|
If you're serious about creating your own DVD-Vs — or even experimenting with simple video CDs and digital video clips — you should consider an MPEG-2 adapter card for your computer. MPEG-2 is a compression format; it's somewhat similar to the space you save when you use Zip compression to shrink a folder full of files on your hard drive. And, boy, do you need it: High-quality digital video that's bigger than a postage stamp on your screen takes up an incredible amount of space. Without compressing (or encoding) the video, you're likely to run out of room on even the highest-capacity DVD media.
 | If you're wondering about that term digital video (also called DV, for short), indeed, no film or magnetism is involved. Digital video is composed of the same familiar 1s and 0s (zeros) that are written to a recordable CD or DVD. Unlike a traditional videotape (which can stretch and lose its magnetic properties), you can edit, copy, and play digital video as many times as you like without losing quality. |
Most MPEG-2 cards have two functions: They can encode video to shrink it, and they can also decode it so that you can watch it on your computer screen. (If you receive an MPEG-2 card with a DVD-ROM drive, however, it likely just decodes so that you can watch DVD movies.)
Software programs can take care of both these chores, but folks who want to do any serious MPEG-2 video work need a hardware solution. The advantages of the card over software include:
- Speed: Software encoding and decoding programs are nowhere near as fast as an MPEG-2 card, so a process that can take minutes with a card can take hours with a program. The encoding speed depends on the raw power and performance of your computer's processor.
- Efficiency: An MPEG-2 card does all the heavy thinking about MPEG-2, so even an older PC with a Pentium II brain can keep up.
- Convenience: Most MPEG-2 cards offer connectors so that you can plug your TV directly into your computer and pipe your DVD movies to the tube. These connectors are handy little beavers to possess.
In addition, if you work with digital video recording, you need one or two high-speed FireWire ports on your computer. Virtually every piece of machinery on the planet that works with DV uses FireWire to connect to everything else, including digital video camcorders and external DVD recorders. Many high-resolution digital cameras and scanners are now using FireWire as their connection of choice as well.
| Some manufacturers seem determined to call a FireWire port an i.LINK connection, for some reason. Heck, if you want to be perfectly accurate, the full international title for the original FireWire standard is IEEE-1394. You may see several of these names on the same box. |
If you're using a late-model Macintosh, you're probably doing the Technological Twist right now, dancing in front of your monitor like a Druid partying around Stonehenge. That's because Apple developed FireWire, and all current Macintosh computers include built-in FireWire ports. However, if you're using a PC that didn't come graced with the Wire of Fire, be reassured that you can party just as well by installing a PCI card in your computer. PCI cards average about $100 on the Web, and they provide you with two FireWire ports and all the software and drivers. You need an open PCI slot in your PC, naturally.
|
