The holidays have come and gone. You recorded those warm yuletide memories of family and friends on your new digital video (DV) camera, and now you’re ready to make an edited home movie masterpiece that even Mr. Spielberg would be proud of. But do you really have “what it takes”? Maybe, maybe not. Here’s a quick primer on home digital video production that can save you some time and money.

First, just what is DV? In the beginning, there was analog video (VHS, Betamax, 8MM). Editing analog video at home was a painful, laborious process. Transitions between scenes were ragged and abrupt, and titles were usually someone holding up cards in front of the camera. As computers and hard drives became faster and bigger, professionals could “digitize” analog video, reading it frame-by-frame onto the computer. They could then make beautiful fading transitions and dazzling special effects. But these systems were way too expensive for the “common man”. So, what brings affordable home video production to the masses today? Two technological advances: DV camcorders, where video is crisp, clear digital data from the start; and FireWire (or iLink, as Sony calls it), a high-speed data transmission line to send the digital video to the computer. Throw in today’s relatively inexpensive fast chips, cheap RAM and monster hard drives, and you’ve got a recipe for home movie madness.

First, let’s assume you have a DV camera, and want to either get a new computer or upgrade your old one. Some things to consider, either way, are:

DV files take up A LOT of hard drive space. One minute of raw DV footage takes up about 250 megabytes (MB) of space - that’s a Gigabyte (GB) every four minutes, not counting the additional DV files created by the editing process. Get the largest hard drive you can afford - 60 GB would be a good size to start with.

Get as much RAM as you can afford. 256 MB minimum, 512 MB or more preferable. DV editing requires your computer to work with large pieces of data, and more RAM will speed up the process.

Make sure your computer has a FireWire port. All Macintosh computers come with at least one, but on many Windows-based PCs a FireWire port is not “standard equipment”. You can add one for under $35. Don’t waste your money on any USB-based hardware that claims to enable you to capture and edit video. Full-size, fast, high quality DV import and export requires FireWire. Period.

Now, let’s assume you have a new multimedia powerhouse computer, but you have an old, but still capable, analog video camera, or maybe a stack of dusty old VHS tapes and a VCR. All is not lost. For about a third of the cost of a DV camcorder, you can buy any of a number of DV converter boxes, which convert analog to digital and vice versa. Again, I recommend sticking with the FireWire –based solutions. You simply hook your old camera or VCR into the analog side with RCA jacks, run a FireWire cable out of the digital side into your computer, and you’re in business. After you’ve edited your movie, you reverse the process to send your movie back to the VCR to record it, to send to Grandma. Most middle to high end DV camcorders have this converter built in.

So that’s the inside story on home DV hardware. Next time we’ll talk about software, some Hollywood techniques, and find out that the best computer for the home DV job might not be a “PC”.

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski