| When camcorders went from analog to digital a few | | | | graphics becomes difficult with less memory. The |
| years ago, the ability to capture and edit home movies | | | | video card should also have at least 32MB RAM. |
| leapt forward light years. With a digital video | | | | - 60GB hard drive is recommended but 100GB is |
| camcorder and computer, scenes can now be deleted | | | | better. Again, it is possible to work with digital video |
| or rearranged and graphics, special effects, and even | | | | with as little as 30GB but disk space will disappear |
| sound tracks added. The ability to produce near | | | | very quickly. Certainly, budget constraints can influence |
| professional quality film is now within the grasp of the | | | | selection. |
| average consumer. However, the proper equipment is | | | | - 1GHz or higher processor to help assure that editing |
| necessary to perform these miraculous feats and an | | | | can be done without unreasonable delays. |
| up-to-date computer is as critical to the process as the | | | | - FireWire or USB 2.0 port for the fastest transfer |
| camcorder itself. | | | | from camcorder to computer. |
| <b>The Right Stuff</b> | | | | <b>Other Elements of Success</b> |
| The ability of a computer to successfully work with | | | | - Windows XP and Mac OS X are the applications of |
| the digital video from a camcorder depends primarily | | | | choice. |
| upon things such as having enough memory, | | | | - Video editing software. Numerous products are on |
| processing power, and the right connections. | | | | the market making it easy to select a program that is |
| Inadequate memory can limit the editing function and | | | | compatible for any computer model. It is important to |
| insufficient processing speed can slow the editing | | | | investigate the minimum system requirements as |
| process to a crawl while limited disk space will be | | | | stated in the literature of any software purchased. |
| gobbled up at the rate of 215MB per minute of film. | | | | - Higher resolution monitors can make editing easier |
| <b>How Much Is Enough?</b> | | | | and most editing software will dictate the minimum |
| When working with digital video from a camcorder, it's | | | | resolution. |
| important to realize that more is better! The | | | | - A DVD burner is not required for digital video editing |
| suggestions offered here are certainly not maximums, | | | | but does allow the user to burn movies to disk and |
| but they are also not absolute minimums. They are | | | | view them on a DVD player. |
| merely general recommendations to assure that the | | | | Although the list of requirements for a computer to |
| task of video editing camcorder film is a creative, | | | | handle digital video from a camcorder is somewhat |
| rather than painful, experience. | | | | lengthy, most up-to-date computers are certainly up to |
| - 512MB of RAM is recommended. It's possible to | | | | the task. Once all of the requirements are met, |
| work with about half this amount of memory but | | | | creating home movies that will win the "critical acclaim" |
| editing such as adding special effects, titles, and | | | | of family and friends is just a few mouse clicks away. |