Re: Do I really need a capture card for editing hdv? Help!

Hey Douglas Spotted Eagle, I really appreciate your comments! I am taking them to heart. I often check the profile of those who respond and your resume is indeed inspirational and impressive.

You say I'm going about this the wrong way. I have no grounds to say you're wrong, that's for sure. My problem is I don't know the right way or the wrong way and I'm coming to the conclusion that no matter how much tech stuff I read over and over, it doesn't make things any clearer for me so I'm driving in circles.

No, I don't have any contacts with Discovery, Nat'l Geo, etc., for hd stuff. I have contacts with Nat'l Geo Adventure Mag for photography, but that's a whole different thing and I realize it. My immediate goals are to make wilderness adventure DVDs that I will distribute and sell myself on my website and through some local retailers, for a start. I also will create lots of 1080 hd stock footage. But I am confident I can produce (at least capture in the field) beautifully amazing nature footage based on my knowledge of lighting and composition and simply being in spectacular places that few people would lug a camcorder to. When I see the stuff on Nat'l Geo HD and Discovery HD, etc., I'm thinking, "I can easily do that, and then some". Not the CG work and effects and all that, but just the pure, wild, nature hd stuff. That's why I want to set my "technical quality" standards high enough to at least have the option of having footage available for such programs. So I feel I have the passion and talent to point my camera at gorgeous stuff in the wilds. If I didn't truly believe that, I would just stick to photography.

My ineptness in this whole process is not having ever worked with hd video editing. I'm getting a Mac Pro because that's what everyone says to get. I'm getting Final Cut Studio because that's what I hear is the best, or as good as anything else. The rest is all over the board and I have no idea. Harddrives, eSATAs, RAIDs, RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, etc. Capture cards... a gazillion options from both Aja and Blackmagic... some downconvert, cross convert, up convert, HDMI, DVI, SDI, HDI-SDI, monitors with these connections but not those, and some with those but not these, etc., etc. AHHHHH! With all my reading I don't even know what a capture card really is, I mean, what am I capturing? I have a video camera that shoots on SxS cards, can't I just pop that into a slot and have my super duper Mac Pro and FCS software do their magic?

Douglas, if you were shooting an EX1 and editing on a Mac Pro with FCS, with my stated goals, what would your home studio consist of? And would your choices be the same if you had a budget of about $30,000 for the studio?

Thanks again for your reponses.