On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 17:46:55 +0100, "Monika K. Zanolin" wrote:

>hi, I am about to buy a new computer and a raptor card . since i have
>not made the best experiences with premier´s stability -although i like
>working with it- and i´ve read here about so many other people sharing
>this problems, i wonder if i should change now to media Studio pro5.2
>which also comes with the raptor. does anyone have experences on both
>of them? is media studio more stable, is it nice to work with.?

Yes, but so is Premiere in a good set-up (I prefer getting rid of the source window, and operating it like MSP - though
for the editing "nitty-gritty" operations, I prefer the way
Premiere works [but for good monitor layout, dual monitors are desireable with Premiere {the second can be an inexpensive 15", with a cheap ATI card to run it}]).

>besides: is the computer i am about to buy okay?: intel 500MHz
>processor, Asus BXmainboard AGP,USB,ATX,, 256MBSDRAM PC100, VGA8MB
>MatroxG200,AGP, 20,5GBharddrive IBM 7200rpm,-

Yes - but add at least one dedicated UDMA drive for video
(it can be 5400 rpm, and you can use a smaller/cheaper
drive for the "C" drive - and probably still have room
on it to partition it for 2-3gigs of preview-file space).

>What about the 550MHz or even 700MHZ processors- are they so much
>better? is it a waste of money to get a 500MHz today if everyone works
>faster tomorrow with 700MHZ?- do they cost a lot more and does one need
>then a different kind of hardware alltogether?)sorry, -very basic
>questions,i´m no computer expert. can someone give an advice.? i am
>spending all my savings on this PC, it must work !! thanks, monika

My advice is never, unless you can well afford it, buy
the latest computer technology - computers are not a
good "investment", since they invariably lose a large
percentage of their cost rapidly. Paying a premium
for the fastest CPU makes no sense, since a slower one
affects only render speed (a 25% improvement there is
not generally worth a big increase in computer cost,
and that cost will go down within a short time...).
Best: get the best deal on a reasonably fast CPU
that works well for video editing (AMD or Celeron chips,
4-500 MHz, generally), and buy the rest of the computer
with parts compatible with a CPU upgrade in a year or
so when this year's fastest chips are tomorrow's cheap
chips...
BTW, in answer to another of your posts: VHS copies
of mini-DV have about 1/2 the horizontal resolution
of mini-DV, so will not look as good - but a mini-DV
copy on a VHS machine should look good (not as good
as commercial movie VHS videos, but good...) if the
copy machine is a good one (these vary...).