The best laptop for the HVX would have?

Oz said:
Emanuel said:
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?
Click to expand...
Sure...though if you, one day, want to go to 35mm film-out and you need a tape master and you don't have budget or you simply don't want spend money with any AVID hardware, what's the solution?

And about:
Emanuel said:
«(...)XPress Pro REQUIRES the Mojo hardware to process (play back and edit) DNxHD[/I]»
Click to expand...
So, you need always for an AVID hardware, that is, you can have an EDL (off-line editing) but never the online unless with an expensive AVID hardware (yours or rent - who cares?...it will be always an expensive industrie stuff!). Where remains the Indie's Guerilla spirit?

<PS> So, we need more creative FREEDOM not "n" commitment(sssssssssss... ) x puchase(s) or rental ones (or it's the digital revolution itself in danger as less revolution, digital or not!)
 
Guys,

Like I've said many times on different threads on this forum (and others), I'm editing with Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.2 on both a workstation and a laptop.

Workstation:
HP xw800 dual Xeon 3.06 with 2.5 GB RAM.

Laptop:
HP nx9600 Pentium 4 3.2 with 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD @ 5400 RPM.

I use both systems hooked up to Mojo for 1:1 uncompressed input, and without Mojo for straight capture of DVCPro HD at 720p and HDV from Sony and JVC. And full support for P2 (already being used with existing P2 cameras).

Just capture and start editing, all formats on the same timeline with no rendering. And lay back to an HDV device, or digital cut to DVCPro HD deck.

There are things FCP does well, but you should consider Xpress Pro HD for working with high definition footage. I am running the full set of software, called Xpress Studio, on both computers, too. I'm very pleased with how solid and trouble-free this solution is.

Regards,

Cre8tive
 
Oz said:
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:



I'm leaning toward one of Avid's qualified laptops myself, an Alienware MJ-12m 7700 laptop.
Click to expand...

Thanks OZ it looks like a great laptop for the money. My buddy who does video animation made a good point about not getting two laptops because I might need the flexibility to move the camera about that a laptop would compromise. He recommended one laptop and one of the mobile storage devices like the firestore (?) or similar device. That way I can use the laptop to view the shot from the firestore and make decisions right there on the set as to how the shot looks etc. I got the money, now if I could just get my hands on a couple of the HVX's…

I'm also looking at getting a new PC for the real editing work in my home studio, something with dual processors, lots of ram the hot video card etc and it looks like Alienware may be a good place to start with that too. I ordered a new ilo 26 in wide screen HDTV/monitor to mix the film down for $696 plus shipping and tax (Total $762.66) that has a great picture from well, I'm going to be pilloried here for this, but Walmart. I had to order it from Texas because they can't keep it in stock here as it sells to fast. (I had to save some money somewhere in this money pit flick of mine.) It is the big brother to the two 17 inch HDTV/monitors that I've used with my DVX's to great effect in my first go around on Holy War.

David
 
Any new thoughts on laptops and capture/editing programs for them for the HVX? Serious Magic looks like a no brainier as Barry said, and I can't really afford the kind of quad G-5 and power book option I'd want so PC based systems look like the best option for me right now.

David
 
Doesn't Avid Express Studio cost like $4,000 alone? And like $6,000 for the complete version with Mojo and Digi 002 board? And how much do they charge for a version upgrade down the road? I honestly don't know a whole lot about the Avid Express Studio, but I'm skeptical in thinking that it's as well integrated and enjoyable to use as the $1,300 Final Cut Studio, which includes Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Motion, and Soundtrack Pro. And the upgrade price is $499 from one version to the next (for the full studio). I'm also skeptical regarding how the features compare between Avid Express Studio and Final Cut Studio, considering Apple doesn't have a more expensive product they're interested in up-selling you to.
 
Just announced a few minutes ago at MacWorld. THe new iMacs will be first Apple systems featuring this new Intel Core Duo Centrino technology. 2-3X faster than iMAC G5
 
And the new 'MacBook Pro' will soon be available also with Core Duo. It's 4-5 X faster than current Powerbooks.
 
Okay, I guess I needed to get up on here about this one. Okay, for HD stuff, on the PC side, you need at least 3ghz Pentium 4 minimum. I currently own an Alienware 51m, though it's been outdated already, everything didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would be for what I needed it for. My current specs are:

3ghz Pentium 4
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Mobile 128mb
17" 1280x768 LCD
1gb PC3200 DDR SDRAM
60gb 7200RPM HDD

I'm going to send it in for final upgrades since it needs an issue fixed to turn it into:

3.6ghz Pentium 4
2gb PC3200 DDR SDRAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Mobile 128mb
17" 1280x768 LCD screen
60gb 7200RPM HDD

That's a little upper end for laptops, regardless of the current LGA775 scheme. Alienware is a good company, cheated me and many other Area 51m owners with their short support time for the 51ms, but laptops never really were meant to stay top of the line for long. Anyway, the new models should work great, only thing I recommend is to go with newer Athlon 64 models, the real desktop CPU ones, not the Turions, those are the sucky processors. Mostly in case of future 64-bit safety reasons.

The bare minimum laptop I would recommend would be:

3ghz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 equivalent
1gb of RAM
For ATI, the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 Pro and above, (Radeon 9550 and 9600 doesn't count) or for nVidia, the Geforce 6800 Go and above or nVidia Quadro 1400 Go
60-120gb HDD (5400RPM or 7200RPM, your choice for battery life or performance)
Many extra batteries
Decent LCD screen

At the higher end, you should aim for:

Dual core Pentium or AMD solution
2gb DDR2 SDRAM
17"+ Highest screen quality (WXGA, UXGA, ect. whatever it is that's best, I don't know, the one with the most resolution)
100gb+ 7200RPM, maybe 2x in RAID
Highest nVidia mobile graphics solution, gaming or Quadro is your choice, they work better than ATI cards for video, at least on the PC side

With Macs, you're okay with any of them. But I would recommend the Powerbooks over the iBooks due to the higher resolution screens and faster processors. The new Intel ones look great, but I would wait until they release the necessary software updates just to be safe.

Remember, with video, it is important to use external HDD's and RAID systems for the best optimal performance, keep your laptop's internal HDD's as clean as possible. If you want to install a game or some unnecessary program, you can install it on an external drive, works great for me. But for the main apps you'll be using, install those on the main drive. You also don't need to format the thing all the time, just keep it clean with external drives.
 
I have one of the most powrfull laptops available:

P4 3ghz 64bit
4X512 RAM
nVidia GeForce Go 6800 256 MB PCI Express 16x
sound card 5.1 Realtek HDAudio
LCD 17'' 1680x1050 (yep..16:9)
Hard disk 80GB 5400rpm X2 RAID 0

and the questions are:

1) Would I need another external HD monitor or I will be fine with 1680X1050
2) Will it be crusial to upgrade my hard disks to 7200rpm or since I always work
with externals 7200 firewire there is no problem at all.
3) Are windows 64bit something to consider about ?
4) Is P4 3.6mhz a major upgrade or a waste of money ?
 
Spanbauer said:
Doesn't Avid Express Studio cost like $4,000 alone? And like $6,000 for the complete version with Mojo and Digi 002 board? And how much do they charge for a version upgrade down the road? I honestly don't know a whole lot about the Avid Express Studio, but I'm skeptical in thinking that it's as well integrated and enjoyable to use as the $1,300 Final Cut Studio, which includes Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Motion, and Soundtrack Pro. And the upgrade price is $499 from one version to the next (for the full studio). I'm also skeptical regarding how the features compare between Avid Express Studio and Final Cut Studio, considering Apple doesn't have a more expensive product they're interested in up-selling you to.
Click to expand...

Span,

Yes, these approximate prices are correct, although there are rebates available now. But that's for ALL the hardware and software included here:

http://www.avid.com/products/xpressStudio/

Take a look at the quick tours and .pdf files on this page. I find it very enjoyable to use.

FYI, I bought my system when it was SD only. I upgraded to the HD version for $50. All the subsequent point releases have been free. :grin:

Give it a thorough look and see if you agree.

Regards,
Cre8tive
 
Andreas said:
I have one of the most powrfull laptops available:

P4 3ghz 64bit
4X512 RAM
nVidia GeForce Go 6800 256 MB PCI Express 16x
sound card 5.1 Realtek HDAudio
LCD 17'' 1680x1050 (yep..16:9)
Hard disk 80GB 5400rpm X2 RAID 0

and the questions are:

1) Would I need another external HD monitor or I will be fine with 1680X1050
2) Will it be crusial to upgrade my hard disks to 7200rpm or since I always work
with externals 7200 firewire there is no problem at all.
3) Are windows 64bit something to consider about ?
4) Is P4 3.6mhz a major upgrade or a waste of money ?
Click to expand...

Andreas,

Did you see my post in this thread with my laptop specs? Very similar to yours.

1) I find working with my 17" 1680X1050 screen to be just fine. I use dual monitors on my desktop system but don't find the laptop single screen difficult at all. I have to admit that my editing jobs on the road are not as complex as my editing jobs in the studio.

2) Depends on your amount of footage, needs for compositing, length of sequence. I haven't needed external drives so far, but can envision needing them soon.

3) Not for Avid. 64 bit not supported yet.

4) 3.2 seems to work well for me. Once again, depends on what you are trying to do...lot's of layers? Lots of greenscreen? Lots of multicam? If not, work with what you have currently and upgrade only if it is becoming an issue for you based on choppiness of picture, etc.

HTH,

Cre8tive
 
Would I need another external HD monitor or I will be fine with 1680X1050
Click to expand...

If you do want another monitor or three, consider Matrox's DualHead2Go product. It allows you to connect two monitors to your laptop yet allows you to retain the use of your laptop screen as well. Check out the link here.

As for 64-bit, there are still driver software support issues. What with the HVX already demanding a reworking of current software/needs, I'd hold off on 64-bit Windows until more support is established. You wouldn't want to be troubleshooting P2, HD, and the OS you're editing on!
 
Thanks for the tip OZ. Seems cool. Do you know price ?
My question regarding 1680X1050 is that I wish I could use my laptop for shooting, editing and color corecting my footage. But as I read in the forums probably the third option requaries HD monitor. So is the HD monitor a mast ?
 
About 64bit win, yea I know about those problems. But I wonder if there going to be solved,if it will be a boost to the overall perfomance regardless of the NLE software suport.
 
I believe it goes for about $169 or so.

FYI, I bought my system when it was SD only. I upgraded to the HD version for $50. All the subsequent point releases have been free.
Click to expand...

cre8tive, I did the same thing too, I would be hard pressed to pay full price. Avid has a lot of promotions to take advantage of.
 
pccross said:
And the new 'MacBook Pro' will soon be available also with Core Duo. It's 4-5 X faster than current Powerbooks.
Click to expand...

PC or mac, I keep going back and forth on it, mostly due to the already available FCP editing solution and Mac computers vs. who knows what on the PC front. (I have the whole premiere suit now but need it upgraded for HD and who knows when that will happen, plus my fast PC is not fast enough to edit DVCPRO HD.) If you only want to use the notebooks as the smart computer for controlling external hard drives to record to from the HVX, what would be the minimum needed for a laptop with a Widescreen? As someone who is not nearly as well versed as most of you here are on the tech end of film making, I'm looking at the most stable and user friendly solution I can find, even if it costs me a little more to get there. That looks like Apple for now. I plan on shooting in 1080 24p.

Right now I'm looking at a couple of 15 in 1.67GHz G4 Widescreen powerbooks with the super drives as the mobile solution for capturing the video. They are $1,994.00 at the Macmall and I can get a free 1-gig ram upgrade for a total of 1,5 gigs of ram for that price, more or less. This should be more than enough as far as laptops are concerned. I keep going back and forth on two laptops or one laptop and one firestore device for more mobility for some of the shoots. It is hard to rationalize the firestore though, as it is as expensive as the Mac laptop last I heard, and with the laptop you get a wide screen LCD to frame and shoot with, even if it is more cumbersome to use. I don't have any shots planned that really need the P-2 mobile solution for now, and hopefully Panasonic or someone else will bring that option down to earth cost wise soon anyway. Hopefully.

On the studio-editing front I'm looking at FCP studio for $1,300, a Quad G5 2.5 GHz with 4.5 gigs of ram for about $3,600.00. (I already have a 26" HD monitor.) My thinking is that I have one film almost ready to shoot as soon as the script is redone," Holy War". You can read the short story it is based on, on my web site. I shot part of it already with my two DVX100a's but I had problems with cast dropping out so I'm starting over this time with enough money to pay semi pro actors from the local theater and college's here. Though Kevin Smith did Clerks with his friends, they were into acting, and my cast consisted of friends who were doing me a favor but out found that shooting a movie was more work and time than they were interested in giving, hence the move to real actors.

"Holy War" is the first of a trilogy, so the computers and HVX's should be a good solution for all three films, and should give me a good enough film if I do my part right to transfer into real film. The computers and FCP adds up to about $9,000.00 and with two HVX200 and a couple of new tripods and a Fig-rig from EVS I'm looking at $12,600.00 for a total of $21,600.00. Ouch! (But by movie making standards, this is chump change I know.) I'll still have enough money to pay my actors/crew a few hundred to a couple of thousand depending on their time shooting, and rent a couple of locations. But this is getting expensive so any thoughts or suggestions you guys might have are appreciated.

Edited to add, should I wait to see if the new but soon to be old Macs go down in price, or buy now?

David
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top