Any Suggestions Please??

[RayFrisby]

Hi Guys I was just wondering if anybody out there has any suggestions, I am shooting a low budget project next Summer using the HVX and am looking at my options now. I have an Dell Inspiron 9100 Laptop with Intel P4 3.2 ghz (hyperthread), 1GB or Ram, a 256, 9800 Mobile Radeon graphics card, and a 1900x 1200 display. The internal drives is a 7200 rpm 60GB but I have an external 1TB G-Raid Drive, I am also looking at getting another drive possibly 1.0 or 2.5TB G-Raid.
I am looking at using the laptop to offload the footage too, using a cineporter for capturing and using a backup 8GB P2 card when offloading to laptop.
I am in a dilema as I am not sure whether to go with the Canopus option or else switch over to the Mac. If I do go with the Canopus option I can pick up a faster Spec Windows Machine if I find the laptop is too slow to edit with. I can also use the 25ft firewire cable I have to view and if needs be capture the footage using the new DV Rack. I guess my questions is do the Canopus users feel this laptop has a sufficinet spec to handle this method of working, and is it a reliable method as I need to be sure my footage is safe. Any suggestions would be appreciated as editing is not my forte.

[Jeff In Ocala]

I just got my turnkey system from canopus this last monday and I am very happy with it it imports the p2 cards flawlessly, its very fast , i personally find the learning curve not too harsh and the support team is very very helpful. I have the flx-a dual opteron system and so far its taken everything i can throw at it.
Jeff

[RayFrisby]

Thanks Geff! Bought Vegas last year and spent some time getting used to it, then came the failure to support the HVX. I guess I'm just a bit reluctant to change again. I Would like to know if any of the Canopus members feel the laptop spec will not be able to handle capturing, also if you can run Canopus on two machines (licence wise). If it is too slow to edit on the laptop I would probably have to look at getting a dual system.
Thanks.

[jjb]

I have EDIUS Broadcast on my P4 3.2GHz desktop as well as on my Intel Pentium Mobile 2.0 GHz laptop. With EDIUS Broadcast you'll have a dongle - you can install it on 2 systems but only use one at a time. A very important prerequisite is a dedicated fast harddisk for the video stuff.

Direct capture from my HVX200E to my desktop is absolutely no problem. I'm still waiting for a 2nd laptop harddisk (SATA2 7200rpm). When I get it I'll try to capture to my laptop too. Nevertheless - dual core will be my next choice.

[hvx_germanboy]

Hi Ray,

i was working with a 18 month old centrino laptop with 512mb ram to copy my cards via pcmcia and i used the trial of edius broadcast to view(in realtime, even with effects!) and edit the material(it was actually dvcpro 50, u didnt mention what you wanna shoot, but i think also 720p is fine with your hardware, also in editing).

The big effort of edius is that the p2 implementation works perfectly, no conversion of material, you can edit it directly and it semms to be a real stable solution(no breakdowns like i know it from adobe premeiere in dv editing).

I would also suggest you to get a fast external hdd(edius needs a hdd that is not the system partition), i got a 1tb maxtor one touch 3 and it works really fine so fare.

Think about a 2nd backup possibility to save your material, for the case that your hdd crashes.
I did burn the mxf. on data dvds(8,5 gb, would be fine for your 8gb p2s), and it works fine, also if it takes about 40 minutes to burn 8gb dvd.
I also would use best quality dvds (i took verbatim) cause this is finally when your hdd crashes your only backup!

Good luck for the project, if you got more questions let me know!(also through private message)

[hvx_germanboy]

One more edit:
I also thought about to move over to mac.
But i feel that converting the mxf.s in fcp to mov.s ist not really a way to go, specially because it takes once again time and-very important-hdd space another time.
Sohaving a pc and the option of edius, moving to mac doesnt seem to be atractive to me anymore.

Let us know what u decide to do!

EDIT:IMPORTANT:Hey Ray,
i am not sure, but it could be that i have been a little bit too fast.
Like i said, i just edited dvcpro 50, what works perfectly, but today i tried my first hd footage(720pn over 50) which doesnt work at all with the trial version.
There will be an update to edius 4 broadcast (which will be for free for all of us who bought broadcast 3 not earlier then 1st of april 2006), but like bhiga, a nice guy from canopus america suggested, its planned to implement also the hvx pal settings, but its still under construction and nothing can be said sure.

I think it would be really stupid if canopus wouldnt include all the Pal Hd editing possibilities, cause this would make edius quasi useless for all the owners of a pal hvx(despite dvcpro 50, which definitly isnt enough for a 1000 euro program!)

So i hope it will happen, but honestly have to say that nothing semms to be sure so fare..so lets see!

Good luck anyway!

[RayFrisby]

Thanks Guys ! I like the fact that you can work directly with the MFX files and there is no conversion involved. It makes sense as Germanboy says to back up the footage to DVD. I intend to do this each day after shooting. I think I am going to go with the Canopus Edius 4 Broadcast option as I only have to outlay for the programme at the moment. Canopus are running a great crossover promotion if you own another editing package you can switch over to Canopus for just 200 Euro.
I guess the decision has just become a lot simpler !!!

[for_mlove]

Anyone aware of any crossover promotions coming to the states?? That might tilt a FCP vs Edius decition to the Canopus direction.

[bhiga]

Area-specific promotions are in the area-specific (versus language-specific) sections of the Canopus website.

Mainly, they're in the Where to Buy section, after you click your country.

[bhiga]

Of course, you can always call our sales guys and ask too.