It’s on the way…

8 thoughts on “It’s on the way…”

1. It came!

   “It came! It finally came! The Big One!” –Sid, “Toy Story”

   The wife called me a few minutes ago to tell me, “Hey, did you know you just got a great big box from OmniMegaComputerStore?”

   Woo Woo!

   —
   Matthew P. Barnson

   1. Okay..

      For you computer nerds.. Assume that someone, hypothetically, was going to be editing an HD-DV film in full HD quality, with post processing effects (destructive) – and didn’t want a million hours of rendering for every edit.

      Also assume that this person is Mac-phobic and wants to spend no more than 1500 (1000 is better).

      What should this hypothetical person get? Extra points for software suggestions.

      Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com

      1. Full HD

         OK, so let’s spell out your exact requirements. This will make it easier for you to figure out what you want.

         1. 1080p resolution (so-called “full” HD) is 1920×1080. If you are looking at a laptop, this dramatically narrows your choices. You need one with a widescreen desktop resolution of 1920×1200 or so in order to see the full image. If you are willing to settle for 720p (1280×720) or 480p (852×480) you can dramatically reduce the resolution required. As an alternative, if you can plan on working with a HD external display (the Mac 32″ LCD is fantastic but costs a mint) you can forego the massive screen on your laptop.
         2. You need a blu-ray or HDDVD drive. Not only will you need them to import your 1080p source, but also to be writable.
         3. 3D capability is mostly irrelevant to you. You just want something capable of running Vista’s Aero. I’d still suggest some sort of dedicated 3D accelerator, rather than Intel’s built-in stuff though.
         4. You’ll want a dual-core system with at least 2GB of RAM. Pretty much a working minimum, 4GB is better for large video edits.
         5. You’ll want some big, fast hard drives. The little hard drive with your system won’t do the job.
         6. You need a Firewire interface. Most HD cameras have them, and not USB.
         7. Adobe Premier Pro, at least the 1.5 version and later, is pretty much the standard in video editing. Sony Vegas is also popular, as are various Avid products. You should arrange trials of them to see which one fits your working style the best. Adobe Premier Elements ($99) is a scaled-down version of the Premier Pro product, and very popular with people just getting into video editing. I’m not sure about its HD capabilities, but it can use the same plugins Pro can which is a plus.

         Fact is, you’re going to have a hard time putting a video editing rig into that budget unless you go desktop, and even with that a 1920×1200 LCD will set you back a pretty penny. That said, you can configure a Dell Inspiron 1720 desktop replacement laptop within that range, and it has space for a second onboard disk drive to handle the size of these files. It lacks DVI out, which means you won’t be doing your HD editing on an external monitor very accurately. The monitors are a bit cold and the colors aren’t quite true like a pro-quality screen is, though. Just something to be aware of.

         I’d wait for one of the famous coupon sales by checking http://www.notebookforums.com daily. You can often get 30% off a system $2000 or more, which really adds up.

         If you go desktop, you can do it for much cheaper. Laptops are basically twice the price for equivalent capability.

         —
         Matthew P. Barnson

         1. Aaannd..

            Book.. mark..

            Truth be told.. I may not want TRUE HD.. (lots of different Lighting and makeup requirements.. but probably a good looking DVD-quality.. (with Cinelook plugin)

            Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com

         2. $1500???

            Some rambles…

            -> Definitely want a desktop. Paying for a laptop is paying for miniaturization.

            -> Make sure you get a dual-core processor. That allows you to work on video with having a catatonic machine.

            -> As for RAM, a wise man once told me, “Memory is like pu**y…buy as much as you can afford.” 2 GB would be a minimum. Also keep in mind that 32-bit systems can only access 4GB of RAM.

            -> The HD-DVD or Blu-ray burner will set you back at least $400

            -> The 1920×1200 LCD will cost you at least $400

            -> You can get a good video card to handle it for under $100

            -> Firewire cards are cheap to, make sure you get one that supports FW-800

            -> You’ll want at least 2 hard drives, and maybe 3. But drives are cheap. In a perfect world, you’d have 1 small HD for the OS and software, 2 decent sized striped hard drives (striping increase R/W speeds, but one drive failure scroggs two drives worth of data) for video work, and a massive external drive to store and backup.

            -> There’s a free video editing software called Jahshaka (jahshaka.org) that I think can do HD…but I’ve never used it and offer no advice yea or nea

            And don’t forget sound, you’ll want to lay down 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 sound and that too, I suppose.

            Bottom line is right now, you’re going to get a middling system at your $1500 limit, and no system at $1000. Wait 6 months, and it’ll probably be within your budget.

            My $.02 Weed

            1. What he said…

               Yeah, what he said. I don’t mind the price on the laptop (currently typing on a $2400 one), but you pay about twice what you’d pay for the same-spec desktop. For me, it’s worth it for the transportability, ability to DJ and do gigs with it (well, not doing that yet, but things are looking up in the “I want a new rock band” direction), plus do the cool video and audio work I want to do at home too.

               Cool link on Jahshaka!

               If you were willing to scale down your requirements to, say, 720p, that drops your expense and the amount of storage space considerably. A single full-length movie in 1080p will take up around 16GB when it’s all done… not counting all the edit-cruft that gets strewn around your drive.

               You could easily do low-end video editing on any decent gaming rig. If you get into editing the full HD video and surround sound, though, you need some bucks, some storage, and some dedicated hardware. Also complicated special effects require FARMS of cheap machines. So if you are going to do any complicated CGI, it’s worthwhile to investigate what the package you are working with can do, and plan on picking up several cheap, multi-core, headless boxes to run as your rendering farm.

               Dunno if that’s the way you are going or not though.

               —
               Matthew P. Barnson

2. How Much?

   Pray tell, how much for that sucker?

   1. New…

      If it were new, non-refurbished, and you applied no coupons or other discounts, it would run you around $2250 shipped. You can’t buy this exact model new anymore, though.

      After Christmas, Dell is sure to bring out a bunch of big coupons on the Inspirons. They always do. Traditionally, they are 30% off laptops $2000 and more… which means this laptop would run you around $1600 instead.

      A curious phenomenon I’ve noticed about these “desktop replacement” laptops is that they hold value surprisingly well. For instance, a Dell Inspiron 9300 w/2GB RAM, which would have cost about $1800 with coupons, still sells from around $700-$900 3 years later.

      If I had my druthers… I’d have a new Macbook Pro. But the budget is short this year, so I’m settling for a free, slightly dated replacement for my old laptop. I’ll plan on handing this one down to my kids around ChristmaHannuKwanzika in a year or two when I get my next one 🙂

      —
      Matthew P. Barnson

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