laptop as editor with vegas 4.0

milkprod wrote on 8/12/2003, 9:59 AM
i'm in the process of exploring using a laptop as a field editor. any recommendation? here's what i've come up with thus far: pc based, dell or vaio, speed at 2.4ghz or better, 40 gig h.d., 512 mbram, firewire, usb, s vhs out to t.v. (vaio doesn't have that), keep in mind most laps have a 5400 rpm harddrive and would need a 7200 rpm external h.d. (80gig) with encasing that has firewire. plan to load vegas on ext. h.d. i heard that the firewire card has to be OHCI. is this standard in laptops? also, i will be buying the new sony dvd burner -external model #drx510ul to connect to system. would love to hear some feedback and any issues that i need to be aware of before putting this system together. thanks. ej.

Comments

jetdv wrote on 8/12/2003, 10:05 AM
A few things:

First of all, 5400 is generally fast enough. My laptop has a 60 Gig 5400 drive that works fine with Vegas for capture and print. True, 7200 is better, but 5400 is sufficient.

Second, why not go to 1 Gig of RAM?

Third, the built-in Firewire should be OHCI standard.

Fourth, Install Vegas on the internal drive and NOT the firewire drive. Use the firewire drive ONLY for video and audio data.

My laptop is a 2.8GHz, 60Gig HD, 1Gig RAM from PCNirvana.net. Ask for Earl Foote.
riredale wrote on 8/12/2003, 10:41 AM
Only things I would mention are the following:

(1) If you're going with an external drive, why not get a big one? I recently bought a 200GB drive for $129. I think you'll use the space!

(2) I've never personally seen a need to go beyond 512MB ram, even with multiple instances of Vegas running. I'm relying here on "Rampage," a little freeware monitor that sits in the system tray and shows how much ram is in use. My Dell laptop has just 256MB installed and runs fine. 512 would cover all needs and then some.

(3) Disk rpms and processor speeds are useful, but not at all critical. Vegas runs on anything.
BrianStanding wrote on 8/12/2003, 11:03 AM
Why do you want S-VHS out? If you're previewing out to an external monitor, you should go through firewire to the analog ports of your camera or deck.

Graphic card S-VHS out is of suspect quality. Firewire should get you a much better idea of the final video.
jetdv wrote on 8/12/2003, 11:47 AM
(2) I've never personally seen a need to go beyond 512MB ram, even with multiple instances of Vegas running. I'm relying here on "Rampage," a little freeware monitor that sits in the system tray and shows how much ram is in use. My Dell laptop has just 256MB installed and runs fine. 512 would cover all needs and then some.

More RAM = longer ram preview time! Yes, it will run fine in 256 Meg. But, RAM is CHEAP.
milkprod wrote on 8/12/2003, 8:41 PM
can you explain how you go from firewire out to an analog input? what type of connector converts firewire to analog (svhs). brand? and name of product would help. thanks, e.j.
milkprod wrote on 8/12/2003, 8:42 PM
i heard a 7200 rpm h.d. would cut down on your chances of drop frames such as with a 5400 rpm h.d. true? e.j.
riredale wrote on 8/12/2003, 9:09 PM
Sure, it would help, but the fact is that NONE of the current crop of drives has any problem with dropped frames. DV demands a continuous 4MB/sec stream, and back in 1998 my old Compaq 4GB drive had a hard time keeping up unless I took extra measures (like killing other processes, disabling write-behind caching, etc.). But these days, drives can stream at rates of 20-60MB/sec. Any drive will do, no matter what the spin rate. If you're getting dropped frames, it's probably due to some other program taking over too much of the system.

Of course, a 7,200rpm drive will be faster in general than a 5,400, just as a 10,000rpm drive will be faster than a 7,200. But for video work, it's not an issue.
BrianStanding wrote on 8/13/2003, 9:23 AM
For external monitor preview, if you have a firewire camera or deck with DV in enabled, all you need to do is:

1. connect the camera/deck to the firewire port of the laptop;
2. connect the external monitor to the analog out ports of the camera/deck
3. make sure "Microsoft OHCI DV Device" is selected in Vegas' "Video Properties" dialog;
4. click the "External Monitor" button on the Vegas Preview window.

If you don't have a DV-in camera or deck, you may want to look at some of the standalone converters. Many people on this forum report good results with some of the Canopus products (www.canopus.com).