Hello to the Board

[MortimerJazz]

Well, having been lurking around in the background for a few weeks now, I thought I'd finally take the plunge and join you lot as a registered member!

I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to video editing, having only shot a few avi clips of a skiing holiday with a video attachement for my jukebox. I had such great fun though editing them all together and putting them to a sound track that I'd love to take this further. At the moment, I've got trial versions of Premiere Pro and Encore and considering getting my own camera ... although the cash is a bit tight this month!!

Anyway, just wanted to say hi ... and look forward to being a member of the community.

Cheers,

Morty

[Marc Peters]

Welcome!

If cash is tight, why not give Premiere Elements a go?

[Mike Thorpe]

Hello and welcome to the special place. You'll never leave.

bwahahahahaha

[MortimerJazz]

Thanks alot for the welcome guys ... even if Mike has locked the door and thrown away the key!

If cash is tight, why not give Premiere Elements a go?

Yeah, that's definitely an option Marc and I've been reading your review of Elements elsewhere on the forum. It certainly sounds like a good piece of software at a very good price. However, I've still got a while on my Premiere Pro trial left and I'm certainly considering buying the full package ... it's more trying to justify the price of a camera when I'm still so new to it all which is the problem!

Anyway, thanks again for the welcome ... I'll look forward to learning loads!

[Alan Mills]

However, I've still got a while on my Premiere Pro trial left and I'm certainly considering buying the full package

Do NOT go out and buy a full copy of just Premiere Pro. The best way of buying this s/w is to buy some capture or real time card (Matrox or Canopus) and get the entire Adobe suite (Premiere Pro 1.5, Encore 1.5 and Audition 1.5) thrown in for free. In this way you can get some handy hardware and the full s/w suite for much less than buy Premiere Pro on it's own. I have seen this deal done for under £400 UKP whilst Premiere Pro on its own comes in at about £700 from memory.

I can look up a few examples if you're interested.

[MortimerJazz]

Great - thanks a lot for the tip Millsy. I haven't totally decided what I'm going to do yet ... but that certainly sounds the best way of doing it, especially if I can save myself a few hundred quid in the process.

Any suggestions you've got would be gladly received

[MortimerJazz]

As an afterthought, how exactly does a capture card differ from a normal graphics card?

[Mike Thorpe]

Traditionally, a capture card takes video images from an external source such as an analogue camcorder, TV aerial, video etc, and a standard video/graphics card displays the output from a PC to the monitor.

[MortimerJazz]

Ok ... thanks Mike. So a capture card is a must if you want to transfer footage from a camera to your PC then?

[Mike Thorpe]

If you want to capture from an analogue source, you generally need a capture card. If you want to capture from a DV camcorder, a firewire (also known as IEEE1394 or iLink) card is needed. Many new PCs come with firewire capability, but not all.