Functioning very much like a Video Capture Board, products such as Dazzle Digital Video Creator, and Pinnacle Systems Studio MP10 enable the user to take the video editing process away from external devices and controllers and place the entire creative process within the computer environment. These are basically external "black boxes" that plug into a computer's Parrallel or USB port (eliminating the need for an internal video capture board) and allows a camcorder or VCR to be more easily connected the computer.
IEEE-1394 (Firewire) --
With the advent of Digital Camcorders, a new breed of internal video capture/editing board has arrived on the scene that allow a home PC to be upgraded to accomodate the Digital Video editing process by adding a new port on the computer referred to as an IEEE-1394 (Firewire/i-link) connection. This port allows extremely fast download and upload speeds that are required to do quality video editing within the PC environment. Once again, as with previous computer video products, your PC must have the suggested requirements for the card to function smoothly. Companies such as Pinnacle Systems, Datavideo, Digital Origin, Canopus, and many others have introduced "Firewire Cards" for both PC and MAC computers.
In order to integrate the camcorder and computer more effeciently, Sony has introduced a line of home computers that are optimized for the Non-Linear editing process. Designed to work their line of miniDV and Digital8 camcorders, these desktops can take the digital video signal straight in (using IEEE-1394 connection) for editing and dump the completed video digitally back out to the Camcorder, which then can copy the completed video onto a standard VCR. Other computer manufacturers are also address this need, such as Compaq and Apple (G4 and I-Mac).
The Video Editing Appliance:
Taking computer-based Non-Linear editing a step further, Casablanca by Draco, Screenplay by Applied Magic and Datavideo, are new Non-Linear Editing products that look like a typical VCR at first glance, but are sophisticated computers that are solely dedicated to the video editing process (no Windows or other program conflicts!). All components (including inputs and outputs) needed to edit your video are built in; just open the box, plug in a TV monitor, go through the setup, plug in your VCR or Camcorder with your footage, and away you go.
Proceed to Page 5 - Conclusion
