RE: [AV Media Matters] non-linear editing systems: HELP!

[Bob Savage <bsavage@stanford.edu>]

>I work for a small university media center. I am looking
>to put together a dv-based non-linear system.  I was wondering
>if anyone had any suggestions for good video-capture cards, good
>systems, or even any good companies that can help me put together
>a decent system.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hard to know exactly what you want from your description, but you should be
aware that there are now alternatives to video-capture cards. This has come
about because of the high through-put of the FireWire bus. There is one
called the "Hollywood DV-Bridge" I saw advertised recently for $300, Sony
has one called the "DVMC-DA2" (I happen to have a URL for that one:
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/ss5/home/digitalvideo/minidvdecksandper
ipherals/dvmc-da2_specs.shtml ) which I have seen advertised for $400, and
there was another one from Formac that I saw advertised for the same price
as the Sony solution, I believe. Basically all three are external devices
which convert analog signals to DV and vice versus. They require a computer
with a FireWire port (also called IEEE 1394, and i.Link). Might be suitable
for your purposes or it might not. I don't know.

Bob Savage