Advice please

[Mrs M]

I would like to buy a netbook/laptop for my son. He likes to make films, watch films, play games, homework, social networking. Can anyone advise me on a something that is reasonably priced please.

 

[shoes]

The only spanner in the works there is 'make films', otherwise a normal netbook would be just what you need. How serious is he about making/editing movies? If he's serious then you'll need a reasonable spec and also a large hard drive, however if it's just a playing around thing then I'm sure a dual core laptop from Novatechwould suffice.

These are what we kit out engineers at work out with, they are suprisingly nice bits of kit for the price. The spec on paper doesn't seem much and won't lend itself well to video editing, but for everything else this hits the nail on the head. Running windows XP these machines are pretty slick and with reasonable battery life too. £300.

 

[Mrs M]

Thanks for the advice shoes. He is only 12 but is taking his film making very seriously and I want to encourage that as much as possible. After a lot of shopping around I came across this HP DV6-1215SA in PC World. I managed to get it with NAV, Microsoft Office,a bag that was £35 and an upgrade to Windows 7 all for £485. I'm hoping it will be just what he needs.

 

[db]

Thanks for the advice shoes. He is only 12 but is taking his film making very seriously and I want to encourage that as much as possible. After a lot of shopping around I came across this HP DV6-1215SA in PC World. I managed to get it with NAV, Microsoft Office,a bag that was £35 and an upgrade to Windows 7 all for £485. I'm hoping it will be just what he needs.

don't install norton! at best, it will drag the machine down and make it too slow for intensive tasks such as editing video.. at worst, it will break everything and cut you off from the internet, etc..

if you want to protect him from virus etc, use either of the following free products:

http://free.avg.com/gb-en/homepage
http://www.free-av.com/

 

[shoes]

100% agree with DB there!

That laptop looks good, video editing will be slow at render stage (when isn't it?) but should be more than usable when editing videos in premiere elements / windows movie maker / vegas etc. (video software).

I know a thing or two about video editing and appropriate software so if you want any advice on which to get or how to use the one you have chosen then just ask.

Seems like you got a good deal all in all!

 

[Mrs M]

100% agree with DB there!

That laptop looks good, video editing will be slow at render stage (when isn't it?) but should be more than usable when editing videos in premiere elements / windows movie maker / vegas etc. (video software).

I know a thing or two about video editing and appropriate software so if you want any advice on which to get or how to use the one you have chosen then just ask.

Seems like you got a good deal all in all!

I'm glad you said that as it has taken me ages and given me massive headaches trying to choose one.

I would welcome any advice on video editing software, there's so many and I can't ask my son as I want it to be a complete surprise. He uses one at the moment which a friend has let him borrow, MAGIX - Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus. I have'nt got a clue if it's any good, if it is then does he need anything else at the moment.

 

[shoes]

For entry level video editing which has the 'feel' of higher end products I would recommend Adobe Premiere Elements 8. Its a domestic version of Adobe's professional Premiere software, and feels fairly similar. If you son does persue a career in film he will definitely benefit from having used premiere elements previously as his university will either use premiere or apple's final cut studio - both will relate to premiere elements.

At £75 its worth every penny IMO.

If you chose not to use adobe software for whatever reason then the only advice I can really give you is avoid pinnacle software like the plague. The video editing software is unbelieveably poor, how any of the versions ever got past beta is begger's belief. I believe they call their suite Pinnacle Studio. It's crap.

I would recommend you do chose Premiere Elements and I am very well versed in it's usage and I'm happy to provide support for any issues you or you son has setting it up and getting going with editing.

The only other question is what do you (or your son) use to shoot video?

 

[Mrs M]

Lewis has a Panasonic NV-GS11. My husband bought it for me a few years ago but I could never get to grips with it after my sony handycam. He seems to be getting on with it okay though.

 

[shoes]

Perfect! Thats ideal for what he wants to do by the sounds of it and it will integrate seemlessly with premiere elements for a pleasurable editing experience.

I know what you mean about the handycams too - we had a fleet of them at my old job (surveillance / insurance fraud invesitgation) and they are just the best tools for the job. Great quality, easy to use, unbelieveable battery life and incredbly robust. Not too sure about panasonic, I am inexperienced witht them but a friend of mine runs his own small media/film company and all of his kit is panasonic, he swears by it.

One question worth checking the answer to though is does the laptop have a firewire port on it? You can capture through USB however it tends to work a lot better through firewire (aka IEEE1394).

EDIT: I have just checked the HP laptop and it does indeed have a firewire port. You will probably need to get a firewire cable to connect the camera to the PC but these are inexpensive generally. I might even have a spare you could have, or perhaps another forumite has? I will look tonight when i get home for you.