It depends on what sort of video you want to capture. If you're just doing DV stuff, then you don't need a capture card. All you need is a firewire port on the computer you're using to edit (or a means of getting large files to that computer from one which does have firewire). If you're a PC user who doesn't have firewire, you can pick up a firewire card from most computer stores for about USD $25.

If you're looking to capture analogue video as well (i.e. VHS, Hi8, Betacam SP etc) then you will need a capture card or a digital-analogue converter (DAC). Unless you're planning to do loads of analogue capturing, I'd say a DAC would be a better option than a capture card. The DAC will plug into your firewire port and convert the analogue signal to a DV one.

DACs do vary in quality, so you want to avoid the very cheap ones. Check out the products from Canopus (www.canopus.com) for starters.

Ben C.

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Benjamin Craig
Editor-in-Chief, filmmaking.net