Video connection.
> I'm writing an article right now about editing a video using footage of the
> same scene from 2 camcorders... this Hi8 one, and my Sony TRV80 digital one.
> The digital one did the brighter clips and the Hi8 the darker.
>
> Sony x0.6 wide angle lens on the TRV80.... it was a free extra when I
> purchased the camcorder. For $1,100 USD, this $200 extra helped swing the
> purchase. If it wasn't included, I'd probably not purchase it....but now
> that I have it, I use it much of the time.
>
> extra battery for each camcorder
>
> Tripod... old generic low-end one and little tiny lower end one for
> table-top use
>
> Digital camcorder tapes - Maxell DV60 - $20 at Sam's Club for a 6 pack
>
>
> Primary capturing/editing/DVD computer - Toshiba laptop - Satellite
> 5205-S705 purchased in May 2003.... about $3,200 - 60 GB hard drive....
> Windows XP Media Center Edition.
>
> Other computers in my home network have internal and external drives with
> lots of space. Maybe 1000 GB spread around 8 computers, all connected by
> Linksys BEFW11S4 router/switch (relatively slow now - wireless transfers at
> USB1 speeds).... some of the computers are hard-wired and some are wireless.
>
> Dazzle 80 for analog capture - $30 after rebate (and it included Pinnacle
> Studio 8)
>
> A note about hard drive space..... we all know that lots of space is needed.
> Here's an economical way to get a significant boost in space, something I
> just finished testing only 10 minutes ago: keep your eyes open for good
> deals on internal hard drives - I had a 160 GB Western Digital (I currently
> prefer that brand) drive in a closet for 3 months, one I got because it was
> too good a deal at $30 after rebates (Circuit City) to pass by. It's been
> waiting for a desktop computer that needed more space. But I decided to make
> it more portable and flexible in use, so yesterday I put it into an external
> drive case from www.micer.com - a Coolmax CD-309-U2 for $26. The case
> included a USB2 connection and came with a USB cable.... 5 minutes to put
> the drive in the case, plug it into the laptop and start using it.
>
> I just finished testing it attached to my Toshiba laptop (USB2 connections
> on it).... capturing via firewire to DV-AVI files on the external drive is
> smooth, as is playback of the DV-AVI file in WMP. It'll be an easy way to
> move a fast 160 GB drive around for use on any of my computers,
>
>
> Software:
>
> Movie Maker is the core of my capturing and editing work.
>
> Sonic's My DVD4.5 is the core of my DVD work, only because I make very few
> DVDs and the software was included on my new laptop.
>
> Other often-used software: a personal home-made database to store all the
> info about tapes, scenes, etc (something I'm going to start selling
> soon).... Total Commander for file management and ftp connections....
> IrfanView for image management... PhotoStory of course.... Pinnacle Studio 8
> was free with the Dazzle 80 and it's great for copyright free background
> music generation.... Motion DV Studio came with the laptop and has some neat
> special effects.... TMPGEnc for going to and from MPEG files..... Virtual
> Dub for specialized work on clips.... Windows Media Encoder for screen
> capturing.... RadVideo Tools for conversion of MOV to AVI.... and lots of
> seldom used utilities, mostly free.
>
> --
> PapaJohn
>
> Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
> Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
>
> ..
> "Basil406" <Basil406@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:F7DB8016-D352-4B7A-A977-3999A7BA3FAF@microsoft.com...
> > Hi PapaJohn,
> >
> > In my books, you are a pro :)
> >
> > Regards,
> > Basil
> > Canada
>
>
>

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