Help with hardware/software for multimedia studio

[ecksmedia]

I am in the process of starting a multimedia business that among other things specialises in VHS to DVD Transfers (www.ecksmedia.com.au). I have been doing quite a bit of research on different hardware and software to purchase and have gotten myself completely confused about which direction to go.

Originally I was going to go with building a system based on the Matrox RT.x100 but after reading about all of the problems that these cards have, especially with PAL, I am in Australia so 98% of the work that I do will be in PAL. I am now having second thoughts.

One of the reasons that I was going to go with the Matrox is because I have had many years experience with Premiere and the rest of the Adobe suite through previous jobs but never purchased it for myself and am now looking at the Adobe Production Studio however it is quite expensive and no longer comes packaged with the Matrox. I am not afraid to change over to a new NLE system as I am quite adept at learning new software but I am not sure which direction to turn.

I would like some advice on some other devices that I have been looking at.

1. Canopus ACEDVio (Hardware not too expensive but would need to get software)
2. AVID Liquid AVDV 7 (have also heard that avid software can be unstable)
I have also looked at some others from Blackmagic and AJA but these are too expensive


I have also been looking at some external devices but am a bit sceptical about these as I am not sure of the quality of the capture through a firewire port? Am I being too paranoid? Are these devices used professionally?

I am looking at the following:

1 Canopus ADVC110 or ADVC300 (ADVC300 looks great as it has enhancement hardware built in but is this worth the extra $'s?)
2 Avid Liquid 7 Pro (from what I can tell this is a USB device

Are there any other devices that I should be looking at?

Your advice will be much appreciated,

Darren

[UncasMS]

i'm not even sure if you ever considered buying a new pc but in case you did think about buying an APPLE for this kind of business

the former G5 will be equipped with intel dual conroes soon and thus the machine should be powerful enough to handle multimedia work of any kind
(and compared to the imac the G5 or its successor can be easily upgraded with new/additional hardware)

being able to install XP or another windows OS parallel to mac os 10.4 is no problem and will therefore offer you access to the "old world"

as far as i know licence fees for mac can be less expensive than redmond stuff

[ecksmedia]

Tanks for the responce.

I am definatly going to be purchasing a new machine for this setup and have considered trading over to the Mac as I have heard good things about FCP and especially DVD Studio Pro however I still feel that this leaves me in the same situation, "what capture device is best?" Another reason that I am a bit reluctant to go for the mac is because it seems to me like am equally speced PC machine is a little over half the price of a Mac, at least that is the case here in Australia.

[UncasMS]

apple hardware is a bit more expensive but keep an eye on the licence costs of your operating system, your video/audio/graphic application etc

just make sure to take all this into consideration

good capture devices for pc should be from pinnacle or hauppauge - for mac i wouldnt know from own experience but i can try and ask someone who should know