I have a Sony Vaio PCG-531A Notebook computer with an i.link port, and
I just bought a Sony DCR-TRV140 Digital 8 camcorder. I would like to
ask: what's the best way to get started in terms of learning how to
transfer files to the computer, edit the files and choose file types
on the computer, store and share the files, make dvd's, etc. Some
terse instructions would be good, as well as perhaps recommending a
good book on the subject and the best software to use. I got something
called Pixella ImageMixer Ver 1.0 for Sony with the camcorder, but I
haven't used it yet. I can record videos on the camcorder, and I just
bought a firewire cable, but that's the extent of my video experience.
I'm fairly computer literate.

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Clarification of Question by boomering-ga on 30 Sep 2002 09:01 PDT

Hi Vinod, 
 
I have Adobe Premiere 6.5 on order. I downloaded their primer on DV in
PDF format; it's 50 pp and pretty good. The computer is a notebook; I
think it's a standard spec for the Vaio, but here's what I know:
Pentium III 800MHz, 256 MB Ram, 20 gig drive, NDIS 1394 Net Adapter, ATI Rage
Mobility-M1 AGP Video adapter. I think I'd rather do the editing on my
desktop, but I don't have a 1394 card yet, and I don't know how well
suited my video card is (NVIDIA GeForce MX/MX 400).

hi boomering, 

good you founf that PDF! I went through it a few hours back myself to
see if it would be of use to you. i was waiting for your response
before i thought i will refer you to it.

Well, coming to the world of non-linear video editing...

1. Many books are available on non-linear video editing. But before i
get into this, there is another important issue on hand.

As I had mentioned before, video is the power-hungry kind! Apart from
the CPU chip speed and amount of RAM, you will need 'AV rated' hard
drives for the video material. Basically these are hard drives that
have faster rpm (revolutions per minute) and therefore faster access
time than the usual hard drives. Then of course, you could also use
SCSI hard drives that are much faster than even AV-rated IDE hard
drives, and of course, more expensive!

You would certainly do well to have your main editing system as your
desktop.  (I will need its specs too). What you will need is

i) a Video card like the Matrox RT.X10. This is the in and out path
for video from your camera. Apart from this, the card also contains
all the electronics needed for the editing process and merely uses the
rest of your computer for interfacing.

matrox rt.x10
URL http://www.matrox.com/video/products/rtx10/home.cfm

specifications
URL http://www.matrox.com/video/products/rtx10/specs.cfm 
(check out the inputs and outputs - you can use a 1394 DV in/out as
well as any standard input from even a VHS player! and output directly
to a VHS player as well. S-video in/out is also available.)

computer system requirements
URL http://www.matrox.com/video/support/rtx10/rec/sys_rec.cfm

costing from one online dealer - $599
URL http://shopmatrox.com/usa/products/datasheet.asp?ID=296

1394 compatible devices - i have mailed matrox to ask them if your
camera and display card has any particular problems with
compatibility. i will revert to you soon as i get a response from
them.

ii) You will do good to have a 7200rpm hard drives. This is
recommended so that your video hard drive has a fast enough access
time and therefore enough data transfer rate. Moreover, video also
takes up a lot of space like 13GB per hour of DV. So, a larger hard
disk will mean you dont have to keep pushing out stuff from your hard
drive when you need to digitise new material.

SEAGATE HARD DRIVES
URL http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/index
(here please look at the models that are 7200 rpm. there are ST360015A
- 60GB ; ST3120023A - 120GB. this is just an example. i can find you
IBM hard drives too, if you like)

iii) IF you want a truly professional-looking and to a large extent an
almost professional setup, you will need 2 monitors and a dual-head
display card. Basically this card can run two monitors and the
software can bbe configured to display the time-line and edit windows
on one monitor and the picture on the other. Alternately, you can also
hook up a TV to see the video picture.

iv) and of course, being an audio professional in first place, i will
suggest having a good pair of speakers and an amp to monitor sound!

This is not the 'ideal' or 'professional' setup but it will perform
way ahead of trying to edit on your notebook or any other 'consumer'
editing setup. It will also be much more stable, since you are giving
the process the basic power requirements it needs, if not the ideal
amount.

I should think you have enough on your hands for decisions! Don't
worry about the editing process. I will give you enough info on this
soon as you are ready! If you feel you will take care of this hardware
issue yourself and just need info about the editing process, please
let me know and i will be glad to comply.

warm regards

vinod-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by boomering-ga on 30 Sep 2002 12:23 PDT

Hi Vinod,

Thanks for your answer. Although I'd love to get all that good stuff,
my checkbook can't handle it right now, so i think i'm gonna have to
work with the Vaio for the moment. But as i do upgrades, or if i get a
new system, I'll use your recommendations for drives, video cards,
etc. So for now, i just want to get hands on with practicing some
basics like uploading the files from the videocam to the computer,
insert and combine clips, download finished product (even if crude),
just to get comfortable with this new experience.

Some of what i want to know is very basic, like: when uploading the
files from the videocam, does Adobe Premier drive the process and tell
me when to turn on the Play button, etc -- like how do i execute these
very simple first steps?

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Clarification of Answer by vinods-ga on 30 Sep 2002 13:41 PDT

hi boomering,

Until you get yourself all that nice hardware! ...

1. You have shot something on your camera. You plug it into your
computer and start the video editing software, in this case, Adobe
Premiere.

2. With some cameras, it is possible for the software to use external
Firewire or ILink device control by which the tape transport controls
on the camera are operated from the software. I am not sure if your
camera has that compatibility with Adobe Premiere. I have written to
them about this. I will revert to you soon as i hear from them.

3. Once the footage is transferred to the hard drive, simply follow
the basic editing principles from tutorials of Adobe Premiere which
are normally available on the software CD itself. Or alternately, you
can follow the following link.

Online book for Adobe Premier 6 - Visual QuickStart Guide
URL 
http://safari.informit.com/JVXSL.asp?x=1&mode=section&sortKey=rank&sortOrder=desc&view=book&xmlid=0-201-72207-0&open=false&srchText=adobe%20premiere%206&code=&h=&m=&l=1&catid=&s=1&b=1&f=1&t=1&c=1

Adobe Premiere Classroom in a Book
URL http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201710188/qid=976015820/sr=1-2/026-3118343-1719631

(for setting up Premiere for DVD authoring)
URL http://www.creativecow.net/articles/gordon_dan/premiere_dvd/index.html

Adobe Premiere 6: Digital Video Editing
URL http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130942618/qid%3D1025029310/sr%3D1-12/ref%3Dsr%5F1%5F12/002-3950741-6316828

If you need to know more, please let me know...

warm regards
vinod-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by boomering-ga on 30 Sep 2002 14:43 PDT

Hey Vinod,

Thanks for the great answers. If you find anything else pertinent,
please add, but knoe that i'm well satisfied with the responses.

Best Regards,

Boomering

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Clarification of Answer by vinods-ga on 30 Sep 2002 22:49 PDT

Hi boomering, 

Thanks for your reply. I will certainly be adding some more to my
answer. remember, I have asked adobe for some details about
compatibiity with your camera. So please re-check on this from time to
time!

Warm regards, 

Vinod-ga

Very thoroughly and reponsively answered!

hi boomering-ga,

i can walk you through the process but before i can do that i need to
get a fix on some things.

i) you need to fix on the software you will be using. I suggest Adobe
Premiere 6.0 as your principal editing software. Please visit their
site and figure out if you are interested in using this. It is a very
good piece os software and has many users around the world. You can
also download a demo from the site and check it out.

URL http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/main.html

once you have a fix on the software I can recommend good books, videos
etc., that will shorten your learning curve.

ii) I need to know the specs of your computer. Video editing is a
hardware-intensive process and needs a lot of power on the machine.
After reading the specs I can suggest to you any changes if required.
(If it is a standard Sony spec, please let me know and I can find the
specs myself and save you the trouble!)

iii) In general there are some common steps to video editing. I can
always run you through these, but I feel it will be a lot more helpful
to you if you can adress the above issues first so that you can get
the appropriate reference material for the entire process. As you had
mentioned in the question, you are looking at the 'best software to
use'.

warm regards,
vinod-ga

Hi Vinod,

I have Adobe Premiere 6.5 on order. I downloaded their primer on DV in
PDF format; it's 50 pp and pretty good. The computer is a notebook; I
think it's a standard spec for the Vaio, but here's what I know:
Pentium III, 256 MB Ram, 20 gig drive, NDIS 1394 Net Adapter, ATI Rage
Mobility-M1 AGP Video adapter. I think I'd rather do the editing on my
desktop, but I don't have a 1394 card yet, and I don't know how well
suited my video card is (NVIDIA GeForce MX/MX 400).

hi Boomering-ga,

Looking at the date I guess you are not so much of a newbie by now!

A comment on your hardware re-inforcing what has been said - your
laptop is almost certainly too slow (especially cpu speed and disk
speed)  This has various impacts
(i) you are likely to get dropped frames when capturing
(ii) you may get system crashes if trying to output the result back to
DV tape (depending on where your camera was purchased - DV-IN
capability attracts high import taxes in Europe so is often omitted)

Disk size - 20Gb may be ok if you only want to do 5-10 minute projects
but not much more.  If you want to output the results to anything
other than DV or VHS tape, you will need to be running software to
compress to MPEG formats, 'author' if you are creating a VCD or DVD
and then burn which may need large temp files.  I would allow 1GB to
start with plus 20GB per hour of original video.  Defragment very
often to give your disk the best chance of success.

OS - As your notebook is a Sony Pentium 3, I'm guessing that you have
Win-ME - I haven't used ME but I have used machines with Win98-SE,
Win2000 and WinXP-Home - Win2000 and XP are much more stable -
performance (speed) of Win2000 will be better than XP on low-medium
spec machines.

Memory - 256kb is ok although tight for WinXP.  More will speed up
editing work but if on a budget, it will be ok.

Graphics card - I've used low to medium spec cards without any problem
and I don't believe a high end card will speed things up much or
otherwise make the editing process easier.

Automated capture - I guess you will have found out by now - I'm sure
all Sony TRV cameras can - don't worry if your software doesn't list
your exact model - try another model.

Using automated batch capture is very useful even if you are only
capturing a couple of clips as the capture can be repeated to single
frame accuracy.  This means that you can delete the (large!) avi
capture files  once you have completed the project and exported the
results.  You can then archive the various small project control files
and keep the original DV tape.  If you find you need to re-edit the
project <g>, you can re-create everything easily.

As you can tell, I suspect your notebook isn't the right machine for
you.  You don't give the spec of desktop but, assuming its reasonable,
you will find that firewire cards are cheap now and a far better
approach than upgrading your notebook.  I have some experience in this
area as well but need to go now.  I'm not a researcher and Google
won't take new researchers at the moment so I don't think you will be
able to get back to me although I may keep an eye out.

Cheers,

Nick