Move Over Spielberg

Video Editing Checklist

Producing your cinema verité involves three distinct phases: capturing the "raw" video from your camcorder, editing it on your PC, and writing the finished product to either a computer file or videotape. You'll need a camcorder, of course, and at least a midrange Pentium computer with 64MB of RAM. Video editing is one of the most demanding tasks for a computer, so you'll get better results with a faster PC and more memory. You'll need ample hard drive space, because video takes up gobs of it. In addition, you'll generally have to install an expansion card that provides input ports for connecting the camcorder.

Most digital camcorders come with a high-speed IEEE 1394 port, sometimes called by different trademarked names such as FireWire (Apple) or I.Link (Sony). To import video from a digital camcorder, you'll need an IEEE 1394 expansion card for your PC, unless it came with the ports. Most new Sony and Apple computers have integrated 1394 ports, and other makers, such as Compaq, include them on select models.

You can buy a video capture card and editing software either as stand-alone products or in bundles that include both. The combination packages are the best choice if you're just getting started in video editing (because the items cost less than if you'd bought them separately), but stand-alone software offers a wider range of capabilities. For this roundup, we concentrated on products designed for digital camcorders, because they will provide the best quality, speed, and ease of use when combined with a properly outfitted PC. Those products included eight digital capture cards bundled with software, another digital card without software, and three stand-alone editing applications. But we also tested two products designed exclusively for analog camcorders, plus another card that captures both analog and digital video.