Advice Needed!!

[Rabbi]

I've been viewing this forum periodically for the last month because I am planning to build a computer this fall with which I want to play around with video editing. I'm waiting until I actually start building my computer to ask this group's advice for my system since the options available will no doubt change by that time!

Enough with the intro! I'm hoping that you might be able to give me some advice for the system my church is currently using. I had given the church a copy of Avid Cinema that I received for free...and it was definitely worth what we paid: nothing! It's usable, but not really anything to get enthused about. The computer is a PII 233 with 64MB and it has an ATI All-In-Wonder w/ 8MB. We have started using this to put together video anouncements and within a couple months we will also be using an LCD projector with the system for our services.

The point is, the quality of the video for our anouncements really stinks and I was wondering if anyone might have some inexpensive suggestions. Would it be worthwhile to pick up an old G200 and Ulead's video program or does the system itself need to be upgraded? My church isn't very large so we don't really have a budget of anything to work with...it's really just a handful of us that really want to get this working in our church that will be footing the bills. Basically, any advice you could give on any aspect of our system would be great.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[This_Idiot]

Well the bigger the picture, the worse the quality (you'll have noticed that just playing standard videos on that big screen).

Budgetwise, my top tip would be to find a Mystique220 and RR-S secondhand. I reckon that you should get those for about $100-150. Video quality is the same as the G series, and if you get the original software package with the boards you'll have Ulead MS2.5, which is a nice package IMHO.

Anyone want to add/contradict ?

[Patrick]

I agree, the bigger the picture, the worse the quality, especially when dealing with projected video. Our video club has experimented with different types of video projection systems over the years, and by and large, they look awful. If you are using a projector that incorporates the latest technology and which cost several thousand dollars, you might be satisfied. However, from the tone of your post, I doubt that this is the case.

Using a large screen regular TV is the way to go if you want good picture quality.

[Rabbi]

I guess I should clarify! We have not even gotten an LCD Projector yet and I'm not paying for that! We have had someone come in and he'll be sending some recommendations to the church for what we need.

My concern is that the video announcements that we have put together don't even have very good quality when published to a videotape and played on a 32" TV. There are dropped frames and noticebly reduced quality from the original tapes. Also, Avid Cinema is VERY limited in what it allows us to do with editing. I only mentioned the LCD Projector in case it would eliminate any suggestions.

We want to use this computer for video capture, video editing, publishing to video (maybe through the LCD Projector if the quality is good enough), and running PowerPoint 2000 through the LCD Projector. Hope that clears it all up a little better...thanks!

[This_Idiot]

OK,

I stand by my original recommendation. If it is too difficult to get hold of a Myst220/RR-S, then the Marv200 is your next best "bang for buck" buy. In this case you will want to buy a new one or be VERY sure that a secondhand one is not an early model (which had Maven revision 1 and will give you a green tinge on forced TV output for powerpoint).

The only problem is Avid, but you can always get hold of Ulead MS for a decent price from videoguys.

[Patrick]

Rabbi, I guess the point I was making in my first post was that NO non-linear editing system is going to produce a product that's going to look good if it's projected with a less than stellar quality video projector.

It also makes a huge difference where your source material is coming from and what your edited masters are going to be stored on. If you start with VHS source tapes and then store your edited master on VHS, it's going to look awful when projected.

I use a Millennium II/Rainbow Runner Studio combination with Ulead's Media Studio Pro 5.2 as my editing software. My source tapes are Hi8 and I master on SVHS. The image quality of what I've done with this setup looks very good on a 32 inch TV. If you are able to use D8 or DV as your source material, and then store your masters on this same medium, you'll be even further ahead. Regarding dropped frames, I do not have any real trouble with this problem at all.

Don't let anyone convince you otherwise, it's a steep learning curve. It can be very frustrating at times trying to figure out why certain procedures don't appear to want to work. Just check out my thread concerning changing the direction and speed of a clip.

Hope this helps alleviate some of your fears.