Upgrade Guide

Not long ago, editing videos on a PC meant splurging more than $1000 on video capture cards, not to mention buying high-end SCSI hard drives and the fastest PC you could afford. But now, for $150 to $400 you can buy video capture hardware that works with nearly any Pentium PC. Even better, most capture systems these days plug right into your PC's parallel port. You then plug your camcorder's video output cable into the capture device, connect a few other cables, install the video editing software that comes with the device, and you're ready to create your own video spectacular.

Video capture devices come in various flavors. The right one for you depends on what you want to do with the video after you capture it. Low-end products such as the $100 Play Snappy are designed primarily for capturing still photos from video; they're perfect for e-mailing photos over the Net or incorporating video into presentations. Snappy uses sophisticated technology to sharpen and improve the quality of the images. Higher-end products, such as FutureTel's $299 Video Sphinx Pro, capture high-quality video for use on Web pages or in more elaborate presentations.

But most people use video capture devices to edit video, add titles and fancy transitions, and record the finished product onto videotape. Reasonably priced products like the $229 Pinnacle Studio 400 (shown below in step 2) offer features that until recently appeared only in very expensive, PC-based video editors--which despite their cost still lacked professional quality. A popular alternative is Iomega's $199 Buz, although this product doesn't plug into the parallel port and requires a special SCSI card with chips for processing video.

On the PC side, you'll need at least a Pentium-133 machine and 16MB of memory (32MB is preferable). You'll also need lots of free hard disk space, since compressed, captured video consumes about 2MB of storage space per minute.

Keep in mind that you'll need to hook up many cables to capture and edit video on a PC, but the results are worth it. Here's how to get your personal video editing system up and running. For best results, read all equipment instructions carefully and spend plenty of time experimenting and honing your editing skills.