Comments

GaryKleiner wrote on 8/19/2003, 9:37 AM
You might check with DVLine. They specialize in that sort of thing.

Gary
randy-stewart wrote on 8/19/2003, 6:51 PM
Emmo2002/gkvideoguy,
Don't think they have one for under $2,000. I've been drooling over the ones they have but can't get the price down that far. I've also been looking a the Dell line. They are really dependable at work and are configurable on-line. Recommend you go for a gig of RAM and get a firewire port. Good luck.
Randy
bigcreek wrote on 8/19/2003, 9:31 PM
What's a good firewire port? I would like to have a PCMCIA firewire card that worked WITHOUT a dongle of some type. Just plug firwire cable directly into card (Type II, I guess) Any ideas?
johnmeyer wrote on 8/19/2003, 11:25 PM
I use an IBM Firewire card that I got on eBay for $15. No dongle. Works fine. I'm using a 700 MHz Presario 1800T. Also got on eBay for very little $$. Point is, you don't need much computer to capture, edit and print to tape. It works fine, no dropped frames. Of course if you want to do extensive effects, the rendering time on an old, slow laptop is an issue.
Laurence wrote on 8/20/2003, 6:56 AM
One of my friends just got a Toshiba based on the new Centrino chipset. It's only 1.4 but he swears it runs software faster than his P4 2.4 desktop. From what I've seen so far I would have to agree. It is quiet, runs surprisingly cool, and has amazing battery life. I hate the feel of the touchpad so I wouldn't buy this particular model (an m10 I believe), but I can't imagine getting anything that wasn't based on the new Intel Pentium M CPU if I was buying a new laptop.

Laurence Kingston
bigcreek wrote on 8/20/2003, 9:13 AM
Could you let me know what the model number is? Thanks!
randy-stewart wrote on 8/21/2003, 1:21 AM
Emmo2002/gkvideoguy,
Looks like I spoke too soon. DVLine has a home version now that looks really good for under $2,000. Here's the link: http://www.dvline.com/CFWebstore/pages/homeline.htm.
Check it out. They have a basic and complete home system that features Sonic Foundry products to include Vegas+DVD. Really tempting me.

Randy
VideoArizona wrote on 8/22/2003, 2:21 PM
I'm running a Toshiba 2455-S305 - 2.4P4, 512 ram, 60gig 5400rpm drive, USB 2.0, 1394, etc. Discontinued now, but bought 2 months ago for $1400.00

Runs very well with Vegas. I use 2 external drives, both are USB2.0 and 1394. The Maxtor 5000 160 gig 7200 drive and the ADS Pyro case that I use to swap out drives with depending upon project. I keep all parts of a project on one drive. Works very well for me and my customers buy the drive. Both 1394 and USB2.0 work very well with Vegas....no issues with either.

Took a 12 day trip to the East coast with above system, excellent.

The new Centrino units run much faster than a normal P4 system since the are matched chip sets for the entire motherboard. They are also very efficient power wise. But are currently pricey.


David
tadpole wrote on 8/22/2003, 2:47 PM
Thinking Alienware has the best laptops out there..

For about $3k.. you can pick up a Area-51M - 3.06 P4, 800mghz bus! - 1024 pc-2700 ddr, 60gig 7200 HD.. Geforce Fx Go.. ect..

They also have systems configurable to 2K
sharpstone wrote on 8/22/2003, 3:36 PM
I used Sony PCG-GRV670, it works perfect.
riredale wrote on 8/22/2003, 4:41 PM
The other guys with the fancier units will probably be pissed at me, but I can edit until the cows come home on my little Dell Inspiron 2650 I bought for $595 last March. It has a Celeron 1.6GHz, 256MB, and a little 20GB drive. For video editing I bought an ADS Pyro enclosure ($100) which holds a conventional (desktop) hard drive and connects via Firewire. Since the Inspiron didn't come standard with a firewire port, I bought a PC card for $40 that has not one but three ports. I modified the ADS enclosure to hold a disk tray "caddy" system ($20) so that I can slide in different hard drives in about 30 seconds. Currently it holds a 200GB WD drive.

The system works great. The Dell Inspiron is no longer available, but the replacement unit is probably not much more money, plus it no doubt has a faster processor. I've heard the new "Centrino" processors are exceptionally good in that they consume far less power, so battery life is significantly better than before.

In other words, any laptop will do fine; it's not the hardware so much as the person pushing the mouse that determines the quality of the final product. What you really want is a big disk, and currently the laptop drives only go up to 60GB. External drives are enormous and cheap.