If you're new to PC video editing then knowing where to start can be a bit daunting, so hopefully this guide will point you in
right direction.To start with you will need a few items of equipment
Camcorders/Video Decks
Depending on your requirements or aims there are number of different solutions to discuss, so i will split these up into separate sections.
1.If you are starting from new then i recommend buying a new digital camcorder, this will give you superior video and sound quality as well as making getting started in video editing very simple, so ideal for beginner. There are thousands to choose from catering for various types of budgets.
2. You may already have an old video deck or camcorder which uses old analogue outputs such as composite or s-video (be sure to check first what outputs you have). For this kind of setup you would need a capture card/analogue to digital converter, this is discussed in more detail further on in article.
A PC for Video Editing
It is now possible to easily capture footage from your Digital Camcorder directly to your PC and edit it. If you looking at buying a new PC or building a new one then currents spec's are more then powerful enough ,a typical spec PC these days is a P4, 512Mb Ram, 80Gb HDD, Windows XP or something along those lines. You could always use your existing PC if you have one, but i wouldn't recommend using anything below a PIII 600.
Additional Hardware
When transferring video from your camcorder to your PC there are a number of additional things to consider depending on type of camcorder your using. If you’re using a digital camcorder then all your need is a firewire card (also known as an IEE1394 card), a lot of current PC's have these as standard now, otherwise you will need to purchase card separately. Some of these will come bundled with editing software such as Adobe Premiere but this really depends on which card you buy and how much you spend, once your camcorder is connected to your firewire port windows will automatically recognise your Digital Camcorder. If your using old analogue camcorder then you will also need an analogue to digital converter, see section on video editing cards below.
