laptop question at DVinfo.net

Olabode Lawal · October 12th, 2009, 07:10 AM

good mornin peoples,
this is actually my first time sendin a thread here.i really thank this forum for everythng i know now.basically i jst ordered for my computer but its nt here yet and i need to edit a video asap.i want to ask if its possible for me to edit the video that i shot wiv a ex3 wiv a new laptop that i jst bought.3gb ram and 320gb harddrive.pls i nid to know hw i can manage to use this and if its goin to affect the picture and all that.all details would be welcomed.thx

Harm Millaard · October 12th, 2009, 01:27 PM

The short answer is NO, the long answer is NO WAY.

Harm Millaard · October 13th, 2009, 05:21 PM

EX3 is a rather friendly format for editing, but in HQ mode it still requires some muscle, but especially it requires at least two physical 7200 RPM SATA disks or faster. One for OS & programs and at LEAST one for projects, media, scratch etcetera, but better three.

Most notebooks do not offer that, maybe apart from Sager, but then portability is replaced by luggability. Add to that the price disadvantage, the limited screen estate, the limited memory, and the choice is obvious.

Look here: Adobe Forums: Contemplating a notebook for editing?

Tripp Woelfel · October 13th, 2009, 07:27 PM

It actually can be done, but you will hate it so much that you will stop doing it, selling your car and buying a proper desktop machine. Follow Harm's link for some good information.

The underlying issues include lack of disk speed, and limited expandability. I have edited DV on a laptop and it can be done... even on an airplane. Just don't plan on doing much more than cuts or basic transitions. It all goes to tatters if you try to get fancy.

Damian Heffernan · October 14th, 2009, 05:19 AM

The setup I'm putting together currently for editing footage from the EX1 (and which will kick the crap out of it I might add):
Macbook Pro 2.33 (express 34 slot)
2 X Lacie rugged external drives (500GB 7200rpm)
Matrox MXO mini
and later an external Bluray burner.

I don't expect to have any issues at all with this setup. If it was a windows PC though, I'd be going for a desktop.

Tripp Woelfel · October 14th, 2009, 06:06 AM

Damian... It might work for you but it's hardly optimal. Laptops are optimized for size, power saving and portability. They sacrifice performance, expandability and expandability of a desktop counterpart. This is true in both Mac and PC worlds.

You can use laptops to edit. Many do, but most are better served by desktop systems. Search these lists for protracted discussions on this topic.

Harm Millaard · October 14th, 2009, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damian Heffernan

The setup I'm putting together currently for editing footage from the EX1 (and which will kick the crap out of it I might add):
Macbook Pro 2.33 (express 34 slot)
2 X Lacie rugged external drives (500GB 7200rpm)
Matrox MXO mini
and later an external Bluray burner.

I don't expect to have any issues at all with this setup. If it was a windows PC though, I'd be going for a desktop.

Good luck finding wall outlets for all that stuff on a plane. For the rest you are down to lugging it all around, slow performance (it will NOT kick the crap out of it, it will just sit on the crap I might add) and very short battery life.

Such an expensive setup will fail miserably at editing AVCHD for instance.

Kevin Shaw · October 14th, 2009, 01:56 PM

If your new laptop has a Core 2 Duo processor and a decent video card you should be able to do basic edits just fine, using external hard drives to store your video data. For maximum portability use the pocket-sized USB2 drives which draw power from their data cable and don't need a separate power adapter - these are currently available in capacities up to 500 GB. I've been using a setup like this to do most of my editing for the past few years and rarely use desktop computers any more, except for my final project rendering and DVD/Blu-ray production.

Some editing software will work better than others on laptops: I've been using Edius from Grass Valley and can edit 2-3 layers of HD material when running on AC power. (Performance of modern laptops typically drops when running on battery power.) Sony Vegas should also be a good choice for laptop work; I'm not sure how well other software might do.

If your laptop has an ExpressCard slot, just transfer the memory card from your EX3, copy your footage to an external drive and make a duplicate on another drive for safe-keeping, then start editing. If you're using software which supports an "intermediate" editing codec for improved performance (e.g. Edius HQ or Apple ProRes), convert your footage to that format first for a smoother laptop experience.

If you need to edit on an airplane or other non-powered location, make sure you have the biggest battery available for your laptop, and/or a third-party external battery which you can find from various sources.

Ignore the skeptics who are still chained to their desks: laptop editing is great provided you don't exceed the performance limitations of mobile hardware.

Bryan Sellars · October 14th, 2009, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olabode Lawal

good mornin peoples,
this is actually my first time sendin a thread here.i really thank this forum for everythng i know now.basically i jst ordered for my computer but its nt here yet and i need to edit a video asap.i want to ask if its possible for me to edit the video that i shot wiv a ex3 wiv a new laptop that i jst bought.3gb ram and 320gb harddrive.pls i nid to know hw i can manage to use this and if its goin to affect the picture and all that.all details would be welcomed.thx

Just to give you an idea of the processor power you need, I edit 1920x1080i using Corel ProX2 and find that it takes about 8x real time on a dual core 3GHz and about 12x on my laptop dual core 2.2GHz to re-encode. but since it's the editing that takes the time and both machines work OK for that, as long as I set the proxy files to a suitable resolution I have no problem with the time it takes to re-encode the edited video.

Olabode Lawal · October 15th, 2009, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

If your new laptop has a Core 2 Duo processor and a decent video card you should be able to do basic edits just fine, using external hard drives to store your video data. For maximum portability use the pocket-sized USB2 drives which draw power from their data cable and don't need a separate power adapter - these are currently available in capacities up to 500 GB. I've been using a setup like this to do most of my editing for the past few years and rarely use desktop computers any more, except for my final project rendering and DVD/Blu-ray production.

Some editing software will work better than others on laptops: I've been using Edius from Grass Valley and can edit 2-3 layers of HD material when running on AC power. (Performance of modern laptops typically drops when running on battery power.) Sony Vegas should also be a good choice for laptop work; I'm not sure how well other software might do.

If your laptop has an ExpressCard slot, just transfer the memory card from your EX3, copy your footage to an external drive and make a duplicate on another drive for safe-keeping, then start editing. If you're using software which supports an "intermediate" editing codec for improved performance (e.g. Edius HQ or Apple ProRes), convert your footage to that format first for a smoother laptop experience.

If you need to edit on an airplane or other non-powered location, make sure you have the biggest battery available for your laptop, and/or a third-party external battery which you can find from various sources.

Ignore the skeptics who are still chained to their desks: laptop editing is great provided you don't exceed the performance limitations of mobile hardware.

am so grateful for ur reply and advice.i want to ask if i cn also use adobe after effects to complete it after am done wiv the basic cutting.

Kevin Shaw · October 15th, 2009, 03:55 PM

After Effects rendering might take quite a while on a laptop, but if you can let that run overnight or otherwise cope with the rendering process it should be possible.

October 12th, 2009, 07:10 AM	#1
Olabode Lawal Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Lagos, Nigeria Posts: 44	laptop question good mornin peoples, this is actually my first time sendin a thread here.i really thank this forum for everythng i know now.basically i jst ordered for my computer but its nt here yet and i need to edit a video asap.i want to ask if its possible for me to edit the video that i shot wiv a ex3 wiv a new laptop that i jst bought.3gb ram and 320gb harddrive.pls i nid to know hw i can manage to use this and if its goin to affect the picture and all that.all details would be welcomed.thx

October 12th, 2009, 01:27 PM	#2
Harm Millaard Trustee Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands Posts: 1,832	The short answer is NO, the long answer is NO WAY.

October 13th, 2009, 05:21 PM	#3
Harm Millaard Trustee Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands Posts: 1,832	EX3 is a rather friendly format for editing, but in HQ mode it still requires some muscle, but especially it requires at least two physical 7200 RPM SATA disks or faster. One for OS & programs and at LEAST one for projects, media, scratch etcetera, but better three. Most notebooks do not offer that, maybe apart from Sager, but then portability is replaced by luggability. Add to that the price disadvantage, the limited screen estate, the limited memory, and the choice is obvious. Look here: Adobe Forums: Contemplating a notebook for editing?

October 13th, 2009, 07:27 PM	#4
Tripp Woelfel Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Conway, NH Posts: 1,745	It actually can be done, but you will hate it so much that you will stop doing it, selling your car and buying a proper desktop machine. Follow Harm's link for some good information. The underlying issues include lack of disk speed, and limited expandability. I have edited DV on a laptop and it can be done... even on an airplane. Just don't plan on doing much more than cuts or basic transitions. It all goes to tatters if you try to get fancy.

October 14th, 2009, 05:19 AM	#5
Damian Heffernan Major Player Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: c Australia Posts: 234	The setup I'm putting together currently for editing footage from the EX1 (and which will kick the crap out of it I might add): Macbook Pro 2.33 (express 34 slot) 2 X Lacie rugged external drives (500GB 7200rpm) Matrox MXO mini and later an external Bluray burner. I don't expect to have any issues at all with this setup. If it was a windows PC though, I'd be going for a desktop.

October 14th, 2009, 06:06 AM	#6
Tripp Woelfel Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Conway, NH Posts: 1,745	Damian... It might work for you but it's hardly optimal. Laptops are optimized for size, power saving and portability. They sacrifice performance, expandability and expandability of a desktop counterpart. This is true in both Mac and PC worlds. You can use laptops to edit. Many do, but most are better served by desktop systems. Search these lists for protracted discussions on this topic.

October 14th, 2009, 01:56 PM	#8
Kevin Shaw Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 2,488	If your new laptop has a Core 2 Duo processor and a decent video card you should be able to do basic edits just fine, using external hard drives to store your video data. For maximum portability use the pocket-sized USB2 drives which draw power from their data cable and don't need a separate power adapter - these are currently available in capacities up to 500 GB. I've been using a setup like this to do most of my editing for the past few years and rarely use desktop computers any more, except for my final project rendering and DVD/Blu-ray production. Some editing software will work better than others on laptops: I've been using Edius from Grass Valley and can edit 2-3 layers of HD material when running on AC power. (Performance of modern laptops typically drops when running on battery power.) Sony Vegas should also be a good choice for laptop work; I'm not sure how well other software might do. If your laptop has an ExpressCard slot, just transfer the memory card from your EX3, copy your footage to an external drive and make a duplicate on another drive for safe-keeping, then start editing. If you're using software which supports an "intermediate" editing codec for improved performance (e.g. Edius HQ or Apple ProRes), convert your footage to that format first for a smoother laptop experience. If you need to edit on an airplane or other non-powered location, make sure you have the biggest battery available for your laptop, and/or a third-party external battery which you can find from various sources. Ignore the skeptics who are still chained to their desks: laptop editing is great provided you don't exceed the performance limitations of mobile hardware.

October 15th, 2009, 03:55 PM	#11
Kevin Shaw Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 2,488	After Effects rendering might take quite a while on a laptop, but if you can let that run overnight or otherwise cope with the rendering process it should be possible.