I want to buy one Laptop.

[ckbasak]

I want to buy one Laptop. I will use it for video capture, editing and making high quality DVD video for playing in standalone DVD player. Please suggest configuration for the laptop. What will be the processor, RAM, other important thing.

[redwudz]

What sort of video capture? Most laptops will require some sort of external device like a USB capture device. With capture and editing, you need a fair amount of hard drive space. You may want to add an external hard drive.

RAM depends on the operating system you plan to use. 32 bit OSs can only use a bit less than 4GB. 64bit OSs can use more, but extra RAM doesn't help that much with video processing most times.

The CPU should be more than 2GHz, 3Ghz would be better. Quad core may help a bit, but dual core CPUs may be sufficient.

Others may be able to give you better advice. You should see what brands are available at your location and that may narrow down the selection a bit.

[TBoneit]

Bear in mind that a laptop is not the best option for encoding.

General rule of thumb

Slower CPUs

Much less robust cooling system due to weight and space constraints.

CPU fan will run at high speed when encoding and that will result is shortening it's life. Not possible to upgrade CPU HSF assembly, you are stuck with the factory design.
Since the their is no standard fan, replacement will be expensive and harder to do than a desktop computer.
Laptop DVD Burners = 8X burn.

Having said all that there are several models that will do the job

Look at the Toshiba Qosmio® laptops
"Equipped with the Intel® Core™ i7 and i5 processors, the Qosmio® laptop delivers maximum processing power when you need it most. So you’ll fly through intense 3D games, creating and editing video."

Look for the model that has built-in hardware assist for encoding and decoding. They start at a Mere $1149 & Up. 7200 RPM Hard Drive. 500Gig and 1Gig Video

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/laptops.to?family=Qosmio&model=X505&bopt=bts#resultsMatrix

They are nice I had a chance to play with a older one that had dual video cards (SLI) when it came in for warranty work.

[edDV]

We need more info to meet your needs. Your question is too broad.

Why laptop and not desktop or small case?

Budget?

What types of inputs do you want to capture?

What software do you have now?

[ckbasak]

I will use the laptop for editing and rendering for very limited time, once in a month to two month. So, I do not want to invest more on it.

I will capture video from my Sony MiniDV Handycam with firewire port.
I will use PowerDirector or Pinnacle Studio or similar software for editing and makeing DVD.
If I use Intel Core i3-330 processor with 3GB RAM and 512MB graphics card, will it work? I have seen Dell Inspiron or Studio Laptop with very cheap price. If you want to add anything more in this configuration please tell me.
Not every model have one firewire port. Is there any alternative? like capturing via USB port?

Bear in mind that a laptop is not the best option for encoding.

General rule of thumb

Slower CPUs

Much less robust cooling system due to weight and space constraints.

CPU fan will run at high speed when encoding and that will result is shortening it's life. Not possible to upgrade CPU HSF assembly, you are stuck with the factory design.
Since the their is no standard fan, replacement will be expensive and harder to do than a desktop computer.
Laptop DVD Burners = 8X burn.

Having said all that there are several models that will do the job

Look at the Toshiba Qosmio® laptops
"Equipped with the Intel® Core™ i7 and i5 processors, the Qosmio® laptop delivers maximum processing power when you need it most. So you’ll fly through intense 3D games, creating and editing video."

Look for the model that has built-in hardware assist for encoding and decoding. They start at a Mere $1149 & Up. 7200 RPM Hard Drive. 500Gig and 1Gig Video

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/laptops.to?family=Qosmio&model=X505&bopt=bts#resultsMatrix

They are nice I had a chance to play with a older one that had dual video cards (SLI) when it came in for warranty work.

[ckbasak]

I will use the laptop for editing and rendering for very limited time, once in a month to two month. So, I do not want to invest more on it.

I will capture video from my Sony MiniDV Handycam with firewire port.
I will use PowerDirector or Pinnacle Studio or similar software for editing and makeing DVD.
If I use Intel Core i3-330 processor with 3GB RAM and 512MB graphics card, will it work? I have seen Dell Inspiron or Studio Laptop with very cheap price. If you want to add anything more in this configuration please tell me.
Not every model have one firewire port. Is there any alternative? like capturing via USB port?


Earlier I have used a laptop with AMD Turion processor and 512 MB RAM, In that the result is very bad. Only I can create low quality DVD and VCD. If I create High Quality DVD then it plays well in PC, but when I play it in standalone DVD player it gives jerking video motion. Is it due to less configuration or any thing else? Please suggest one minimum configuration.

What sort of video capture? Most laptops will require some sort of external device like a USB capture device. With capture and editing, you need a fair amount of hard drive space. You may want to add an external hard drive.

RAM depends on the operating system you plan to use. 32 bit OSs can only use a bit less than 4GB. 64bit OSs can use more, but extra RAM doesn't help that much with video processing most times.

The CPU should be more than 2GHz, 3Ghz would be better. Quad core may help a bit, but dual core CPUs may be sufficient.

Others may be able to give you better advice. You should see what brands are available at your location and that may narrow down the selection a bit.

[edDV]

It will need a Firewire (IEEE-1394) port. Other than CPU speed, the single most important feature for serious editing is provision for a second internal SATA hard drive (separate from OS). Several dual hard disk models are available. Some laptops allow swapping a hard drive into the DVD or other bay. Alternate would be an eSATA port for an external SATA drive.

Max your budget on CPU and hard disk capacity. 2GB RAM is enough. Display card has little effect for DV but becomes very important for HDV or AVCHD formats. Ideally you would go for AVIVO HD or PureVideo HD support.

[ckbasak]

Can any body give more information regarding this topic please?

I will use the laptop for editing and rendering for very limited time, once in a month to two month. So, I do not want to invest more on it.

I will capture video from my Sony MiniDV Handycam with firewire port.
I will use PowerDirector or Pinnacle Studio or similar software for editing and makeing DVD.
If I use Intel Core i3-330 processor with 3GB RAM and 512MB graphics card, will it work? I have seen Dell Inspiron or Studio Laptop with very cheap price. If you want to add anything more in this configuration please tell me.
Not every model have one firewire port. Is there any alternative? like capturing via USB port?


Earlier I have used a laptop with AMD Turion processor and 512 MB RAM, In that the result is very bad. Only I can create low quality DVD and VCD. If I create High Quality DVD then it plays well in PC, but when I play it in standalone DVD player it gives jerking video motion. Is it due to less configuration or any thing else? Please suggest one minimum configuration.

What sort of video capture? Most laptops will require some sort of external device like a USB capture device. With capture and editing, you need a fair amount of hard drive space. You may want to add an external hard drive.

RAM depends on the operating system you plan to use. 32 bit OSs can only use a bit less than 4GB. 64bit OSs can use more, but extra RAM doesn't help that much with video processing most times.

The CPU should be more than 2GHz, 3Ghz would be better. Quad core may help a bit, but dual core CPUs may be sufficient.

Others may be able to give you better advice. You should see what brands are available at your location and that may narrow down the selection a bit.

[edDV]

What part of my answer did you not understand or consider incomplete?

The editing software you are considering are inferior to Sony Movie Studio Platinum or Adobe Premiere Elements.

The second drive in the laptop is the most important feature if you want similar editing performance to a desktop.

[ckbasak]

Thank you for your information on software.
Please explain why 2nd drive is required? Laptop with eSATA port is more expensive. If I use external USB 2.0 Hard Disk as a 2nd drive, will it give good performance?

I have choosen to buy Dell Inspiron Laptop with Core i3, 2GB RAM, 320GB, 512MB ATI Raedon Graphics Card. Will this configuration give good performance? I want to minimize the cost. This Dell Inspiron Laptop does not have DV port. Is there any alternative external device? Ofcourse I can but Dell Studio series laptop which has DV port, but it is more expensive.

Please suggest.

What part of my answer did you not understand or consider incomplete?

The editing software you are considering are inferior to Sony Movie Studio Platinum or Adobe Premiere Elements.

The second drive in the laptop is the most important feature if you want similar editing performance to a desktop.

[edDV]

Thank you for your information on software.
Please explain why 2nd drive is required? Laptop with eSATA port is more expensive. If I use external USB 2.0 Hard Disk as a 2nd drive, will it give good performance?

I have choosen to buy Dell Inspiron Laptop with Core i3, 2GB RAM, 320GB, 512MB ATI Raedon Graphics Card. Will this configuration give good performance? I want to minimize the cost. This Dell Inspiron Laptop does not have DV port. Is there any alternative external device? Ofcourse I can but Dell Studio series laptop which has DV port, but it is more expensive.

Please suggest.

What part of my answer did you not understand or consider incomplete?

The editing software you are considering are inferior to Sony Movie Studio Platinum or Adobe Premiere Elements.

The second drive in the laptop is the most important feature if you want similar editing performance to a desktop.

You have chosen to ignore my advice and buy a laptop with no IEEE-1394 port so now you can't use your camcorder. What model Dell did you buy?

The Dell Studio 14/15 is much more suited to your stated requirements.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/laptop-studio-1555/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studi...o-new-15_cto_3~~

It has the IEEE-1394 port, the eSATA port, HDMI port and a much more capable display chipset.

[ckbasak]

The Dell model you have specified is Dual Core and does not have dedicated graphic momory.
Please explain the requirement of 2nd Disk, will a external USB 2.0 Hard Disk fulfill the purpose?

Thank you for your information on software.
Please explain why 2nd drive is required? Laptop with eSATA port is more expensive. If I use external USB 2.0 Hard Disk as a 2nd drive, will it give good performance?

I have choosen to buy Dell Inspiron Laptop with Core i3, 2GB RAM, 320GB, 512MB ATI Raedon Graphics Card. Will this configuration give good performance? I want to minimize the cost. This Dell Inspiron Laptop does not have DV port. Is there any alternative external device? Ofcourse I can but Dell Studio series laptop which has DV port, but it is more expensive.

Please suggest.

What part of my answer did you not understand or consider incomplete?

The editing software you are considering are inferior to Sony Movie Studio Platinum or Adobe Premiere Elements.

The second drive in the laptop is the most important feature if you want similar editing performance to a desktop.

You have chosen to ignore my advice and buy a laptop with no IEEE-1394 port so now you can't use your camcorder. What model Dell did you buy?

The Dell Studio 14/15 is much more suited to your stated requirements.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/laptop-studio-1555/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studi...o-new-15_cto_3~~

It has the IEEE-1394 port, the eSATA port, HDMI port and a much more capable display chipset.

[edDV]

The Dell model you have specified is Dual Core and does not have dedicated graphic momory.
Please explain the requirement of 2nd Disk, will a external USB 2.0 Hard Disk fulfill the purpose?

Thank you for your information on software.
Please explain why 2nd drive is required? Laptop with eSATA port is more expensive. If I use external USB 2.0 Hard Disk as a 2nd drive, will it give good performance?

I have choosen to buy Dell Inspiron Laptop with Core i3, 2GB RAM, 320GB, 512MB ATI Raedon Graphics Card. Will this configuration give good performance? I want to minimize the cost. This Dell Inspiron Laptop does not have DV port. Is there any alternative external device? Ofcourse I can but Dell Studio series laptop which has DV port, but it is more expensive.

Please suggest.

What part of my answer did you not understand or consider incomplete?

The editing software you are considering are inferior to Sony Movie Studio Platinum or Adobe Premiere Elements.

The second drive in the laptop is the most important feature if you want similar editing performance to a desktop.

You have chosen to ignore my advice and buy a laptop with no IEEE-1394 port so now you can't use your camcorder. What model Dell did you buy?

The Dell Studio 14/15 is much more suited to your stated requirements.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/laptop-studio-1555/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studi...o-new-15_cto_3~~

It has the IEEE-1394 port, the eSATA port, HDMI port and a much more capable display chipset.

Which models are you comparing?

Most laptops today are dual core. Only the lowest end are single core and these would not be good for video editing. It would be possible but problematic vs. dual core.

Dual core solves many issues with laptops. It means applications and OS overhead can run in separate cores to minimize interrupts.

Single disk laptops present similar issues. The OS needs to access the drive and this causes interruption to real time processes like video capture or software video file decode. It is a statistical and buffering issue whether video capture will be interrupted. This continues to be an issue with external USB2 drives since the USB2 disk controller is a software process.

The answer is a second ATA/SATA hard drive operating from a hardware disk controller combined with PCI bus mastering. External eSATA drives operate this way. This allows realtime processes like capture and software playback decoding to operate in hardware and memory separation from OS and background tasks. Previously this bus mastering performance was only available for desktops.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/buses/types/pciMastering-c.html

This isn't to say a single core, single disk Pentium laptop with an IEEE-1394 port can't capture and edit DV, but it will be problematic and slow. The second disk improves reliability but the CPU will still be slow for encoding.

If you don't have an IEEE-1394 port you will need to capture on another computer that has the port.

Most laptop display chipsets use shared system DDR memory. Only the high end game oriented models have dedicated display RAM. This doesn't affect video decode performance. Gamer RAM is mostly used to store textures and backgrounds.

[ckbasak]

So, can I finalise the following spec. for the laptop?
Intel Core i3-330M, 3GB DDR3 RAM, 320GB HDD, ATI Raedon Graphic card with 512MB Video RAM.
If I donot find Firewire port, then a Firewire Expresscard can be used?

The Dell model you have specified is Dual Core and does not have dedicated graphic momory.
Please explain the requirement of 2nd Disk, will a external USB 2.0 Hard Disk fulfill the purpose?

Thank you for your information on software.
Please explain why 2nd drive is required? Laptop with eSATA port is more expensive. If I use external USB 2.0 Hard Disk as a 2nd drive, will it give good performance?

I have choosen to buy Dell Inspiron Laptop with Core i3, 2GB RAM, 320GB, 512MB ATI Raedon Graphics Card. Will this configuration give good performance? I want to minimize the cost. This Dell Inspiron Laptop does not have DV port. Is there any alternative external device? Ofcourse I can but Dell Studio series laptop which has DV port, but it is more expensive.

Please suggest.

What part of my answer did you not understand or consider incomplete?

The editing software you are considering are inferior to Sony Movie Studio Platinum or Adobe Premiere Elements.

The second drive in the laptop is the most important feature if you want similar editing performance to a desktop.

You have chosen to ignore my advice and buy a laptop with no IEEE-1394 port so now you can't use your camcorder. What model Dell did you buy?

The Dell Studio 14/15 is much more suited to your stated requirements.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/laptop-studio-1555/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studi...o-new-15_cto_3~~

It has the IEEE-1394 port, the eSATA port, HDMI port and a much more capable display chipset.

Which models are you comparing?

Most laptops today are dual core. Only the lowest end are single core and these would not be good for video editing. It would be possible but problematic vs. dual core.

Dual core solves many issues with laptops. It means applications and OS overhead can run in separate cores to minimize interrupts.

Single disk laptops present similar issues. The OS needs to access the drive and this causes interruption to real time processes like video capture or software video file decode. It is a statistical and buffering issue whether video capture will be interrupted. This continues to be an issue with external USB2 drives since the USB2 disk controller is a software process.

The answer is a second ATA/SATA hard drive operating from a hardware disk controller combined with PCI bus mastering. External eSATA drives operate this way. This allows realtime processes like capture and software playback decoding to operate in hardware and memory separation from OS and background tasks. Previously this bus mastering performance was only available for desktops.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/buses/types/pciMastering-c.html

This isn't to say a single core, single disk Pentium laptop with an IEEE-1394 port can't capture and edit DV, but it will be problematic and slow. The second disk improves reliability but the CPU will still be slow for encoding.

If you don't have an IEEE-1394 port you will need to capture on another computer that has the port.

Most laptop display chipsets use shared system DDR memory. Only the high end game oriented models have dedicated display RAM. This doesn't affect video decode performance. Gamer RAM is mostly used to store textures and backgrounds.

[edDV]

Which model Dell Inspiron? Most don't have a card slot.

[AlinaVastag84]

I`d like to talk about my choice for a lappy i bought. It`s a 17 inch one, which i may say it`s a better chice if you`re gonna use it for video editing. Every inch counts if image is very important for you. Not to mention higher resolutions , common in 17 inch laptops. The video cards in them are usualy better to serve the big screen , so no problem there. I saw that there are 2 X 2 Gb memory cards in it, which should be enough for allmost anything. The CPU is dual as usual in these bigger laptops. It has more connectors outside like USB and 1 Firewire, not unusual again for these size laptops. The best part for me was that there was place inside for a second HDD, ofcourse i planted one inside cause it was no seal on the HD compartment. So now i have 2 X 500 Gb HDDs inside . When i download a huge video file on one HDD , i allways transform it with the software to the other HDD, it`s less stress than if it should of been only 1 HDD. Another good thing is that i installed the OS on the second HDD too (with the first one removed at that time so that the OS would install totaly independent of the other). If you are in a trip far away, and one HDD fails, you can allways boot from the other and do your job. The operating system is WIN7 and i love it, it`s a common thing to get the OS in the price of the laptop. And the best thing is that the price isn`t that high comapred to a 15 inch laptop, 200 $ more usualy. The audio board is awesome, a Dolby soround with more outputs than normal laptops. So i highly reccomend a 17 inch well chosen lappy. You won`t feel it like a downgrade from a desktop computer.

[ranchhand]

About a year ago I got this lap from Newegg for my son (he got straight A's in college two years running):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115558

It is currently out of stock, but you can see the specs on it. He does not use if for video editing, but he does use it for music editing and capture; he plugs in and captures straight from his band group, saves and edits the music with some heavy duty software. He mixes, sound on sound, sound with sound etc. etc. and has up to 5 screens open at the same time with not a hiccup, crash or overheat. I couldn't be happier with this laptop. Maybe this can help you decide what stats you want in the unit you decide to purchase. Hope this helps.

[usta]

I've also got a 17 inch laptop with W7 and 2x500GB HDD (7200rpm). It runs fantastic with the Core i5 CPU, which kicks the Hyper-threading and Turbo Boost whenever I throw some heavy vido transcoding on it.
Another important thing is the screen resolution - 17inch notebooks have usually higher resolution (1600x900) compared to 15 inch ones (1366x768). This saves a some good effort on extra vertical scrolling, and provides extra space when working on two windows side by side. Love it!