The next article in this series will cover the detail of capturing, encoding, and authoring. Add the right software, CD recorder, and extra hard drive, and they're ideal for creating VideoCDs. Before you get much deeper, the first thing to consider is your computer's CPU, or central processing unit. Fortunately, all current Macs use a G4 CPU, or a slightly less powerful G3 CPU, and either processor has plenty enough oomph for VideoCD production. Why, that you'll buy some extra memory modules at your friendly Apple dealer, of course.
More memory is always better.
Too little, and you'll encounter program crashes, system freezes, strange mouse behavior, and other oddities. So, you've got a new Mac with a whopping 20GB internal hard drive, and you're feeling smug. There are two problems with your internal drive. Do the math, and you'll see that an hour of video can gobble up nearly 13GB of disk space. The second problem with your internal hard drive is that it already has plenty to do, without handling your video files.