Greets

RadicalRob wrote on 8/12/2003, 4:21 AM
Greetings! I am about to delve into the world of Vegas Video as I have undertaken the task of education K-8 graders on the art of video editing. I wanted to just throw this out and see what the experts here think... The other half of my video lab is all MAC fanatics and Im the only PC nut in the place, and I've used the demo version of Vegas in the past with great success and ease I might add.

Now one of the projects of the class is to create music videos of some local musicians here and I just want to make sure that I can keep up with the MAC-addicts. I haven't
done it yet so Im a little worried. (not in front of the kids mind you, just inside...)

Is there anything that I should know before getting into it? I just ordered the latest and greatest version and should get it in about 3-4 days... so im wondering what would be the best video card, dvd burner, etc. to go along with this.

Any help and support would be awesome! Thanks in advance!

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 8/12/2003, 4:45 AM
Greetings RadRob - you'll find the Vegas crowd are very helpful as you work your way through the project. Keep asking and you'll keep hearing.

Don't worry about the DVD burner - first you gotta make something to burn.

Vegas will do it's thing on almost any machine - I have 3 PCs, and the slowest, a PIII 450, has been runnng Vegas 4.0d this morning.

I and I'm sure many others will enjoy hearing about your dialogue with the mac heads, so keep posting ....

For starters, one small thing you may like to put in front of them -

You can, if you choose, Record, Mix and Master the music track in Vegas at a completely professional level.

How many mac nle's will do that?

That's just the Audio ......

Secondly - I'd advise you, or anyone, to get Gary Kleiner and DSE's DVD sets - watch them through and you'll be able to tackle anything.
TorS wrote on 8/12/2003, 5:00 AM
Vegas is not picky on video cards. A regular Matrox 450 or 550 will do greatly. You'll need a lot of RAM and as much harddisk as you can get.
Someone else will tell you about the DVD burners etc - I'm still windowshopping for those.
IEEE 1394 card is a must. Some people have had trouble with some card but then again, others have not. I think all of them will work, if they are OCHI-compliant.
Video monitoring is done through the 1394 card and a DV camera - not the video out on the graphic card.
Good luck. Watch this forum and post questions when you like.
Tor
BillyBoy wrote on 8/12/2003, 5:15 PM
My condolences in TRYING to work with MAC-addicts. ;-)
XOG wrote on 8/12/2003, 5:28 PM
RadMan,

I've got two things to say:

#1 - Are you INSANE doing video with K-8 kids? Actually, I did so myself, for about 10 years. Some of the greatest, most fulfilling work of my life.

#2 - Vegas is PERFECT for your needs. You will absolutely SLAY the iMovie users!

Cheers,

XOG
riredale wrote on 8/13/2003, 11:13 AM
As for DVD burners, I'd suggest that they all are fine, so go for price. The only issue tempering that statement is that Macs typically use -R drives, so if you want to be able to use a common supply of blanks, you might avoid the "+R only" burners.

I have a 6-month-old Cendyne/Pioneer -05 (-R 4X burner) that I got, with rebate, for just $149. I love it, and it's burned hundreds of blanks without fail.

Oh, one other thing. Vegas is a terrific program, and from what I've read, it is superior to Mac's Final Cut Pro high-end NLE and just blows away I-Movie. But it is also a lot more complex than I-movie, and that can frustrate new users. My suggestion is to learn the program well, and then learn how to introduce others to it by doing an extremely simple project before wading into deeper waters. Once they get the hang of it they will love it.

You might want to explore some way of being able to quickly return Vegas to some sort of "default" appearance, since users will no doubt be moving windows and changing settings almost from the beginning. You'll want to present a consistent interface every time you begin.
Mandk wrote on 8/13/2003, 12:01 PM
My daughter (the 8th Grader) has watched the DSE video and spent part of the summer playing with the program and can now do some amazing things. Kind of irritating how fast she is on the keyboard and in putting things together.

We also have the DVD Architect and she is doing some great work with menus and timing. I am amazed at what a professional looking job she is doing with the program (except she forgot about safe zones and had to redo the titles.

Good luck with your project.