Quote Originally Posted by ritaheed View Post
p.c mate - just looked @ tht arkaos.....it looks amazing!!

defo gonna purchase something when a get paid....

see the effects you get for the programs are they compatible with all programs or do u need to get certain ones for certain programs....?
Hey. I use Arkaos as the main controller for what I do. However, I do NOT recomend buying it. It is absolutely rare when I actually advocate piracy of a program. But, having paid for that program in version 2, only to have the event recorder not work (which made rendering videos to be distributed by DVD later near impossible), I was told by their support that all I had to do was purchase the new version. Easy right? Pay an additional couple hundred dollars just to get the software to work as it was supposed to when I bought it. Their tech support and attitude, in my opinion, absolutely sucks, especially considering what they charge.

However, that being said, as a live tool, I absolutely love Arkaos. Especially since it gives me no hiccups with Divx, where other programs have the tendency of crashing with it. What you'll probably find in the end, if you play with a number of the demo softwares out there, is that you can pretty much get good results with all of them, but each will have it's own little quirks here and there which, depending on how you do things, will either be a major annoyance, or completely unnoticable.

One thing I like about Arkaos is, if you have a MIDI keyboard and are familiar with MIDI, it's pretty friendly to setup. However, the built in media navigation/library leaves a bit to be desired.

In the end though, what you're going to find is that most of the time is going to be spent behind editors, whether a video editing software, or something like photoshop for images, to set up the material you want. It's the most time consuming part, and also the most important.

For example, for your Manga question, that will involve a number of steps. First, you're going to have to rip the DVD. Then, you may need to convert the ripped VOB file into a format that is readbale by your editor (if it won't read a VOB file which is possible). Then, you're going to have to edit the video itself to remove all the crap you don't want. Then, you'll need to save with a particular codec, as your laptop HD will run out of space soon if you use uncompressed clips. Finding the right codec, and the right settings for that codec, can be a pretty time consuming process. And different codecs may be better for different types of visual material. Depending on how fast your machine is, this is where most of your time is going to be spent.

As for needing a projector, that depends on the venue. Some places have them and some don't. Just make sure you've got an adapter that can send an appropriate video signal from your laptop to a projector that's inhouse. I always have an adapter, RCA, S-Video, and VGA cable with me. One of those will always work.