1. Purchase everything at B&H. Don't even bother to purchase anywhere else, even if the price is a little lower.

2. Definitely shoot in HD and then render to SD. As I predicted exactly two years ago in these forums, the rollout of HD delivery is going to take a long time. That's still true, even now that Blu-Ray is almost certainly going to be the winner. Expect to deliver in SD for at least another 3-5 years. I expect it will be at least three years before you have more demand for HD deliver than SD (i.e., where it is 50/50).

3. You couldn't pay me to use Vista. Many of the turnkey systems are still being delivered with XP-pro. That's what I'd get. Perhaps dual boot with XP-64.

Even though I live on the other side of the Pacific Ocean I'll second what John says about B&H. I've bought gear from them at their NAB stand. Despite the chaos at the stand I got what I ordered at the right price and delivered quickly

For audio gear I've bought a bit from Sweetwater.com. I emailed them to say I thought UPS were too expensive at USD150 to ship a small box to Sydney and 15 minutes later they rang me to ask who I'd prefer. I suggest another carrier. They rang me back 15 minues later to say they'd send it DHL for $50. That is service.


Bob.

B&H PHoto Video

[Link=http://www.vanns.com/shop/]Vanns[/link]

BuyDig

Beach Camera

Profeel

John

When in doubt, check resellerratings

Ditto for B&H.

B&H. I've returned one stand that had a stripped thread and it was a pleasant experience.

yep...bh...bought a fairly expensive camera...realized it was wrong one for me...sent right back...no hassle exchange...ordered the one i should have gotten in 1st place...quick and no pain...

Q: Where to shop/buy
A: B&H no question about it. Lowest prices and best service hands down. For a professional camera at $2,000 I would look at the Sony HVR-A1U for $2,249.95 at B&H - $300 Rebate = $1,949.95. This is a great little HDV camera with pro XLR audio.

Q: Editing in HD
A: Always shoot in HD, and you can edit HD and output as SD or downconvert to SD in-camera and edit SD. It's up to you. It makes no sense to buy an SD camera today. HD is the future and it's here now.

Q: 64-bit Operating System
A: IMHO, not ready for prime time. XP64 is dead. There never were enough drivers for it anyway to get everything working correctly. Vista64 is unknown. I would give it a year to stabilize. Some people are having success with it but why tempt fate. Stick with XP Pro32 for now.

~jr

Ugh. I have a special predjudice against DHL. They don't seem to get anything right in my region and they leave credit and bank cards with my neighbors, and then fail to leave me a note.

I'd almost rather send things through the US postal service. Almost. Okay, I lie. I don't trust either one of them.

In the San Francisco bay area it's Fedex then UPS, then nothing.

Rob Mack

I have no problem with B&H, other than that it is a bit pricey. But I also have no problem with any retailer that gets good marks with ResellerRatings.com. That website is a wonderful tool to debunk those ads you see touting a Sony FX1 camera for $1499.

I also have (almost) no problem with eBay. I have bought numerous things that way, including my FX1 and HC3 cameras, and have gotten great deals. Two rules: (1) Don't bid on anything from anyone with less than a sterling reputation, and (2) use a sniping program such as AuctionSentry to snag the best deals. You tell the program your maximum limit and it waits until the last few seconds to bid just enough to win the auction. You use PayPal to pay for the items, and run away from anyone suggesting WesternUnion.

Shoot in HD, edit in HD and/or DV by way of GearShift.

64bit is for the pioneers. You know, the ones with the arrows in their backs. If you're editing projects in Vegas that demand more than what a 32 bit OS can deliver, you're way beyond my level of competence. I run 2GB of ram in my XPpro box, and Vegas has NEVER demanded that much memory. The only way I can max out my ram demand is to run multiple instances of VirtualDub/DeShaker in Pass2 mode (which is why I installed the 2GB). Install RamPage and see for yourself.

WOW - great information across the board. Thanks to all who posted here!

B&H was my first choice, but I wasn't sure if they were hailed by others as being so great. Now I know :) and will buy from them.

Thanks for the info on the HVR-A1U. I was looking at the Sony HVR-HD1000U. The A1U appears to be a better camera overall.

--Kevin

I agree on the 64-bit front but I'd frame the argument differently.

You need to build a stable system and should do it on XP-32 for now. Vista isn't mature yet and there's no good reason to be using it for a production system.

64-bit is another matter. Vegas will run on it and the main advantage of using it is for the OS to be able to use more than 3GB. Vegas will still be limited to 2GB but less of that will consist of swap space.

Vegas is not yet behind the curve on 64-bit systems. I can't think of anything in Windows that is 64-bit native yet. SCS isn't the only company with a 64-bit version of their NLE in development and I see no evidence that SCS will get there first but they should be among the first.

As for which 64-bit OS? that will be Vista. At this point I doubt that anyone is even considering releasing a 64-bit NLE for anything but Vista, and as time passes the prospect of 64-bit releases for XP fades to nil.

If you're buying a computer, it's no great leap to get a basic system that will support 64-bit Vista. The main thing to look at is the total RAM it supports, and for commodity motherboards that will be 8GB.

If you're curious about Vista-64, I'd treat it as a hobby for a while. Get a second system, dual-boot an existing system, or install a slot-able drive tray and just put the two OS's on different drives. If you find that you love Vista-64, marry it, but until you've spent time with it I'd think of it a picture-bride.

Rob Mack

the hvr-a1u and the hd1000u have similar image quality at least in in my use...hvr-a1u has much better audio/xlr...the hd1000u is a large shoulder mount and the a1u much much smaller...so depends on what you need....

I'm leaning towards the HVR-A1U over the HD1000U at this point - for size and sound quality. Thanks for the info on these two cameras.