Hi, would anyone know if i could edit XLH1 Footage on my laptop. My specs to the laptop are

Windows XP Home Edition
1 GB Ram
80GB Internal Memory
160GB External USB Storage Drive (Maxtor)
1.80Ghz Processor
Firewire Port.

I understand that my laptop wont work with high defenition very well but can i still import high defenition footage onto my laptop. I basically want to get a film look with my movies so i need the best way.

Thanks for your help

Chris

Capture of HDV shouldn't be a problem. Any computer with a Firewire (1394a) port that can capture miniDV should be able to capture HDV. Depending on your software, editing may or may not work out ok on your laptop but likely would be slow.

HD-SDI requires high end stuff.

Thanks for your reply that helps a lot. So even if i did capture in DV onto my laptop does that still give me the film look or do you have to be editing in high defenition mode to get the film look.

Thanks Again

Chris

Chris, "film look" is a really, really subjective thing and a lot of factors contribute to it. Folks have discussed and debated this more or less continually, mostly in the Film Look Methods and Techniques (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=34) forum. My own opinion is that, except at the extreme, resolution is a minor factor...DV can look very film-like, or not. HDV can look film-like, or not. Depends on all those many factors and one's own perception of them.

Thankyou for that reply, i understand what you mean. So really it doesnt matter what mode youre in on the camera, however it does depend on wether the camera gives a film look through the lens etc. I will check out those forums.

Thanks a lot.

however it does depend on wether the camera gives a film look through the lens etc

It depend more on the lighting, careful camera movements, good story, good audio...

be aware that you are going to fill up a 160 gig hard drive very quickly. HDV files are large. also, i don't know how this translates with a PC, but my 2 gig RAM mac captures at half speed already, and rendering is not too speedy.

i'd recommend using the money for upgrading your editing systems first and maybe buying a cheaper HDV camera. unless you are just trying to edit footage from someone else's camera.

Actually HDV files are the same size as DV files.
Start working with intermediate codecs though and the file size will blow out although codecs such those from Cineform don't create unmanageable file sizes. Start wroking with uncompressed (not that there's any reason to do that) and things will blow out very dramatically.