It's time to make my movie but with what?

[The Gentleman Scamp]

I have asked this question SO any times over the past year and a half and still, I have no idea which laptop (and a desktop, please note, is out of thequestion) I should buy to compile a film from DV cassette footage taken on a Panasonic NVGS1 I was given by a UK businessman who recognised my portential back in Aug 04.

I will soon be in a position to buy a laptop, I am aware that I will need one with lots of memory which is the only consistant advice I have had.

Everything else has been "Apple Macs are best for DV editing and creative people" - "Don't buy Apple, expensive to repair and on a different wavelength to everything else" "Apple Macs are best for DV editing and creative people" - "Don't buy Apple, expensive to repair and on a different wavelength to everything else""Apple Macs are best for DV editing and creative people" - "Don't buy Apple, expensive to repair and on a different wavelength to everything else""Apple Macs are best for DV editing and creative people" - "Don't buy Apple, expensive to repair and on a different wavelength to everything else""Apple Macs are best for DV editing and creative people" - "Don't buy Apple, expensive to repair and on a different wavelength to everything else"

Please help me if you can and bear in mind the following...

* I have never owed my own computer.

* Most of my colleagues who I live and work with own laptops but not Apples.

* I want my film to be as proffessional as possible and I want to utilize such features as freeze frame with continued narative, multiple music tracks which can be faded in and out, reverse footage, subtitles, normal speed to slow mo, inclusion of outsider footage from mobile phones and digital cameras, and a wide choice of title fonts to name but a few.

* I will be buying said laptop in Hangzou or Shanghai.

Many thanks,

Scampy

[Blake7]

* I want my film to be as proffessional as possible and I want to utilize such features as freeze frame with continued narative, multiple music tracks which can be faded in and out, reverse footage, subtitles, normal speed to slow mo, inclusion of outsider footage from mobile phones and digital cameras, and a wide choice of title fonts to name but a few.

Well that depends on the software not the computer itself. Both Pcs and Macs have software to do the above.

Don't buy computers in China - loaded with pirated software which will cause problems in the future.

[Goddess of Whatever]

Don't buy computers in China

They are cheap and crap, that's why.

[Goddess of Whatever]

Where I work at the moment, we have 2 new models. The first one, we use a compressor which is made in China and another one, a compressor is made in Korea. Which the first one is a lot cheaper than the second.

[MeMock]

I do my video editing on imovie on a ibook g4. Imovie pro sounds like it will suit you fine.

[Marmite the Dog]

I'm sure either would work just as well, but the Mac will be more expensive for the same power.

[buadhai]

The new Intel based Macs will dual-boot Windoze using free Apple software: Bootcamp.

There is also commercial software (now in free beta) that will allow you to run both OS's simultaneously: Parallel's Workstation.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

If I really can't buy guaranteed quality goods in China then I will have to wait until I return to Thailand in Oct/Nov to make the film.

Is there no way to guarantee bona fide apparatus, not even in Shanghai?

The guy I share an apartment with is pretty computer savvy and says he's never had any problems buying stuff in China and says it the advise could be based on 1 persons one off experience.

I like what Memock said, and my friend here who is as I type fixing a friend's Compaq has also suggested a shuttle which he says is a portable desktop.

Where I will be spending most of my time is an issue I am aware and when my business is done here I hope to rent a room somewhere in Thailand, set everything up and finish the job, assuming with my hectic work schedule I will only have time to start it here.
Is Memock's reccomendation the same one I would get if I contacted a production company and asked them?

[Blake7]

If I really can't buy guaranteed quality goods in China then I will have to wait until I return to Thailand in Oct/Nov to make the film.

Is there no way to guarantee bona fide apparatus, not even in Shanghai?

The guy I share an apartment with is pretty computer savvy and says he's never had any problems buying stuff in China and says it the advise could be based on 1 persons one off experience.

I like what Memock said, and my friend here who is as I type fixing a friend's Compaq has also suggested a shuttle which he says is a portable desktop.

Where I will be spending most of my time is an issue I am aware and when my business is done here I hope to rent a room somewhere in Thailand, set everything up and finish the job, assuming with my hectic work schedule I will only have time to start it here.
Is Memock's reccomendation the same one I would get if I contacted a production company and asked them?

Production companies use professional editing suites not laptops......

[The Gentleman Scamp]

I don't dispute that, but if they were to reccommend a laptop for Scampy and his needs, which would it be?

[lom]

A high-end laptop from a wellknown Taiwanese manufacturer.
ACER for example..

High-end because you will need a speedy CPU for video rendering, you will also need 1024MB of RAM since video applications uses a lot of memory.

Harddisk 80 -120 GB together with a DVD burner will give you room for work.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

Cheers Lom - I'm glad you didn't say Dell.

[RDN]

Cheers Lom - I'm glad you didn't say Dell.

Nothing wrong with Dell, technically - my old Dell laptop lasted years past it's warranty. Well, one year

But I've now got an Acer 4603WLMi, whatever that means. I put 768 MB RAM in it just to make it a bit quicker.

I have a question (from the g/f): How do I get .avi files from my digital camera to make a DVD/CD? I have a DVD/CD writer, but don't know what s/w to use to make the DVD/CD work in an ordinary DVD/CD player.

The question's from my g/f because she wants me to film her and then see the results on the TV.

[kii maa]

The question's from my g/f because she wants me to film her and then see the results on the TV.

heh heh, nice !!

[lom]

The question's from my g/f because she wants me to film her and then see the results on the TV.

Don't bother with technical things that you don't understand, just e-mail me the .avi file and I will make you the CD

[stroller]

You should also be able to play stuff straight from your camera on Tele, if the cable wasn't supplied, it's easy to get.

I had the same problem, with Nero as well as the windows "write to CD drive" you can convert to VCD format, DVD I don't know about.
As far as I know, .avi files don't need to be converted, just make sure you create a Video-disc, not a data-disc with Nero.
Also, my CD-player is 3 years old, I believe some newer models play a wide array of formats.

ScampY:
As I said elsewhere, the software is as important as the laptop. You'll have to invest lots of time to learn how to use it. Get a basic programme and start with a short, unambitious project to get into it.

[RDN]

The question's from my g/f because she wants me to film her and then see the results on the TV.

Don't bother with technical things that you don't understand, just e-mail me the .avi file and I will make you the CD

Heh, heh! You'll be lucky!

You should also be able to play stuff straight from your camera on Tele, if the cable wasn't supplied, it's easy to get.

I had the same problem, with Nero as well as the windows "write to CD drive" you can convert to VCD format, DVD I don't know about.
As far as I know, .avi files don't need to be converted, just make sure you create a Video-disc, not a data-disc with Nero....

Ah, I've got a copy of Nero 6 Ultra... I'll see what I can do.

[dirtydog]

alive video converter, you can convert it to whatever format you like, if you want I can upload you a copy

[Wallalai]

Now some DVDplayers can read avi, mpg, jpeg, mp3, VDC, DVD, flashcards. I bought a cheap one (~3000bahts) like this nearly one year ago. So you only need to burn your files as datas on a CDRW or DVDRW and watch them on the TV.

[stroller]

I want to get one which plays almost everything next time I'll go to Bkk. The cheapest ones I've seen are just under 1000bth.
May I ask where you bought yours, Jinjok?

[forreachingme]

a friend had to buy a few laptops so he invited three salesman for different brands at same time ...

At the day, the first arrived well on time like the second, they were invited to seat at the conference table, they opened the machines and waited...

Sorry please for a short while some body is missing, the third salesman was not showing off and it started to be embarrassing to keep the two guys on hold....

But then here comes the third, with a good 15 minutes late to the meeting, enters the room, holds his laptop not really safely under one arm and has a suitcase on the other hand...

And it happens ! this third guy salutes loudly the audience and starts to fall down, the laptop is the first thing to fly high and away and to the floor very roughly, then the suitcase and the guy, all to the floor...

Sorry, sorry, he looked a bit confused for the show, everybody had a laugh at the end, and 2 guys were thinking that now 1 machine was out of the competition....

once up he opened the PC, astonishingly it still worked well !

Then just dropped it carelessly again to the floor !

It remained alive !

Gentlemans, as you can see this is the toughest machine available in the market actually, works still well after the show i just made for you and i can repeat it as much as you want ...

The friend purchased the third choice wich was Panasonic if i remember well, but this is almost 6 years ago what is ages for this sector...

cheers

[Wallalai]

I want to get one which plays almost everything next time I'll go to Bkk. The cheapest ones I've seen are just under 1000bth.
May I ask where you bought yours, Jinjok?

Sorry stroller, the right price is ~3000 bahts and not 300 This #@$*# cheap thai keyboard will drive me crazy. I bought it in Switzerland, but it's a japanese brand, or any other asian fabrication. You should find it cheaper here, in Panthip.

[Whiteshiva]

I have just recorded several tapes of video of my kids, but I seem to be unable to save the result to CD(or DVD) that is readable on a DVD player. I am using Windows Movie maker, which is great for editing, but the default file format when saving is wmv. I tried to save as AVI, but a 30 min clip ends up as a 8 GB file

I am abviously doing something wrong - any suggestions?

[Marmite the Dog]

I have just recorded several tapes of video of my kids, but I seem to be unable to save the result to CD(or DVD) that is readable on a DVD player. I am using Windows Movie maker, which is great for editing, but the default file format when saving is wmv. I tried to save as AVI, but a 30 min clip ends up as a 8 GB file

I am abviously doing something wrong - any suggestions?

https://teakdoor.com/computer-news/31...-dvd-disc.html

[The Ghost Of The Moog]

"Production companies use professional editing suites not laptops......"

Numerous production companies use Apple Powerbooks. If they're shooting on DV, then what do you think they have in their professional editing suite. ....a computer naturally.

Obviously, if one is using 35 mm film, then that necessitates something different.

If the Champ is to have any chance at all of climbing the learning curve and mastering the IT himself, a reasonable target is a (possibly second hand) functioning Apple.

Really any further debate on this oft-discussed topic is pointless - if necessary he should take it further on a movie maker forum rather than a whoremonger forum.