The best laptop for the HVX would have?

D

David_M_Payne

Well-known member
Well, what would it have? An HD screen for sure and a big hard drive that ran at 7200. Also a fast processor and a good graphics card are a must, and I'd want it in a PC not a Mac. I've looked at some high end gaming laptops that have this, not cheap but under 3K, which is my budget for a couple of them for the two HVX's I'm planning on buying. So do we know enough yet about the HVX to make any kind of decisions on the best priced and featured laptop for recording movie footage?

David
 
David, let me know what you end up getting. As far as the HVX goes, I don't think it matters so much as the application you use to edit with instead. You'd definitely want to get a laptop with a PCMCIA slot for the P2 card and firewire/USB for additional drives, but these come on most laptops anyway.

The trick is finding the right editing app - HD, P2, 24P support, etc - and buying a laptop with specs to match from there. Avid Xpress Pro for example is one possibility, and checking out Avid's specs for PCs it shows:

Minimum PC System Specifications for Avid Xpress Pro

Processors: Dual or Single 2.4 GHz Xeon processor OR Pentium 4 1.6 GHz processor OR Pentium M 1.8 GHz processor (mobile configurations). Note: The boot drive should be IDE, SCSI, or SATA 7200 RPM. Do not use internal SCSI as a boot device if you also plan on adding external SCSI drives (in that case use IDE or SATA).

Operating System: Windows XP Professional w/ Service Pack 2

System Memory: 1 GB system memory minimum, 1.5 GB recommended for HD or high-stream count SD projects

Open GL graphics cards: NVidia QuadroFX 1400 PCI Express, NVidia QuadroFX 1300 PCI Express, Nvidia QuadroFX 1100 AGP 8X, NVidia QuadroFX 500 AGP 8X or NVidia Quadro4 980 XGL AGP 8X. Note: Although supported, use of the NVIDIA Quadro 4 980 XGL in a dual-monitor configuration may result in performance degradation during tasks such as scratch removal, auto color correction, or general color correction when the safe color warnings are enabled, or using the eyedropper to select colors in Effect Mode. Single monitor systems with an NVIDIA Quadra 4 980 XGL perform properly.

Add-in IEEE-1394 PCI card (required if no built-in 1394). Note: The add-in PCI card must be a universal PCI card with the T.I chip set. Mojo is not supported on notebook systems with PCMCIA cards of any kind. Current qualified /supported cards include:
ADS Pyro PCI 64 (Rev B), part #API-311
SIIG 1394 3-Port PCI i/e, part #NN-400012

Internal disk drive: 40 GB or larger

CD or DVD-ROM drive
Click to expand...

I'm leaning toward one of Avid's qualified laptops myself, an Alienware MJ-12m 7700 laptop.
 
Oz said:
Avid Xpress Pro for example is one possibility.
Click to expand...
Pay attention regarding AVID and a mere online process based on the excelent DNxHD 10bits codec, as you can follow here: «XPress Pro can only edit, not capture nor lay back to tape (they are STILL protecting their high end!). Oh, and if I understood correctly, XPress Pro REQUIRES the Mojo hardware to process (play back and edit) DNxHD». So, what about other PC side possibilities like Adobe Premiere, for instance. It seems that is also 10bits rather a 8bits system like FCP, for example, but it's another competition...
 
Sorry to burst your bubble, but a Mac Powerbook and FCP 5 will be by far the faster, easier and most bug free DVCPro HD system to work with. It will have all the goodies and Native DVCPro HD support. Pop in the P2 and rock-n-roll!
 
I am on the edge of getting a laptop and although I edit on PC (Liquid) on my desktop I really consider a Powerbook for fieldwork. the batterylife is superb and the Powerbook-FCP5 combo will be tough to beat even in its pricerange. in a P2 world we stay on the harddisk anyway and i won´t edit but rather roughcut with it, so the change to the PC later at home won´t be a real problem, because there is no need for converting Timecodesheets etc.
 
evinsky said:
Sorry to burst your bubble, but a Mac Powerbook and FCP 5 will be by far the faster, easier and most bug free DVCPro HD system to work with. It will have all the goodies and Native DVCPro HD support. Pop in the P2 and rock-n-roll!
Click to expand...
Yes I think so but I'm a bit worried about this requirement as listed on FCP technical spec list:
" AGP or PCI Express graphics card "
It says you need these graphics cards and I don't think you can upgrade the card in the powerbook g4 - but I'm not sure about this yet????????

I'm afraid that when I get the new powerbook 7200 rpm with 2gig ram, it may still be incapable of editing native DVCproHD as all the heavy grind work running through that g4 and standard graphics card - I imagine will be too much for it??????

It's so difficult to get a clear and simple list of what is needed to edit this DVCproHD native on a laptop - Do the manufacturers of the camera or computers not think this would be a good help!!!!!!!!!!!! Instead of all the bull**** just give us a page telling us what we need exactly so we can go get it. That would be too easy for potential customers and might increase their sales - so probably a stupid idea.....:angry:
 
Barra,
I'm working on a PBG4. In fact, native HDV editing is a heavier load on the processor than DVCProHD which is intraframe while HDV is MPEG2 GOP and must be decoded on the fly when editing realtime. My PBG4 can handle both in realtime. Playback of DVCProHD material takes only 50-60% of processor performance as each frame is encoded with all picture information and is independent from prior or later frames, contrary to HDV where only every 12th frame is a full frame. As a PBG4 + FCP combo can handle HDV natively, it can handle DVCProHD as well, sure.
Don't worry about the graphics card. The PBG4 comes with an ATI Mobile Radeon 9700 that ensures a beautiful picture on a 23" Cinema Display. VideoRAM is at 128MB and RAM is at 2 GB. The internal HD is a 100GB/5400 and the external HD (via FW800) is a 100GB/5400 as well. Never experienced choppy playback, nor dropped frames.
Rumor has it that Apple is to introduce new and faster Powerbooks at MacWorld San Francisco with Intel processors in early January. That will make such a choice even more natural. Can only smile when colleagues and customers talk about their problems with Wintel laptops. Mind you, it is not the processor but the OS that causes those problems.
Hope this helps. Pe.
 
PKraft said:
Barra,

Rumor has it that Apple is to introduce new and faster Powerbooks at MacWorld San Francisco with Intel processors in early January. That will make such a choice even more natural. Can only smile when colleagues and customers talk about their problems with Wintel laptops. Mind you, it is not the processor but the OS that causes those problems.
Hope this helps. Pe.
Click to expand...

Well said. I would advise people to seriously consider MAC for editing hvx footage.
 
evinsky said:
Sorry to burst your bubble, but a Mac Powerbook and FCP 5 will be by far the faster, easier and most bug free DVCPro HD system to work with. It will have all the goodies and Native DVCPro HD support. Pop in the P2 and rock-n-roll!
Click to expand...

Amen. I use both platforms, and I really can't figure out the anti-Mac sentiments by some here, especially since Panny and Apple have been HD partners since at least here. That makes a relatively glitch-free experience very likely.

Since I started on PCs, I considered Avid-Wintel very hard for a long time. One highly negative review of Avid's (at least initially) bug-infested free DV program convinced me it wasn't the program/company for me. If they couldn't get that right, forget it.
 
so what drives would you guy recommend for laptop editing? the g-raids? would it be overkill to get something faster than firewire 400/800? thanks.
 
Emanuel said:
It seems that is also 10bits rather a 8bits system like FCP, for example, but it's another competition...
Click to expand...

FCP an 8-bit sytem? How do you figure that out? Final cut can handle anything. From dv to 10-bit uncompressed. Obviously you need a decent extra card for things like 10-bit, but that seems rather normal to me.
Final cut is a true multi-codec editor. It will handle just about anything. In all honesty, it did take them 3versions before they got everything above DV to work without a glitch (well, sort off).
I've worked with fcp versions 1 to 4.5 and in my opnion it rocks. Not like avid where the less-costly apps can only handle so much.
With apple it's one app that does it all. Off course your hardware has to be up to the job. Duh...
Now if only they could get the codecs from Media100 in FCP. As an application Media100 blows, but there compression codecs are stunning... :thumbsup:
 
OliverM said:
FCP an 8-bit sytem? How do you figure that out? Final cut can handle anything. From dv to 10-bit uncompressed. Obviously you need a decent extra card for things like 10-bit, but that seems rather normal to me.
Final cut is a true multi-codec editor. It will handle just about anything.
Emanuel said:
It seems that is also 10bits rather a 8bits system like FCP, for example, but it's another competition...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
I read it somewhere that's why I said it (I'm not a techie guy!) but are you sure? Because I remember some info like that regarding FCP color correction limitations. Is there anybody else with the definitive answer? I'd like to, because I'm on PC side but who knows? [and rumors like that can make a decision and, perhaps, it has been the case...who knows (again)?]

Thx in advance!
 
FCP handles RGB, 8bit YUV, 10bit YUV, and internally can use a high precision floating point YUV for improved accuracy when layering multiple effects.
 
So, why I read it?!

I'm sure that was a reliable source!... I don't remember where but it was that determinates my attitude in order to avoid it 'cause CC limitations comparatively to Premiere, for instance.
 
Pay attention regarding AVID and a mere online process based on the excelent DNxHD 10bits codec, as you can follow here: «XPress Pro can only edit, not capture nor lay back to tape (they are STILL protecting their high end!). Oh, and if I understood correctly, XPress Pro REQUIRES the Mojo hardware to process (play back and edit) DNxHD». So, what about other PC side possibilities like Adobe Premiere, for instance. It seems that is also 10bits rather a 8bits system like FCP, for example, but it's another competition...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder, Emanuel, I remember that detail from before. However, I don't think it's a problem unless you absolutely need to lay back to tape, but I thought the whole idea of P2 was to get away from tape?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top