I have intalled the trial verson of Canon's CONSOLE software on a Dell Insperion 1100 lap top. The Firewire adaptor is a borrowed 400Mbs. Had to install Service pack 2 before proceeding.

The computer can talk to the camera (as seen in the viewfinder), BUT I can only get either a crash or ulktra low res working screen on the lap top. Sorry I'm a shooter/producer, not a computer wizard. I editor buddy thinks it may be in the adapter. I'm going to upgrade to an 800 Mbs adapater but hope I'm not wasting my money.

Any suggestions?

Ted in Fort Lauderdale

Dear Ted,

Sorry, but I do not see any need for an 800 mb Firewire adapter (IEEE1394b) for use with the Canon Console Software. It only needs the standard IEEE1394a (400mb) adapter.

Agreed -- there won't be any advantage to FireWire 800. What is the processor speed and RAM in the laptop?

Sounds like that the processor is not up to HDV. I have the same on my Apple G4 1 ghz., shows low rez. in Final Cut Pro.

The Inspiron 1100 that pops up on CNET is a 2mhz Celeron with 256 meg of 266mhz ram. That seems like a lightweight computer to be processing HDV in real time. Might be time to invest in a duo core or wait a few weeks and get a quad core laptop.

I'd be interested to know how the Canon Console software works on an Intel core duo 2.0 MacBook. Has anybody tried it? I'm looking at this as an alternative to DV Rack 2.0 HD.

thanks
Kalunga, Lisbon Portugal

Thanks for the input so far...appreciate it. I cancelled the order for the 800Mbs Firewire adapter and instead will try up-beefing RAM. I am not planning to capture, only interested in using CONSOLE for camera control & custom setting. A new laptop is not in my budget...we'll see what happens.

System Requirements for Console:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition or Professional (Installation of Service Pack 2 required). Proper operation is not guaranteed on Windows XP that has been upgraded from a previous version.

CPU: Pentium M 1.5GHz or better / Pentium 4 2GHz or better (Pentium 4 3.2GHz or better is recommended)

RAM: 512 MB or more (1 GB or more is recommended)

Free Hard Disk for installation: 30 MB or more

Display: 1024 x 768 or more required; Full Color (32bit) required

If your system doesn't meet one or more of these requirements, then that's most likely the cause of trouble.

Chris....Update...My modest Dell laptop does meet all the Canon min. requirements except RAM, until today. Installed a RAM upgrade today...nothing changed. When camera is attached via Firewire adapter and turned on in external contriol mode before I open CONSOLE, it goes to full screen window for a few seconds, then bumps itself down to lowest resolution possible. The camera image controls work, but only confirmable in the viewfinder. In Control Panel, bumping up to full resolution brings on a crash??

I'm stumped.

What are the specifics of your laptop's graphic display adapter? Sounds like a shortfall in the video RAM to me.

My modest Dell laptop does meet all the Canon min. requirements except RAM, until today.

There's Lies, Damn Lies, and then there's Minimum Requirements. If you can afford a P4 CPU (and can still find one), I'd get the fastest your computer will accept. I think the 1100 will take up to a P4 2.8 Northwood, according to a quick search on Dell's support pages. Its probably cheaper to buy someone's used P4 system than it is to by the P4 2.8 at retail.

You still got RAM running at 266MHz though, and that might be a bottleneck when it comes to feeding hi-rez data to the processor. Good luck.