Hi,
i've not enough budget for an F100, so i'm opting for a portable Mac to which i will copy the P2 data from my HVX200. To veryfy the footage, the laptop should be able at least to playback the DVCPRO HD footage.

So is a simple iBook enough to playback a DVCPRO HD footage from internal HD (5400 RPM) or should i use a PowerBook?
Thanks

Depends on which resolution and data rate its at, but I'd never EVER trust a 5400 to do anything with video...I'd say its doubtfull, get a small external FW800 or esata drive to go with the book.

You should be looking at an intel laptop 2.4 CPU with 1900 X 1200 screen and internal 200 gigger , 7200 spin cycle hard drive ~ 4 gigs of ram. Add one firewire 800 200 gig external hard drive. shoot, edit or playback. That should do the trick!

Technically an iBook might be adequate but a Macbook Pro would be preferable for several reasons. As far as hard drives are concerned, a 5400 RPM drive should be able to play a single layer of DVCProHD footage if the drive is kept defragmented and there isn't anything else bottlenecking the system. The maximum bandwidth of DVCProHD is about 12.5 MB/sec, which is well within the throughput capacity of almost any modern hard drive.

I haven't seen a P2 software that plays DVCPRO-HD video at full frame rate and full resolution. Panasonic software either plays video at half frame rate OR half resolution at full screen.

I haven't seen a P2 software that plays DVCPRO-HD video at full frame rate and full resolution. Panasonic software either plays video at half frame rate OR half resolution at full screen.

I have. Quicktime Pro. FCP. DVCPRO HD is generally pretty easy for these, with a halfway recent machine.

An old iBook would have trouble with DVCPRO HD, especially a G4. A G5 iBook would probably be ok. A Macbook would work fine.