Shared Video Memory - cons for DV editing ?

[varsenev]

Hi,

I am in the process of selecting notebook computer that I can use for DV capturing,editing and recording. I never did any DV editing before and teherefore do not know what configuration will suit me well. I was looking into HP pavilion 5500 series customizable PC with the following specifications:

CPU: Mobile Pentium(R)4 2.80 GHz
Memory: 512MB
Hard Drive: 80GB 4200 RPM
Optical Drive: DVD+RW/R and CD-RW Combo
Display: 15.0" TFT WVA SXGA+(1400x1050)
Graphics Card: Mobility Radeon(TM) 7000
OS: MS Windows XP Pro

With IEEE1394 port and 64MB shared video memory.

I am concerned about shared video memory and slow HD. How shared video memory affects DV capturing/editing process? Will it be a problem that will reflect on quality ? Since it is DV there should not be any losses ?

Is slow HD can be a problem ?

Any suggestions are very welcome.

Thank you.

Valeriy

[The village idiot]

The shared video memory should not be a concern. I use a Shuttle SS50 with shared memory with no problems. The disk drive might be a concern. Get a firewire external drive and use that if you have problems. Again, I use external with my DV just fine. Even can use my P266Mhz laptop to "capture" and edit DV. Slow as molassas in January on a cold winter's day, but no dropped frames. Your laptop should be better than my SS50, which only has a 2Ghz processor in it. Do yourself a favor and buy a good trackball or mouse for your editing needs.

Might I suggest EditStudio from puremotion for your editing needs. That's what I use. You will also want to get DVio for your DV transfer software. Both of those should link you to their entry in the tools section.

[varsenev]

Thank you very much for the response.

I plan to have this machine as desktop replacement and to have ability to edit home video that I make with Sony TRV30. My target (for now at least) is to perform some editing, and then write the result into DVD or (if something real good) to another DV cassete.

You mentioned "no dropped" frames. I was thinking that when one captures DV it is similar to perform copy of the file (a big one). And dropping frames effect is when analog to digital conversion occurs. Isn't it?

Also, you sad that external HD connected through FireWire helps. It seems as good solution (400Mb or even 800Mb and 7,200RPM is probably good enough). The only question how it should be implemented? Shoud it be couple of FireWire ports and camcorder connected to one and external HD to another (or using hub)? Or DV capturing is done on local HD and then data are being transfered to external faster HD? Could you tell a bit how it is working for you.

Thanks again.
Valeriy

[SaSi]

DV Capturing is actually more close to copying than real-time frame grabbing, so a very slow disk will result in slow "copying" of the movie from the camcorder.

80 Gb of hard disk on a notebook is an expensive (relativelly) disk that I think is not enough for DV editing.

Using an external firewire disk is a good option. I would recommend a good external disk box with firewire connector and a high capacity 200~300Gb (not Mb ) disk inside.

The problem in this is that you will need to have two firewire ports on the notebook, one to connect the camera and another to connect the disk. I bet there has to be a notebook out there with two firewire ports, but I don't know one specifically.

Alternativelly, another idea is to get an external disk that has BOTH a firewire and a USB 2.0 port. I have seen such things. With this, you can connect the disk to the USB port and the camera to the firewire port for downloading the movie and then detach the camera and the disk, connect the disk to the firewire port and have fast access for editing.

The "worst" compromize would be to use a USB 2 disk. Will not be faster than the notebook disk (perhaps a bit slower) but at least you can get a larger capacity with it.

Shared memory should not be a concern, unless you want to play one of these new games that require a VGA board more powerfull than a P4.

[sterno]

I would recommend checking out reviews and customer opinions on the model you're going to get. Some shared-memory video controllers are fine even for a lot of games, but others will bog down the system just under ordinary day-to-day use. Personally, if I was going to spend the money to get a P4 I'd want to make sure I was getting one that ran like a P4.

[The village idiot]

Most of the firewire external drive enclosures have 2 firewire ports on them. Firewire is meant to be looping. So you can connect you external drive to your computer, then connect your camera to the external drive. And 80GB is several hours of DV. DV is 13GB per hour, so you only have to decide how many hours you will want to store. If you try EditStudio, you will also want to try their mpegXS encoder, both have a free 30 day demo, and both offer high quality for a reasonable price.

Since your laptop is not likely to have a DVD burner in it, you might want to look at firewire versions of burners too. If you get the idea that I like firewire, you would be right. All my machines must have firewire now. If they don't come with it, it is the first thing I add.

[varsenev]

I looked on google regarding the card (ATI Mobility Radeon 7000). After hours of reading different forums (mostly gaming), I got the idea - very poor for 3D.

So it is really difficult to tell whether it will noticeably slowdown the machine while doing day-to-day functions (woard processing, web browsing, image viewing/editng). And certainly no way to find whether somebody was using this card while doing DV editing.

Since I wanted to customize my nootebook from HP, I can not find a review for it. I found, though, rating for it's predecessor - HP pavilion ze5470us (I was going to build based on ze5500). It was reviewed badly under desktop replacement category. And major downsite - performance of video card. That modele has ATI Mobility Radion (M6).

At some sites I read that 7000 is a significant improvement. On other sites - they say it is the same card.

I guess I need to look around to see whether there is a good alternative. Or may be I will find some explanation for this particular graphics card model.

Regarding the DVD burner. It can have DVD+RW for $225. And initially I was planning to have one. But now I think (if I still go with this brand and model) that it is better to get just plain DVD internally, and buy external FireWire DVD+/-RW driver. By many reasons:I will not use it every day (and even week); I can get much better DVD-/+RW drive that can be used by couple of computers in the household when needed; overall price of notebook will be lower.

Thanks.

[The village idiot]

Most laptops will have a very basic graphics chip. For editing, you don't really need the full power of a good 3D chip. But you also don't want something that will slow down your normal windows applications either. Check out some of the Toshiba laptops, and maybe the Sony machines. Stay far away from Compaq, you don't need the headache! You might also look at what Gateway has to offer. If you don't mind switching gears, you could look at the Mac laptops.

General rule, the faster the processor, the faster the machie will be with video files.