Video Editing on the zd7820us

[Jason Dunn]

Yesterday I used the big laptop for a quick video editing project. The results? Much better than trying to do it on my P5010D. ;-) I split the 80 GB hard drive into two partitions: a 50 GB partition for my programs/data, and a 30 GB partition for digital media projects. I connected my Canon GL2 via the Firewire port on the left side and had to fight a little to get the cable in. I don't know if the Firewire port is a little tight, or if the Ziplinq cable I was using has a warped connector. Regardless, I got it in there with a bit of pressure.

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/zd7000-videoediting.JPG

I dumped the video from the MiniDV camera to the laptop using Pinnacle Studio 9, and it worked nicely - up until the point where it tried to actually burn a DVD. The video footage was roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes long, so I had about 9 GB of free space left on the drive - enough to crank out an MPEG2 file for a DVD. I added a few simple transitions, then set it up to burn a DVD. Even with a 3.2 Ghz CPU, encoding MPEG2 takes a ridiculously long time. I left it for several hours and when I returned I had an error message saying "Insert a Blank DVD". I had done that previously - perhaps it didn't like that brand of DVD-R? I put in a Ritek 8x DVD-R and received the same message. At the time of this writing I'm burning the Studio 9 generated VOB file with Nero, and it's working well (finally!).

I've done a few other video projects, and the laptop has performed admirably - Photo Story 3 is surprisingly CPU intensive, and the zd7820us pounded through everything I could throw at it. Ditto for a few Acid projects. Overall I'm very pleased with the purchase since the primary role this laptop was meant to fill is digital media editing. It sure is important though to keep it close to a power supply - since my P5010D has such amazing battery life (5 hours with the main battery) I took laptop battery life for granted. This big beast has reminded me that not all laptops are made with the same battery life in mind. :lol:

[stevehiner]

The issue with inserting the firewire cable isn't caused by the cable. I have a zd7000 series laptop as well and the firewire port just seems to be a bit small. It seems like you have to line up the cable perfectly to get it to go in. I'm a bit bummed that they chose to use a 4 pin jack rather than a 6 pin since most of my devices are 6 pin even if they don't need the extra power. I suppose they might have used 4 pin so they could increase battery life since it doesn't have to provide power.

[Jason Dunn]

The issue with inserting the firewire cable isn't caused by the cable.

Hmm...but when I used a different cable it went in perfectly without excess tension...so I really do think my cable was wonky. :-)

I'm a bit bummed that they chose to use a 4 pin jack rather than a 6 pin since most of my devices are 6 pin even

Yeah, it would have been nice to have a 6-pin port there - hell, why not have both? Given the sheer size of this laptop, I'm surprised they didn't add both. And why no dedicated CF slot? My wee P5010D has one, but this big one doesn't? :roll:

[stevehiner]

I agree about the CF slot. I'm a bit annoyed about that little ommision. I'm gonna pick up a digital camera soon and I'm planning to get one with SD so I can use it with my iPAQ (in for service with HP for the 3rd freaking time!) and my laptop. I'd rather us CF since they're bigger, faster and cheaper.

Are you using a TV tuner with your laptop? I'm planning to pick up a new hardware encoding tuner since my software encoder sucks up all my processing and I'm debating between a PCI version or a USB that I could use on my laptop too.

Just today I got a license for Windows MCE in my Microsoft Action Pack. Based on your good experience with it I might install it on my home system while I'm on vacation next week - it'll give me something while I'm waiting for the kids to go to bed so I can play Halo 2.

[Jason Dunn]

Are you using a TV tuner with your laptop?...Just today I got a license for Windows MCE in my Microsoft Action Pack. Based on your good experience with it I might install it on my home system...

I'm using the TV tuner that came with the laptop - it's a USB-based external box. Works pretty well, though I DESPISE the fact that if it's not connected to the laptop via USB, all the lights on the front (there are four) blink off and in on a row...constantly. Drives me bonkers, so I unplugged the power on it. :-)

MCE 2005 was an easy install once I got past the confusing installer language (just keep going between disc 1 and disc 2 of the MCE 2005 install, don't get confused when it asks for the Windows XP SP2 disc). Also, make sure you have a full certified MPEG2 decoder - get the nVidia one, it's awesome and VERY stable.