Video Editing - new Laptop help!

[anotherthing]

My old laptop decided to die on me other day, much to my dismay. Can any boffins out there please recommend something that would be suitable for heavy Photoshop use(large file sizes) and also to run Adobe Premiere Pro for editing HD video footage (usually 2 or 3 Gbs worth of rendered movie?

My recently deceased laptop was an HP Pavilion media series, with a 3.2Ghz Pentium chip and 1Gb Ram. Since I bought it about 6 years ago all the chips have changed and have totally unhelpful names such a T5250 etc and I'm confused.

Apart from MS Office and the odd bit of internet access, the computer will be solely for the above purposes.

I'm not neccessarily after a make and model number, more what chip I should go for, graphics card, and RAM Size etc.

Oh, I don't use RAID cards for the HD footage - and have no intention of doings so!

Thanks for any help :ok:

[sgsslok]

A Macbook Pro should be an excellent choice for you, given that you're willing to switch from Windows to Mac.

[_ShIfTy_]

Hey, My dell laptop has a Dual core 2ghz processor, 500GB HD, 2GB RAM and an 8600GTM. I use pinnacle studio 11 for video editing and it runs it perfectly. I am running Vista home Premium. Hope this helps.

regards.

[anotherthing]

Shifty - thanks.

sgsslok - although I never mentioned cahnging to a mac, I would love one - especially as my desk computer - love the design etc and the speed, problem is with the type of HD Camcorder I am using, at this point in time a Sony, I need firewire connections to transfer full HD without loss... I don't think that's available on Apple Macs?

Also I have Adobe Premiere pro 2 - a tad expensive just to bin it to change over to final cut pro!! Thanks for the info :ok:

[anotherthing]

One last question - dual core processors... does a 2Ghz dual core processor equate to 4Ghz in old money?

Cheers

[_ShIfTy_]

It certainly does mate.

regards.

[sgsslok]

You'd be interested to know that firewire was initially developed by Apple!

On the side of a MBP:
http://images.apple.com/macbookpro/images/features_inouts20080228.jpg

Anyway, you do make a good point about the editing program. Both Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro are available on Mac for the editing work. However, if you do switch over, you'd most likely have to buy the new program which would not be cheap!

Good luck with your purchase!

[eticket]

anotherthing

Can I seriously suggest that you talk to a specialist who is used to setting up and configuring laptops for HD editing. There are a lot of realworld issues to deal with which the marketing folk tend to gloss over. These include minor issues, like which screen size is best for your software and major ones like, which codecs and editing software are going to work best with both your camera and the resolutions that you want to output at. (Even the make of the chip that is being used for the firewire interface is important. Do a search for advice on PPRuNe about incompatible firewire chips.)

Going to specialists will give you access to a quality of advice and experience that you just won't get at other more mainstream laptop suppliers. A proper specialist will have a demo area where you can see their suggested solutions either working properly, working with limitations or even not at all. It will be very valuable and will enable you to talk about the whole of your HD chain from camera to editing to distribution as you have to get the whole chain right. As with most things try several specialists to compare and contrast the advice.)

There was 'fun and games' when working with SD codecs and HD is even more so. Way way more so. For instance a native HDV file in Premiere Pro is about 13GB per hour. However out of the box I don't believe Premiere Pro can work with all the HDV formats, (eg JVC 720p HDV). Premiere codec encoded HDV won't necessarily play in all the other programmes on your computer as its not a general use HDV codec. To get this you will have to transcode it into another HDV codec. (This can take time, and forgive me as I may have got this wrong, but I have heard worst case scenarios of 1 minute of footage taking 1 hour to transcode. (I can't remember which editing software this was in connection with though.) I can well believe it though as four years ago I experienced certain renders out of Final Cut Pro 3 (non HD) taking the same time. I then swapped to Windows editing and the same process, using different software and in better quality, got through one minute of footage in just 50 seconds.)

So to help yourself you may well decide to use something like Cineform Aspect HD (£280ish) as a standalone / plug-in etc. to Premiere Pro. This will put a normal HDV file up to 40Gb per hour, but it will also allow you to work in more resolutions, in a more realtime way and it will handle HDV material from JVC cameras at 720p. However this means an even higher spec computer may be needed to handle the increased files. It really is a minefield of compromises.

You will also need to consider the graphics card in the laptop to ensure that it can play back at least one stream of HD in real-time and also how you are going to back up your finished HDV programme file, (if you decide you need to). Remember standard HDV is 13GB per hour and a single layer DVD disk is 4.x GB and the firewire on your camera is often output only.

As far as actual laptops are concerned, the specialists will often have unbranded laptops on offer that they have specified the components of and which they are familiar with. These machines will usually be the same price as a less well featured brand like HP. On Windows I would be anticipating to start paying from around £1,600 + VAT.

If however there is the possibility that you may move up from Premiere etc. and work on Avid software then you may need a machine that is on Avid's, very short, approved and (Avid) tested list. These are usually HP / Compaq or Dell named and option specified models. Be aware though that due to the high turnover of machines the Avid list can often refer to models that have been discontinued and not show new models that they will subsequently certify.

Finally as I am sure you are aware editing on a laptop is not ideal and if it is possible for you to work on a desktop machine you will get a much more able machine that will allow you to do more work in realtime.

Best of luck.

eticket

[anotherthing]

eticket - thanks for such an in depth reply... My old laptop worked well with the Sony HDV 1080p output, and even managed to play back HD, but I take on board what you say about getting a machine customised to rune at its best - after all it will be the main use for the laptop.

I need a laptop as I do a lot of diving, often out at sea for a week or so at a time... I try to do first cut edits each night so that I can knock out a DVD for others on the trip by the end of the week.

It's only a hobby, although I have managed to make some very good DVDs with stunning footage, so I don't want to break the bank... thus I think for the monment I will be sticking with Premiere pro in some guise (using PP2 at moment still).

Because its diving trips, often abroad, that I do the videoing on, weight and price of camera housing is an issue - a bigger 'better' camera would mean lots of expense (my current housing was over £6k) and lots of weight issues at check in!!

Thanks again