Sony VAIO/Vegas Pro 9 Laptop questions

[Hygravity]

First post to this forum so I’ll apologize now for any faux pas.

14 year veteran of the video industry starting own event/industrial “video boutique”. I have a $2,000 budget for a portable editing system to edit AVCHD footage, output probably to DVD or Blu-ray. I plan to use a portable editing system due to my ties to the local live event industry and the opportunities for projects on the road. Vegas pro 9 seems like a great choice for post software for the work I plan to do and the budget I have in mind. I have a couple of laptop related questions.

I’ve configured a Sony Vaio F11 system online with the following specifications:
Processor: core i7-720QM
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64
Hard Drive: 320gb 7200 rpm
Memory: 6gb
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray burner
Display: 16.4” 1920 – 1080 display
Graphics: NVIDIA®GeForce® GT 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
Software: Vegas Pro 9 ($399 option, seems like a good price for the software)

Total Price: 1984.98

External Drive: LaCie 1TB Little Big Disk Quadra External Hard Drive, esata, Raid 0

Will this specification comfortably handle editing AVCHD for final Blu-Ray output?

Can I use the HDMI output to feed a TV monitor for video preview?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[manh]

I had run Vegas 9 comfortably on slower laptop CPU, RAM, GPU wise. So your F11 should be fine. Sure thing desktop can't be competed anyway.

 

[Hygravity]

Yeah, I’ve given some thought to the fact that a laptop will never compete with a desktop for performance. One of the things I’ve considered is building a desktop computer in a rackmount and placing it in a travel case. It wouldn’t be nearly as portable but I imagine I will have a superior editing experience.

 

[RS-Colo]

Software: Vegas Pro 9 ($399 option, seems like a good price for the software)

Be careful. The Vegas Pro 9 option is not as good as it seems. It does not include the DVD Architect 5.0. It doesn't even include 4.5. And Sony does not sell 5.0 as a separate product so you are without a way to create DVD or BD menus.

 

[PerroneFord]

I have a $2,000 budget for a portable editing system to edit AVCHD footage, output probably to DVD or Blu-ray...

Vegas pro 9 seems like a great choice for post software for the work I plan to do and the budget I have in mind...

Numerous issues here, but I'll leave that alone for now.

External Drive: LaCie 1TB Little Big Disk Quadra External Hard Drive, esata, Raid 0

Good choice. Does the Vaio have an eSata port?

Will this specification comfortably handle editing AVCHD for final Blu-Ray output?

No. Not even close. You won't be able to edit AVCHD comfortably on any computer inside a pro NLE. Just be prepared to transcode the footage into something other than AVCHD, and you should be fine.

Can I use the HDMI output to feed a TV monitor for video preview?

You SHOULD be able to, but with laptops, it's anyone's guess.

 

[RS-Colo]

I receintly bought a Vaio F11 very similar to the one mentioned here. I haven't had a lot of experience with it yet; I'm still trying out trial versions of the Corel and Sony Vegas Platinum products. I'm much more impressed with the Sony product.

The F11 does have an eSATA port. I also bought an express card with two USB 3.0 ports, so I'm ready to move up to a faster drive in the future. Right now I'm still using a 1TB USB 2.0 drive I already had. The F11 is so much faster than my old laptop that the 2.0 drive still seems great. But I'm sure that i will want a faster connected drive once my video work gets bigger. The F11 also has an HDMI port for output. I got a GH1 this past summer and am really just starting to play with video. I consider myself a photography expert, but video is a new game for me.

In general I am extreamly pleased with the F11. It is a great laptop for video work. The only negatives so far are the speakers and the weight. I was used to a much smaller laptop that weighed about half of the F11. I use a pair of external Logitech speakers. They are fine for what I do but are more portable than top-of-the-line. They are powered off of the USB connection.