Will this Laptop get the job done?

[youdontseeme]

Hello. I currently own a Sony Vaio SR-33k laptop
128mb RAM
8mb video card (ouch!)
600mhz celeron
Windows 2000 SP3

and I own this desktop I use currently for editing:

512mb ram
64mb s3 video card
750 duron processor
windows 2000 SP3

The one advantage the laptop DOES have over my desktop is the firewire port.

I was planning on using the same setup I do on my desktop:

Panasonic MiniDV camcorder (when i buy it)
Sonic Foundry Vegas Studio 3.0

Will this laptop be up to par? Or should I stick to my desktop and just buy a firewire card?

[The village idiot]

The short answer: Your laptop will work, if a little slowly.



The long answer... Here are my recommendations:

1. Buy a firewire card for your desktop pc. Get another drive and put it in a firewire enclosure (or buy one that is already like that). Now you can capture/transfer with either machine. Or capture/transfer with one, then edit and render on the other.

2. Get a firewire card for your desktop so that you can use either machine.

Get a low overhead capture application. I use DVio, lots of links for it in the last few days just use the search function.

He is why I lean towards #1:

I use an old P266 laptop for some capture/edit duties. With that laptop, and DVio, and EditStudio for editing, I can capture to an external 80GB drive. Then edit and output to a file as DV. It is still pretty slow, but the process runs at about half playblack speed. My desktop with with a PIII 733Mhz, will do DV output from DV at about twice playback speed. So either of your machines should be able to do the same. Converting to mpeg DVD may take approximately 8 times the length of the clip. I just built a P4 2Ghz and am currently converting to mpeg DVD at about 1.25 - 1.5 times the running length of the clip.

A trial for EditStudio can be had from http://www.puremotion.com , the price isn't too bad either. The mpeg encoder that they use is based on the mainconcept SDK, and it looks damn good, as well as being one of the faster engines.

Hope this answers your questions.