On Tue, 7 Nov 2000 20:43:34 +0200, "Craig Mitchell" wrote:

>I'm fairly new to the DV scene and have a few inane questions:

Not inane at all...;-)

> If I purchase a new DV cam and hook up a firewire card to do some
>editing on my PC ... is the outputted video quality as good as the original
>ie are there no audio sync problems, pixel distortions or any thing else of
>that nature ??? Is it really this easy ? Or am I missing something ?????

Sometimes getting it all working can be anywhere from very
easy to a royal pain, but yes, essentially what goes in
comes out without losses/defects - but the rendered parts
(transitions, filters, etc., that change the video) may be
slightly changed in quality, depending on the quality of
the CODEC and the number of generations of renderings
(there is a sample of 10 generations of forced renderings
with the Raptor CODEC on my web page - look at the end of
the camcorder reviews).

> Can any one refer me to an online dealer in the US who stocks the PAL
>range of Sony DV cams ?

I would guess that B&H (www.bhphotovideo.com) would stock
them, or any large A/V dealer (search on the web...).