Edius Laptop as primary edit system?

[gmcnally]

I was looking at the new HP nw9440 Notebook with Edius on the GV website,
and was wondering if this was capable enough to be a wedding videographer friend's primary edit system? Personally I use the Canopus Desktop NX Workstation from nearly 2 years ago, and am a very happy camper. Can the laptop do dual monitors like mine? If not, are there ways around the lack of real estate? Is external storage via a firewire 800 interface fast enough to edit HDV with or without the HQ intermediary codec? I monitor HD via the NX boardset component outputs; but how would you monitor HD on a laptop without the extra hardware? These are just my basic concerns, but I'm sure there would be other problems? I'm trying to talk him into a desktop and a laptop system for SDE's, but he's only got a 6K budget. Thanks! Gary

[GrassValley_MD]

An external Harddrive will help and I would use the HQ format.

As for external monitor you can look to the ADVC line of video converters for that.

Laptops are very fast today but for HD I am not sure they are ready to take on a good desktop.

Mike

[henryj]

I agree with Mike. That being said I'm using an Alienware laptop with dual processors and an internal raid zero. Has full sized connectors including a DVI for a second monitor. I paid 3,500 bucks for it a year ago. I edit in HDV and it's working fine.

An external Harddrive will help and I would use the HQ format.

As for external monitor you can look to the ADVC line of video converters for that.

Laptops are very fast today but for HD I am not sure they are ready to take on a good desktop.

Mike

[kwshaw1]

I do essentially all of my editing now on a Dell Latitude D820 with an Intel dual-core processor, 2 GB RAM and several external USB2 hard drives. Performance is sluggish when working with native HDV files but I can do basic projects in that format; using the HQ format improves performance dramatically but requires more hard drive capacity.

My desktop computers have been relegated to tasks like burning DVDs and printing the DVD covers. Being tied to a desk is no fun...

[rone]

Can't speak for HDV but editing on two high-end Acer travelmates (8215) has been the perfect solution for my P2 material.

Not used a desktop for over a year and the mobility/space saving/efficiency is key (oh and the PC slot for P2 ingest)!

[STORMDAVE]

P2 footage are all intra frame based...m2t HDV files are Long GOP MPEG2, thus requiring alot of CPU power.

I'm sure Intel will be releasing Quad Core's for laptops very soon with their 45nm architecture.

[rone]

I did once stick an HDV on the timeline along with a DVC-PRO HD clip, and the pc utilization for the HDV was in the region of 80% whereas the P2 HD clip was 40% or so.

[kwshaw1]

P2 footage are all intra frame based...m2t HDV files are Long GOP MPEG2, thus requiring alot of CPU power.

But if you capture/convert HDV to the Edius HQ format, then your performance should be similar to using DVCProHD. HDV editing with Edius is definitely possible on a good dual-core laptop.