I'm looking at buying a Canon Vixia HF S100 and wanted a laptop for editing for the web and DVD. I understand the desktops have more juice for this sort of thing but I'll be editing on the road using a laptop with a second monitor and external drives. I was checking out the HP site and was wondering if any of you might have any thoughts on this unit primarily processor and graphics card. Thanks in advance.

HP Pavilion dv6-2150ca Entertainment NB - HP Shopping.CA (http://h20386.www2.hp.com/CanadaStore/Product.aspx?pdetail=P93399&)

*Processor - Intel® Core™ i5-430M processor with 2.26GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.53 GHz
*Standard memory - 8GB
*Memory type - DDR3 System Memory
*Internal hard disk drive - 500GB
*Hard disk controller - SATA
*Hard disk drive speed - 7200RPM
*Display resolution - 1366 x 768
*Graphic Subsystem Name - NVIDIA GeForce G105M
*Video RAM - Up to 2287MB total available graphics memory with 512MB dedicated
*Ports - 4 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, 4th port shared with eSATA, 2 Headphone out, 1 microphone-in, HDMI, 1 VGA (15-pin), eSATA + USB 2.0, 1 RJ -45 (LAN), 1 notebook expansion port 3, 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire (4-pin), 1 Consumer IR (Remote Receiver)

I'm in the same process myself, having moved from HDV tape based shooting and editing, to AVCHD. The Core2 Due I bought 3.5 years ago is not adequate for AVCHD because it achieves its small file size by intensive processing. I have been told to get an i7 chip as a minimum, with lots of RAM.

The laptop should be able to handle transcoded AVCHD footage fairly well, especially if you use an external eSata drive. The Canon Vixia HF S100 records to AVCHD which even the beefiest machines have difficulty editing except for the simplest cuts and transitions. So best to transcode and be prepared to carry around an external drive for the larger files. A swappable eSata enclosure can be very useful.

As for HDV, that laptop should be able to edit raw HDV footage quite nicely.

it should edit HDV very smoothly. No changes necessary.

Some things that might be good if you can take the price hike:
i7 processor
12GB RAM (you didn't mention which software)
A better resolution than 768, if possible 1080. I understand you're planning on using a second monitor but having the resolution always gives you the opportunity to travel light when necessary.
An external DVD writer if you're doing a lot or authoring and writing. The ones on the laptop are unreliable and are easily worn down with rough use.

As Michael said, that laptop will work fine for HDV but the HFS100 doesn't shoot HDV, it shoots AVCHD. The files from the HFS100 will require alot more horsepower if you want to do anything more than simple cuts.

You could transcode to Cineform, DNxHD or some other similar intermediate codec which would be alot easier and smoother to edit. AVCHD and other H.264 codec's were not deisgned as editing codecs. They were designed for distribution and acquisition where small file size is the primary concern. This means they are heavily compressed and require alot of 'unpacking' before they can be edited in an NLE. Transcoding to an Intermediate makes editing easier, but with the expense of much larger file sizes. It's a trade off that is a necassity if you wish to do any form of serious editing on a laptop with AVCHD material.

Thanks all for your posts. I will certainly take it all into consideration but one of the things I'm really confused by are all the different codecs and file formats. If you were going to create something for DVD and the telly what would you use? I'm using mainly Adobe Studio and will be working on the notebook listed while on the road. The videos will take two forms, one for the web and one for a DVD. I know this isn't the place to ask this question but others might be interested as well but might be too embarrassed to ask. Me, I have no shame.

On another note I ended up buying the HF-S200 last week. Very cool little camera.

Scott