[ Post New Message | Post Reply to this One | Send Private Email to Avery Goodman | Help ]

Report on MotoDV Studio 2.0

from Avery Goodman (ABGoodman@cwix.com)
I would like to let the DV filmmaking community know about the trials and tribulations I went through with Digital Origin's (formerly Radius) MotoDV Studio 2.0. This package includes the MotoDV capture card, and the full version of Premiere 5.1. I purchased it from Videoguys. Installing the package was the first headache. It was not compatible with my video card, so I ended up having to go out and buy a new one ($89.00 extra dollars) just to get the thing up and running. Then, I tried editing... The beginning of a nightmare! The software, and I am not sure whether it is the MotoDV or Adobe Premiere software that is to blame, was losing frames and giving me crackling audio, even when I used a Western Digital super-fast SCSI Ultra Wide drive optimized for A/V, 128 MB of SDRAM and a 400 mhz Celeron Processor! Finally, when I tried to render, the result was a mishmash of terrible sound, pictures from one cut interposed into another incorrect cut directly in conflict with my carefully designed timeline, flickering video, etc. I called, seemingly endlessly, to both Videoguys and to Digital Origin tech support, to get the thing to operate properly. None of their suggestions worked. Digital Origin didn't bother answering my emails for over a week, and, then, gave me bad advice! It is amazing that a company that can put out the much heralded EditDV for the Mac, can put out such crap for Windows.

I ended up sending the entire package back to Videoguys, within their 30 day return period, and ordered a Canopus DVRaptor, with Media Studio Pro 5.2, instead. However, I have wasted a large number of days in both failed editing, and technical support calls. Hopefully, DVRaptor will turn out better.

In short, I found that the MotoDV Studio 2.0 package is terrible (I suspect that Premiere 5.1 is part of the reason), and should be avoided like the plague!

(posted 9113 days ago)

[ Previous | Next ]