DSLR footage looks better on a better computer: Seriously.

Kholi

Section Moderator
Alright... they say you never stop learning, I caught this one recently.

My Alienware M11X Netbook can playback 1080/24, 30 and 60 flawlessly. Not only that, but out of the HDMI port as well. I use Adobe Premiere CS5 these days to cut, it's been an amazing experience being able to edit while at Quiznos or just sitting in the car on the side of the road.

One thing about this netbook is that it features two graphics cards: one INTEL GMA and a higher-end nVidia GPU. The nVidia GPU can run games at full specs, intense ones like Crysis etc. That means it's butter for me to cut on this laptop, and I can playback footage on the timeline with effects at Full Res.

What startled me, recently, is when I opened my netbook to check some 7D footage and RED footage out... it looked like crap! ALL OF IT!

Areas that were gently over-exposed looked like MUSH, banding was off the scale and colors were really weird.

Needless to say, I freaked out.

However, I went to turn on my nVidia card to play Left 4 Dead 2 (Yeah, sue me... I like shooting Infected Things) and lo-and-behold, my footage magically looked ACCURATE.

No more crazy blow outs, no more mushy skin, no more plastic look. I got so baffled that I went back and forth with several clips, then YouTube and then VIMEO.

Equally so, YouTube looked much better with my nVidia card turned on.

This leads me to a conclusion that a lot of people aren't seeing the REAL image, not just the DSLRs but of all of the HD material being posted. D90, GH-1, and RED.

I say, if you have the ability to do so, check your computer specs to see what sort of GPU you're running and find out how well it handles hi def video. Furthermore, compare your image on a friends computer if he or she has a better one and, if at all possible, play stuff back on a television.

Some of you probably already know about the television deal, but wanted to share some learned knowledge with those that may not have known.

Shoot it up.
 
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I've always suspected this. Which explains why everything I've watched looks great at my job with thier high end PCs and just mediocre here at home.
 
Naturally... all components will play a part... you think an old Pentium CPU is gonna run hi-def content? 1Frame per 5 seconds decoding?

Or old DDR-PC5400 Memory? Yeah, I guess you could pre-cache about 1MB of HD footage with that.

No...
 
Koli how is it a net book can have this much power and what is the price of the one u have?
 
Koli how is it a net book can have this much power and what is the price of the one u have?

1,000.00 and count on Dell/Alienware to wreck some shiet first out the gate. I expect MSI to follow suit, and as soon as they do I'm jumping ship.

For now, though, the 11.6" M11X is a beast to behold. I seriously sold everything I had once I bought it, including my 17" Quad Core Laptop with the 1080 Res LCD.

I comment to Isaac Brody near daily on how crazy tech has gotten. Pretty much sat in the parking lot of Wendy's the other day finalizing the Spirit Hoods cut. Haha.
 
This is getting crazy. Koli don't want to bog you down with questions but how would u say this netbook compares to the macbook pros 17 i7 for raw speed. Thinking of making a purchase as well as testing the new cs5 suite.
 
This is getting crazy. Koli don't want to bog you down with questions but how would u say this netbook compares to the macbook pros 17 i7 for raw speed. Thinking of making a purchase as well as testing the new cs5 suite.


I hear tell round the infonets that the M11X Dusts most current Macbook Pros in performance. Outside of the top top Macbook Pro, which is pretty sweet.

Apparently, as well, it's getting an upgrade this June to i5 and i7 architecture and an nVidia Optimus GPU.

I'll be upgrading for sure, but hoping MSI drops something comparable.
 
I'll be upgrading for sure, but hoping MSI drops something comparable.

I would stay far far away from MSI... my last notebook from them was also the bomb spec wise, but besides the awesome power it was utter CRAP. Loose parts inside, the display got darker on one sider after some time, the fan got really loud and it always gets really hot. I sent it in... took forever. They fixed the loose part. the other things didn't feel better. And after a few weeks the fixed parts inside bcame loose again. I opened it up and fixed it myself.

Summary:
- Awesome power
- Crap quality and built
 
I would stay far far away from MSI... my last notebook from them was also the bomb spec wise, but besides the awesome power it was utter CRAP. Loose parts inside, the display got darker on one sider after some time, the fan got really loud and it always gets really hot. I sent it in... took forever. They fixed the loose part. the other things didn't feel better. And after a few weeks the fixed parts inside bcame loose again. I opened it up and fixed it myself.

Summary:
- Awesome power
- Crap quality and built

Yikes. You had a major bad experience. I've had two MSI Laptops, one 17" Quad and a 10" Netbook and both survive major damage.

Never had an issue with either, just needed to compress my hardware.
 
do you have backup battery power for your laptop? On high performance setting, im lucky to get an hours worth of editing with mine on the go.
 
do you have backup battery power for your laptop? On high performance setting, im lucky to get an hours worth of editing with mine on the go.


I get a solid 4.5 to 5 hours of cutting on a full charge, and that's also generally using the internet and IMIng, piping it out of the HDMI for a second monitor...

Like right now. Haha.
 
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