rookie problem

Vashti wrote on 12/21/2003, 2:38 AM

I'm brand new to the world of DV editing and am having trouble configuring everything. I purchased an external hard disk to dedicate my editing/capturing to....only I don't know how to connect my camera to the dedicated disk -- the capture card is with the CPU.

Any help appreciated.....

Thanks.

Comments

farss wrote on 12/21/2003, 4:28 AM

Me thinks some serious manual reading is in order.
You don't connect the camera to any HD. The camera connects to the PC via the firewire card. VVs Video Capture utility capture the DV video from the camera and writes it to a file on the HD. i assume when you say 'capture card' you mean a firewire card?

I assume your camera is MiniDV or Digital8, if not no worries just things then work a little differently but principle is the same. Just a bit more to take care of.

Please don't think I'me being arrogant saying this but if you are that confused please, please read the VV manual at least once from cover to cover. Make a mental note of the bits you think your going to need to get started and then read them again very carefully. You'll find everyone here very helpful but it helps a lot and you'll get better responses if your questions are more of the 'I don't understand what the manuals telling me to do' or my setup isn't quite the same as what's in the book.

BTW there's some excellent 3rd party books and training DVDs also available.

DGrob wrote on 12/21/2003, 5:06 AM

Camera to PC via IEEE 1394 firewire cable. PC out to external HD via another firewire port or USB 2. Verify your USB ports, USB 2 didn't start shipping on PCs until recently. You may need a card to add additional high data rate ports to your PC, depending on your system.

Douglas Spotted Eagle has a 4-DVD Vegas editing training program. In 6 hours you'll be well on your way with some fundamentals. Welcome to Vegas. DGrob

Vashti wrote on 12/21/2003, 10:59 AM

Thanks so much for the recommendation -- I just purchased the Spotted Eagle training set....I'm just a little in over my head (performer trying to get on the production side of things!).

busterkeaton wrote on 12/21/2003, 11:20 AM

http://jetdv.com/tts/

JetDV, a contributor to this board puts out a Tips and Tricks Newsletter. Issue 4 has a Beginner's Corner article entitled Where do I start? The url is above.

You also may want to search the web for an itroduction to DV and video editing in general, before you start looking at Vegas. The training DVDs will definitely help. If you have a DVD drive on your computer, you can watch them with Vegas open and switch back and forth.

Spot|DSE wrote on 12/21/2003, 11:34 AM

Or, connect camera to Firewire port on external HD, then connect HD to PC via firewire cable. The camera cannot communicate directly with the HD, it requires the software and operating system to do so, but this sometimes helps reduce the amount of cabling behind the computer and on the desk.
You'll also find a number of tutorials all around the web. www.sundancemediagroup.com/help/kb has a basic OHCI tutorial that will explain what OHCI/Firewire is, how it works, and relates to you.