Hi everybody!!!

I'm about to invest in a laptop and couple accesories in the aim of having some kind of portable editing/postproduction suite, and I want to gather opinions and experience.

I need to accomplish two main objectives:
a) update and improve my editing equipment
b) to be able to use it "on set" and on the road...
c) good enough, yet professional HD/SD monitoring solution for color correction, motion graphics, etc.
d) on a tight budget...

I would like to have HD-SDI in the way, but I'm starting to accept is getting out of my grasp.

My current specs are:

- LAPTOP: Either a Vaio F full configuration (8gb RAM, BD-R, FullHD, etc), or a mid-level Dell Precision (I have ruled out switching to Mac as a MBP would give me less bang for more bucks, shame on you Apple... You almost got me!). A ExpressCard/34 slot is mandatory as the next component is:

- Monitoring/Capture HDMI interface. I'm considering both MXO2 LE and MXO2 Mini.

- HD Monitor (17"). At first I thought I would go for a Marshall MD, but got out of budget. I'm thinking to buy an Ikan V17 (good bye HD-SDI!).

- 2TB External eSata RAID drive (backup would be done on USB2 drives)

As hard as it seems, I spect to spend 5-6k in this setup, as here in Argentina we have a 70-100% price increase after import, vendor and taxes.

In the future I would like to get a couple pelikans and the V17 field kit.

Well, this is it, thanks on advance for any advice you could share!!!

Can you get a laptop with 2 HD installed? One for the software and one for scratch disc? You should have a separate scratch disc from your media drive and your software drive

Good point Ed!!!! I really missed that... guess I took that for granted, while it is not!!!

As far of my option, the Dell has 2 drive bays. What if I use another external, perhaps FW800 for scratching?

Anyway, that is a huge problem indeed!!! Just to think of photoshop temps running on C: gives me the creeps!!!

Any suggestions? Turnarounds?

Does the MX02 work with Windows software? It won't work with Vegas for sure. Maybe Premiere.

Federico, I have a Toshiba Qosmio. Not well built but has great features. The screen is 17" and is 1920X1200, I use Adobe Onlocation to monitor output. It has two hard drives (not RAID 0) and a couple 1T drives gives it some storage. It has Express Card 54/32 and PCMCIA, Firewire and a bunch of USBs of course(and surround sound with a sub-woofer). It takes a long time to transcode but will burn Bluray on to my Samsung USB burner.

I am in the process of building an SDI capture machine and will let you know how that goes.

Thanks guys.

Let me know Charlie what you find... The options are really narrow for me. Furthermore, here in Argentina the big i7 machines there are not coming, except for Dell Precision. The Vaio config I've been looking is to be imported specially for me thru a "direct importer", Sony Style is not importing it. Buying online and importing (let's say thru Amazon or the like) is quite risky as It could get trapped in the Customs Service bureaucracy in Buenos Aires (1700 km away from my home)...

I don't know if this secondary Hdd for scratch thing may be solved using a FW800 external drive, while keeping eSATA for media drives. I don't care for a extreme portability in this case. I think modularity and mobility go hand in hand.

Paul, the MXO2 line is crossplatform, tough there are some differences related to Final Cut and Premiere's capabilities. Matrox marketing has been confusing, as they started fighting the Mac fight (guess having Io in mind), but they were always more a Win company.

Has anyone experience with the newer MOTU HDX-SDI???