Laptop for HVX work?

Z

ZzBog

Active member
Hello everybody.

I'm going to get HVX for filmmaking and notebook for videoediting.. Can you advice a laptop, that suits my needs?

(I'm pretty new to filmmaking, but am going to spend everything I've earned on it). I guess notebook is the best choice because of portability - I'll be able to shoot on field and edit right away.. So there are some questions.. Don't know where else to turn, so am trying to ask here. So..

PC or Mac?

(I tend to get PC because it's more familiar to me.. Big mistake?)

Macbook Pro maybe?

If PC - Is there any reason to wait for merom release?

SATA-HDD is critical? (7200RPM is critical I guess)

14" 15" - possible or 17"-only size? (I mean which is the smallest screen, suitable for shooting?)

GPU critical (I'm going to do some GFX or animation on it also, but only for films) or integrated may go as well?

Maybe any particular models, you can recommend?

Budget is somewhere around $2000, but can go up if really needed

Really hope, that this question won't be left unnoticed. Really need an advice.
The questions may seem noobish, but this is only a beginning. Sometimes you just MUST switch from one activity to another.
 
I have both and the Mac outperforms in every way. The only drawback has been the lack of a P2 viewer for Apple but one was just released this week so that no longer will be an advantage. As well, there's a piece of software foir Mac called P2 Genie that automates the entire process of dumping the cards to the computer/harddrive. When the setting permits, I record directly into Final Cut and it works flawlessly. I did testing with the PC and had all sorts of problems but Barry Green and others have had success with Edius and their PCs.

Good luck
Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com
 
Hm... I'm considering to get Macbook PRO 1.8 Ghz with 2Gb Ram... 7200 RPM
Do you think it's good enough?
 
For inexpensive, the PC solution has a lot to offer now that Serious Magic is offering DVC Rack. It'll be out in about six months, so you could get a relatively inexpensive PC and use DVC Rack to capture, and then edit on Edius Broadcast. Total expense could be in the $2500 range. And it'll have a PCMCIA slot for offloading P2 cards directly too!

The Macbook solution would be closer to $4,000 for an MBP and FCP Studio.

I'm looking towards the 17" Macbook Pro once the dust settles and the reliability is proven (I guess the reports are coming in on the 15" now about noisy fans and other issues). I like FCP with the HVX, and the Macbook Pro would let you do both (DVC Rack for capture, FCP for editing) but the Edius software blows FCP away when it comes to P2 integration. And of course with the MBP I could have Edius and FCP installed on the same system. And by using DVC Rack I can totally avoid the whole "import P2" file unwrap/rewrap situation with FCP because DVC Rack will (I believe) allow direct Quicktime capture instead of MXF capture. So it really seems like the best of all worlds (a bit convoluted, but all the capability is there).
 
You rely on this Windows option? Heard of any faults with it?

Btw when it comes out of beta, any ideas on the price of getting it on this generation on Macbook?
 
I said I'm waiting for all the dust to settle and all the kinks to work their way out. I'll give 'em a good three or four months and check back in then; I think the all-in-one solution is most promising but I'm not willing to risk my work on it yet.

Right now I'm getting along fine by using my existing Dell Inspiron 9300 and offloading to its internal hard drive and to an external 1394 drive, and then in post plugging that 1394 drive into the Mac and importing the footage from there. That works fine. But it would sure be nice to have it all in one. I look forward to the day when the FCP/MBP/DVC Rack/Bootcamp thing is all solid and proven! :)
 
Barry,

I am interested in going with the new Apple laptops as well. I use an Apple desktop now with FCP.

How do you plan on handling the lack of a PCMCIA slot?

Chris
 
THanks for replies,

Do you think this generation's Macbook requirements (7200RPM + 1.8 or 2 Ghz + 2 GB RAM) are enough for videoprocessing? No good reasons (except prefectionism) for waiting for nextgen?

Thanks
 
www.duel-systems.com is producing an adapter.

But after reading Jarred's P2 Store review, I'm considering one of those as well. Not only as a field offloading device, but because it will pull double-duty when serving as a MacBook Pro P2 slot pass-through device.
 
Barry, sounds like you still have one foot in the FCP camp and one foot in the Edius camp? Tough decision, I'm hoping that it will get easier soon as we see what Edius 4 and the next release of FCP bring. I'm anxious to settle on a platform and start using my HVX for HD work!!
 
I just finished two weeks of shooting and editing with my 1.83 15" macbook pro (2GB RAM from macsales.com) and FC 5.1 .

I did most of my shooting live to disk on the macbook (720/24p - removing advanced pulldown on capture) and didn't have any problems at all recording even hour long segments to my USB 2.0 drive (Next Star 3 with 300gb 16mb cache seagate sata).

I recorded anything handheld to my 8gb P2 in 720/24pN and each 20 min load of footage takes about 10 min to offload using FCP's "import P2" function.

I can't tell you enough how great this all works. I can play back everything in out my dvi port to my 17" Sony HD monitor!
 
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