DIGITAL VIDEO EDITING ON LAPTOP?

Is there anyone with information, advice, or with experience in the possibilty and capabilities of editing digital video on a high performance laptop computer?

Best platform to use (PC or Mac) and what editing program to use ? ( Adobe Preimere) for example.

I would like to input from Sony XV1000 3CCD camera directly into a laptop system.

Any info or resources for such information would be greatly apprieciated as I would like to find the right laptop for job if this is possible to do!

Thanks, Zorthar prana@nets.com

-- Steve Zorthar (prana@nets.com), January 29, 1999

Answers

Its an appealing idea. I thought of this last year and looked into it. It was a no-go then because of three factors: 1. The drive in a laptop was not fast enough (not processor speed, but access speed). 2. There is nowhere to put the video capture card. 3. The storage capacity required for video means you have to have additional AV drives to store data.

The technology exists by now - Sony has a portable editing system - but its not available in my price range. I have a Dell now -- which weighs almost 20 pounds stuffed full of cards and drives. Its a long way from the fantasy!

-- (bretherton@usa.net), February 03, 1999.

See the Sony VAIO site -- they offer PII 366 with a built in Firewire port and a 6 Gb drive. They claim though that it will work only with Sony cameras but for you I see this is no problem. I've never seen them at work though. I would expect there to be MAC laptops with the same feature since recently a dealer was trying to talk me into getting a MAC desktop with 2 firewire ports.

BTW, has anybody tried to use a laptop as an external monitor for a camcorder? My PCG 719 has a TV OUT but no TV IN -- has anyone seen a TV IN card for a laptop and did the whole thing work?

-- Andrei (abr_ay@nikoil.ru), February 12, 1999.

I got the same dream todoet on a laptop conec the card on the paralel port

-- Frank Zappe (marrok@usa.net), May 23, 1999.

The most recent copy of RES magazine (Vol.2 No.2) has an article about laptop editing systems. The article mentions one system that has firewire built in, Sony's VAIO PGC-F190. It also mentions that Apple is rumored to be introducing a redesigned PowerBook with built-in FireWire ports, this spring. And Japanese Manufacturer Ratoc (www.rexpccard.co.jp) has an FireWire PCMCIA expansion card available for Window's machines, with a Mac version due in May.

-- Liam Finn (liamfinn@earthlink.net), May 25, 1999.

As of 2001, Laptop DV editing is a reality. Check out http://www.avid.com/products/avidxpressdv/index.html for more information. Hard drives are fast, external firewire drives are available, firewire ports are standard on top end laptops.

-- Ethan Schoonover (ethanschoonover@hotmail.com), October 09, 2001.

I will like to share my experience on editing DV video on my Toshiba laptop. I have Toshiba Satellite 2450-S420, its has a built in IEEE1394 Firewire port. I grabed DV footage from Sony DCRTRV18E mini DV Cam. I first tried capturing video through Avid DV which runs on my Windows XP platform..but it wasn't successful as the software was unable to detect the Camera itself. Then tried same with Premier6 and was quite successful. Luckily there was no frame drops and I could play back my footage in 720x576 (DV-PAL)resolution real time. Editing is smother and simpler in Premier if u r not too ambitious with u'r edit here. I exported my edit timeline as movie and took the avi file to After effects for final CC and some effect. I am quite new to Premier and haven't explored it much..u can probably try effects in Premier itself....Ya if u have not already started u'r set up...check on u'r laptop which Firewire port u have got..there is normally 4pin port on most of the laptop...on PC's u can get 6pin port..if u have only 4 pin port buy the Belkin 4pin to 4 pin Firewire cable they r the best one in my knowledge. I am still experimenting many thing on editting with Premier....any one can guide me wht is the best way to get High quality DVD from Premier Output. Thanx all --sanjay prasad (prasadcom@yahoo.com)

-- sanjay prasad (prasadcom@yahoo.com), August 15, 2003.