Laptop question re minimum specs needed for

Norman-B

video editing?

Story is, I have an 'old' desktop with very low specs, running XP. I have given in to persistent 'pressure' and badgering from my grandson. He informs me that I need to 'get modern' and buy a laptop. "It can be a family laptop, grand-dad!" Fat chance of that! None of us will be able to get our hands on it!

My question is, what min' specs will I need if I'm going to use it for transferring my video (home movies) tapes? Will a laptop be suitable for this task? I really don't want to spend £500 if I can get away with £350. I looked at a Sony Vaio Intel i3-330M proc-2.13 Ghz with 320 HD for £529 with 2 year Gntee

macman

Video editing usually requires quite a powerful spec, but if your old PC can do the job, any new laptop will be more than adequate for the task. Just make sure you have plenty of disk space.
Are you sure you want to edit video on a 15 inch screen though?

Norman-B

Thanks for the reply.

Problem with my desktop is that it took ages and ages to transfer a 15 minute video. I now have a camera with HD Video and I can't play back on my desktop (playback is in a stuttering motion). When I contact the camera mfr, they told me the specs of my desktop were too out of date for playing HD video. So laptop it is.
Is a 15" screen too small?

Donnie

You'll probably need a FireWire connection on the laptop.

This Toshiba is a good place to start, for £350, but it has Vista.

Norman-B

As sure as today's my birthday, I just knew that I would get help from Donnie!

Thanks for the link. I do read that Vista is not such a good OP. Is it possible (a small cost) to upgrade to 7? I've Googled this and lots of info on how to do it but nothing on cost.

Donnie

Norman-B wrote: »

As sure as today's my birthday, I just knew that I would get help from Donnie!

Thanks for the link. I do read that Vista is not such a good OP. Is it possible (a small cost) to upgrade to 7?

Not anymore I don't think. AFAIK the under £30 upgrade drive is over.

Here is the 17" version for £410.
Whatever you decide, you'll need a FireWire connection.

In a worse case scenario, you can buy a laptop without a FireWire connection and purchase a FireWire Express Card for around £15.

Also, don't be afraid of Vista. Whilst it's not Microsoft's best work, you probably won't notice.

Try actually using it before you worry about upgrading. You have seven days from delivery to change your mind if you wish.

Norman-B

macman & Donnie, many thanks for the advice:T

macman

Norman-B wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

Problem with my desktop is that it took ages and ages to transfer a 15 minute video. I now have a camera with HD Video and I can't play back on my desktop (playback is in a stuttering motion). When I contact the camera mfr, they told me the specs of my desktop were too out of date for playing HD video. So laptop it is.
Is a 15" screen too small?

Only you can be the judge of that.
What are the specs of your existing PC? How much RAM? What graphics card and processor? The first two can be easily upgraded.

Norman-B

My desktop is XP, Pentium 4 /2.00Ghz with 0.99 Ram. HD is 76GB with 6 GB free. Intel Extreme 2 Graphics. A 19" Monitor.
I hope I got that correct.

macman

That's not a bad spec for it's age, but you really need to add some RAM. 2GB would help a lot. 1GB is OK for office tasks on XP, but for video processing you need as much as you can get.
Use the System Scanner on https://www.crucial.com to see what your RAM options are, or post the PC make/model and someone can check for you.
Your other issue is that you urgently need to free up some space on your hard drive, it is currently 92% full, so you will be getting issues there-for example it cannot defrag when it is that full. As a guideline, you should have at least 15% free space.
Get yourself a USB external hard drive and offload some files ASAP.

Norman-B

Many thanks for that useful advice. So, am I correct in thinking that if I increase the Ram to 2GB, I could use my desktop for video editing? Is my processor capable?

I bought an external HD some weeks ago but as yet, have not used it. Reason being that I'm fearful of moving my 34GB of photos off my HD and for some reason making a ba**s up! I was surprised that the external HD did not come with a disk to assist with backing up.

Thanks again for your help!

Crucial scan,

• Maximum Memory Capacity: 2048MB
• Currently Installed Memory: 1GB
• Available Memory Slots: 0
• Total Memory Slots: 2
• Dual Channel Support: Yes
• CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
• CPU Family: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz Model 2, Stepping 4
• CPU Speed: 1900 MHz
• Although the memory can be installed one module at a time, the best performance comes from using matched pairs of modules.

Quoted £65.78 for 2 x 1GB