DIGITAL VIDEO

TOTAL COST: $12,700 Digital video works best when the output medium is a CD-ROM or hard drive. The video segments shou ld be relatively short and launched from interactive buttons. Among digital video's advantages are nonlinear editing and playback, a broad range of Windows editing tools, and a wide variety of digital video effects to choose from. The mainstream emergence of MPEG promises to improve quality and expand playback windows to half-screen or full-screen. And while the resource requirements of digital video can reach astronomical proportions, they are scalable: You can start experimenting with a $700 capture board (like the miro shown here), your current PC, and a consumer camcorder.

A.  Gateway P5-100XL
, a high-end Windows system ($4400) with:

    -- a 100-MHz Pentium
    -- 32 MB of RAM
    -- a 2-GB hard drive with PCI-SCSI controller
    -- a quad-speed CD-ROM
    -- 16-bit audio
    -- 24-bit video and a 17-inch monitor


B.  The Sony CCD-TR700 Hi8 Handycam camcorder
.
    S-Video and composite video jacks, LANC connector, and color
    viewfinder ($1100).



C.  Consumer Technologies' Presenter3
    Computer-to-Video
 scan converter ($349). (For comparison
    purposes, we used the Scan Do Pro pricing, listed in "Analog Video,"
    for both setups).


D.  miroVideo DC1
. Video capture and Motion-JPEG
    compression board ($700). (Not included in total cost--MPEG station
    comes with capture board).


E.  The MPEG Creation Station
 ($4699). Smart and
    Friendly's bundled solution includes all the hardware and software
    components you'll need to create MPEG titles from the desktop:

    -- Fast Electronic's MovieMachine Pro video capture board
    -- Smart and Friendly CDR-2000 CD Recorder (shown here)
    -- Macromedia Director and Authorware Professional
    -- Xing MPEG encoder software
    -- Fast Motion-JPEG daughtercard
    -- Autodesk Animator Pro
    -- Adobe Premiere for Windows
    -- Gear CD-R software