What do you with ....
- a four-year-old dog
- a 14-year-old VHS camcorder
- a seven-year-old (this month!) Performa
- a seven-year-old TV turner/video hardware/software
- a two-year-old refurbished iMac
- a network
- Movie Player 2.5.1
- Movie Player Pro 5.0.2
- iMovie
The answer? Go digital! Make a movie!
How does new technology compare to old technology, though? Which is
better? There's good news and really good news.
First the good news.
Given all the mixed bag of technology above, it is possible to -
heck, it's easy as a hop, skip, and a jump - to create a decent home
movie. My Performa is used to "rip" video from the 20th century analog
camcorder through the RCA ports, save the resultant file as a
standalone QuickTime 2.5.1 movie file on the iMac over my network.
Harnessing my iMac's PowerPC processor and QuickTime Pro 5.0 software,
the file can be opened and saved as a ".dv" (digital video) file. From
there it can be manipulated and exported to tape or as a QuickTime
movie.
Neat stuff overall - but here's the really good news.
The really good news is that the 68k technology is still viable in
an era of AltiVec processors on G4s and Firewire digital cameras, at
least for this weekend dabbler in movie making. A quick look features
on each computer, each equipped with standard features, is provided in
the table below:
|
Performa 635
|
iMac Summer 2000
|
|
Saves as Quicktime Movie
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Saves as Digital Video
|
no
|
yes
|
|
File Size
|
small (.mov)
|
large (.dv)
|
|
Frame Size
|
small (160x120)
|
large (640 x 480)
|
|
Video Source
|
TV, camcorder, VHS tape
|
Firewire digital camera
|
|
Speed to export files
|
Slow
|
Fast
|
By themselves, each can create and save movies, albeit there are
tradeoffs in speed, file size, speed, frame size, and speed to process
files. In tandem, the best qualities of a Quadra and an iMac can be
leveraged over a network into a nice movie making duo. That is, a
Quadra brings to the table its ability to import video from a VHS
device or TV and save the resultant file as a QuickTime movie. The
powerful iMac can open the file and either save a digital video movie
or facilitate rapid movie editing.
Bottom line: How does old technology compare with new? Most people
have devices that are compatible with old devices such as VHS
camcorders; but new technology is faster. Which is better? Separately
the Performa and iMac are each one. Connected over a network, drawing
on the strengths of each model, one plus one equals three.
