[Jeff Carpenter]

I’d just make one long timeline and compress that entire thing as one file which will become one track in DVD SP.

The only reason NOT to do that is if you have some movies with lots of motion and some with very little motion and you want to compress them at different compression levels. In that case you might want to split them up so you could compress the ones with less motion a lot more. But if they’re all music videos they’re probably all pretty similar, right?

If you do decide to split them up, you’d compress each one individually and then put each one on its own track in DVD SP. You can tell each track to “jump” to the next one when it’s finished playing.

But unless you really have the need to do that, I’d just stick with one big clip. It will be a lot easier to put together!

[Jeff Carpenter]

I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what they did with their current monitors. (I don’t own one, so I’m not sure.) Looks like you were ahead of your time, Mitch! 🙂

[Jeff Carpenter]

It should work fine, but you should know that Apple seems to be promoting the idea of using Garage Band to create podcasts:

https://www.apple.com/support/garageband/podcasts/

I’d think about using that. If that’s what Apple is thinking people are using you can be sure that they’ll continue to add tighter integration between GB and iTunes in the future.

If that doesn’t look like a program you want to use then yeah, you can use Final Cut. I’ve never exported an MP3 from Final Cut, but I’m sure it can. If for some reason it can’t you can export an AIFF from Final Cut and then use iTunes to convert it to an MP3.

[Jeff Carpenter]

You don’t have to take your files off, but you should. Although it’s possible to simply “upgrade” the OS and leave the files in place that’s a good way to end up with weird problems that no one knows how to fix.

You should take all of your files off the compter (by external hard drive, CD or DVD or iPod…whatever you want) and then put the new OS CD in. Restart holding the “C” key and the CD will boot up. At that point, go into the pull down menus and find the Disc Utility. Use it to totally erase your hard drive. Once that’s done, install the new OS.

You’ll then have to run the auto updates and install all of your programs new. It’s a little more work, but you’ll probably be much happier in the long run. Be sure to take a break every now and then during the process program-installing process to use Disc Utility to repair permissions.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Unless someone has told you that you should have HD, I’d suggest you just stick with DV for now. For the kind of things you’re doing that’s probably all you need.

So yes, the XL-2 is a good choice. So is the Sony PD-150. If you’re looking to spend more, a Sony DSR-400 would give you a bigger camera. I know a lot of people have been wondering if it’s worth spending $10,000 on NON-HD camera, but I can promise you that the lens of the 400 will give you a better SD image than that new Sony HDV camera can. I don’t think you should get an HDV camera unless you’re actually going to use the HD function on it. And if you do that you’ll have to spend more on decks, more on your computer, and more on your monitors. There’s more to it than just the camera. So like I said above, if you don’t really NEED to have HD, I’d continue to put it off for now. Based on what you’ve described your work as, I think staying with SD is probably for the best.

But yes, the XL-2 is probably the smartest choice for you. I’m trying to tell you what I’m thinking so you can think about it, but in the end that’s what I’d pick for myself in your place.

As for a Mac, here’s what I’d get. I’m not saying this is exactly what you SHOULD get, but this might be a good list to start with. (It includes things like monitors, that you might already have.)

* From APPLE $4,847
Dual 2.3 gHz Powermac G5
512 MB of RAM, (256×2)
400 GB (single SATA drive)
ATI Radeon X850 XT
Apple Cinema Display 23″
Applecare

* From Crucial.com $474
4 1-GB RAM chips
(add these to the 512 you have…Follow instructions in the manual! RAM placement matters in a Powermac now.)

* From any computer store $250
Maxtor 300GB, 7200RPM, Internal SATA/150 Hard Drive
Add this yourself as a secondary drive
(check to make sure it has the 16 MB cache)

* G-Raid (?)
There are all kinds of storage solutions, so you’ll want to research that more. But I think these do sound good:
https://www.creativecow.net/show.php?page=/articles/biscardi_walter/g-raid/index.html

* B&H Photo/Video $1,450
Panasonic AG-DV2500 video deck
Honestly, I’ve never used this. I have the DV2000 and it’s very nice, but the 2500 is smaller so I don’t know what else they changed. Search the archives for other suggestions on DV decks.

…and then, of course, an NTSC monitor and audio monitors.

So, by no means a complete list, and like I said, you’d probably want to change all sorts of things I suggested, but I think that’s a good place to start. There will probably be more posts after me telling you why you should change everything I’ve said, but that’s what so great about the COW 🙂

Let us know how it goes!

[Jeff Carpenter]

[Jeff Carpenter] “I’m just letting you know that you don’t have to make the system fool-proof if it’s just for learning.”

Disagree. A used car with a leaky radiator will work, but it’ll let you down in the long run as well.
============

I just want to make it clear that my experience was about 1 dropped frame for every 4 or 5 hours of video captured. I would export my finished projust as a self-contained movie before laying back to tape so I didn’t have problems there.

I absolutely agree that you need to learn on a system that works. I just apparently had a much luckier experience with my computer than most people. I do agree with you, I think I just have much different level of expectation for an iMac than you do. I’ve never owned an iMac so I can’t say that I’m right.

Sorry, Darrin, I don’t think we made this easy for you! 😉 Hopefully you can see the points we’ve made and you can decide what to do with that information.

[Jeff Carpenter]

You have a point, Kevin, about the same firewire bus, but I don’t think it’s a big enough deal to change his plans. My thinking is that if it’s for a student, the price they’re willing to spend is probably fixed, and the money it would take to go from an iMac to a tower would probably cut into other items, like the RAM. Although having seperate buses would be nice, I don’t think it’s worth the cost in either money or other items lost.

I edited on a G4 Powermac with a hard drive and a deck plugged into the same bus for years and I only had minimal problems. I know people who edit with Powerbooks, daisy chaining the deck through the drive. Will there be dropped frames? Yes, sometimes, I’m sure. But it’s probably not worth the extra cost for them to worry about that. I do think there’s only so much money you can spend on a hobby before it gets to be a bit much.

But I don’t know you, Darrin, or what you want to spend. Kevin’s advice IS good advice, I’m just letting you know that you don’t have to make the system fool-proof if it’s just for learning. However, if you DO want to go the tower-route, I just want to let you know that my video RAM and system RAM advice stays the same. You could skip the firewire drive, however, and get a second internal drive and use THAT as the media scratch disc.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Should work great! Here’s a few thoughts for best performance:

* Get an external firewire hard drive. 120 or 160 GB should be just fine. Set that drive as the media scratch disc for Final Cut and don’t store ANYTHING else on it.

* Make sure you’re getting one of the new iMac models. It should haev 128 MB of Video-card RAM. Processor speed is not that imporant, they’re all pretty similar.

* Make sure you get one with a Superdrive for burning DVDs.

* Buy the iMac with the smallest amount of RAM possible. Then go to http://www.crucial.com and buy two 1-GB chips for it. That should cost about $230 but it’s the BEST investment you’ll make for that computer. Keep the RAM that comes out of the computer as backup, or sell it on E-Bay.

* I’m assuming you have a DV camera with firewire? You’ll hook that up to the computer with the firewire, but also go to Best Buy (or something like it) and get whatever TV you can buy for under $150. Hook that up to the camera while he edits. For learning purposes it will make a fine external monitor.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Follow Walter’s advice, but in addition to that, make sure that any firewire devices (decks, hard drives) are not plugged into the computer when you do the upgrades.

[Jeff Carpenter]

His name is Bruce. He’s a Yak.

If you want to know more than that, I’m sure those two facts will be enough to get Google going.