DV editing on a Laptop

[BenW 0]

Hi Most Learned Ones!
I wish to be able to edit DV on my laptop. I understand I'll need a PCMCIA firewire card, but would like recommendations on products please.
I assume that the firewire card, and bundled software, will be all I need to connect the laptop to my PC110 and be in video editing heaven? Am I right?
Many thanks
Ben

[AggieDave 6]

I'm hoping that you have a big hairy processor and mucho RAM...otherwise you may want to save your money on that firewire card. Although you could edit video on a "smaller" machine, I used to do it on a 233mhz with 128mb of ram a few years ago, you'll be much much happier with atleast 512mb of ram and atleast a 1.0ghz processor.
AggieDave '02
-------------
Blue Skies and Gig'em Ags!
BTHO t.u.

[gus 1]

Since when did gooners like you have cool gadgets like PC110s ???

Gus

[quade 4]

Well, this could EASILY breakdown into a Mac v. Windows debate and I'll try to avoid that since most people already know my views on that subject.
One of the "other" things you're going to want / need is a whopping huge hard drive.
DV eats drive space at about 1 gig for every 4 minutes.
Now, if you're just putting together a bar tape of the days jumps, a small relatively inexpensive yet powerful laptop (such as a Mac iBook) with a 10 or 20 gig internal hard drive will probably do just fine.
For a boogie video where you'll need access / storage for several HOURS of footage, you may also want to get an external firewire hard drive such as the Maxtor 3000DV.
Additionally, you'll need a piece of editing software. The Macs come bundled with a program called iMovie that is perfectly fine for the average bar tape and the last two boogie videos I worked on I cut -entirely- on iMovie.
I admit that iMovie does have some limitations and I've recently purchased a copy of Final Cut Pro. Got a great deal from a guy on eBay and bought it for about half list price. Clearly, Final Cut Pro is the finest piece of editing software available to the consumer and is perfectly usable for everything from little internet movies to full blown feature films (yes, it's -that- powerful).
My suggestion would be to shop around and look at all of the options; Macs, Windows, stand alone systems . . . everything. Add up what it's going to cost you in terms of money and hassles. Figure out what kind of support you're going to get from different companies when something doesn't quite interface the way you thought it might.
Only after looking at all the options, make your decision balanced on what kind of videos you really need or want to do.
Paul
http://futurecam.com/skydive.html

[prost 0]

I thought you were not going to get into the mac/pc debate.

[nacmacfeegle 0]

I use an IBM Thinkpad, quite old now, but it has a pentium 111 700mhz processor, 12 gig h/d.
I use an ADS PCMCIA (www.adstech.com) card with Adobe Premiere 6, but you can use the supplied software that came with the card.
I also have a Maxtor Firewire 40 Gb drive.
All this works straight out of the box, and the laptop is used as an 'everyday' pooter running office/CAD/engineering apps.
A whole heap better than lugging around my desktop system.
Any probs, give me a shout, I've been editing on a pc for a while and can probably save you some pain....
Cya
D.

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Oh BTW The Macs are better set up for this than a 'standard' windows PC, however, I have to use windoze for work stuff, and the laptop was kinda free to me.....

[quade 4]

Not into the debate!
Just showing what can be done off the shelf with one particular type of set up . . . mine.
Paul
http://futurecam.com/skydive.html

[nacmacfeegle 0]

And another thing,
as you are in dear old Blighty, make sure that the camera you intend to use is in- enabled, ie it can receive DV input....A load of European cams have this function disabled, tax import duty and such like...rant rant rant....
Some camcorders can be hacked to enable this, see http://www.lynxdv.com/
for details etc.
Also get hold of 'Computer Video' from the local newsagent, they have a website that will probably cover a load of your queries.

[BenW 0]

Thanks for the info Quade and NMF!
I have a PIII 750 with 256MB RAM and a 20GB HDD already, so was planning on using this. Thanks for the link to the Maxtor 3000DV Quade - very interesting!
To start off with I'm going to be doing the days jumping etc, but will be moving on later on to, hopefully, make my own videos.
This'll be a good start. Maybe by that stage I'll have my other PC up and running again (1.4GHz Athlon, 1.5GB RAM and two 40GB HDDs), which should be more suitable for the larger stuff.
Will pick up a copy of the mag, thanks NMF!
Gus, this goober does indeed now have a PC110. Do you want to show the rest of the world, how *good* you really are??
Ben
My PC110 is DV-IN enabled so that's not a problem.
Thanks for the info guys.

[nacmacfeegle 0]

"two 40GB HDDs), which should be more suitable for the larger stuff." More than enough bro.....I only had about 10 gig available to me when I did the Brit100 thang, 8.4 gb was the largest available EIDE disc at that time.....
If you get an ADS PCMCIA, and a matching Pyro card from the same outfit, you can use the Firwewire as a networking medium. IE The 20 gig on the laptop would kick some, but for big edits, you could transfer footage to the desktop. Don't forget to partition the disc on the Laptop. Say 8 gig system, and 12 for footage choonz etc.
http://www.computervideo.net/
check out their self help message board, its really useful, and UK based.
Good luck.
D

[gus 1]

Quote

Do you want to show the rest of the world, how *good* you really are??

No thanks.

[RemiAndKaren 0]

But we all know that the reason you got the new fancy camera is for the nightime videos you're talking your GF into doing with ya! , Mr Dover...
So are we now going to have another Videot at Langar?
Remi
Muff 914

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Ben, if you are at Langar, look up Matt Law, he'll keep ya right on software and stuff, help get you started etc. And say hi to him from Dave Mck...

[BenW 0]

It would appear so.

[BenW 0]

NMF,
Matt doesn't jump that much at Langar now, but was there for the boogie - he kindly gave me some help with my sit/stand. I do seem to remember he drags a laptop around with him - thanks for reminding me!
Will say hi if I see him.
Ta
Ben