Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 23

i am shocked. i would never have guessed that some one would use a laptop to edit video when there are much more affordable and capable desktops out there.

thanks for the info

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 118

Using a Visor as a replacement - sidebar digression

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Originally posted by markleetoo
I have to admit that my OVDX is a great substitute whenever my desktop is not available. Being able to grab email with my Thinmodem and Eudora Internet Suite allows me to get away from my desk quite a bit to be able to enjoy some of the better things in life, like Survivor II. Just need a an alternative power source to AC/DC and maybe I could try my hand at winning a MIL :-)

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: June 10, 2001 San Clemente Pier , CA
Posts: 211

FYI there is a site with a small form solar-cell charger.
http://www.talestuff.com/

For my Prism(as of Monday) needs:
I'm thinking of the travel charger w/emergency battery option. AND the car charger.
Well, you know the prism can't live away from a usb pc-enabled charger.
But it's ok, it's ok, really, it's ok.......

I have family pics now on my prism with SplashPhoto, and I love going thru the slideshow of my family, pics of vacation in Bali & Costa Rica.....It's an unexpected plus from the prism. I was mostly looking for better text legibility and easier color-based app usage. But the pics are really nice and small(50k at highest res) Gotta run now,had an idea to upload my favorite Antonio Banderas pic too.

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 42

quote:

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Originally posted by hloakes
I would get either the backup or memplug modules no matter what. I have both, and if you can only get one, get the memplug. Having a backup has saved me more than once.

I like the memplug becasue I keep a lot of stuff on my visor and have found I can move an item off if I need the space, and then move it back when I need it.

If you are going to travel, I can not imagine doing so without some sort of backup.

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I haven't purchased one yet, but I intend to within the next month or two. I'm talking about a Springboard adapter that will allow me to use compact flash in my Visor. It allows up to 128mb. The adapter is $39.00 (www.innopocket.com) and CF cards run about $50--I think this is the right number--(32mb) and up.

Just a thought.

Don

Last edited by doni on 05-15-2001 at 12:48 AM

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

OmniReply -- look, I'm commenting on EVERYTHING! *g*

Ah, the issues, the issues.

RADIO SHACK MODEL 100

First of all, let me deliver a big Hell Yeah to MediaBaron on his reference to the M-100 (the -real- M100). However, I'd be interested to see how his artist friends cope with the low refresh rate of LCD screens when doing video editing. I see only two real options for hardcore graphics displays in the near future: OLED and CRT. *g*

DESKTOPS AND LAPTOPS

A laptop will never replace my desktop until there is a cheap, standard, straightforward way of upgrading it. I have not "purchased" a "new" PC since I owned my first (an AT)--it has gradually been Frankensteined into what it is now by swapping out one part at a time, as new parts became available/affordable. While the G4 laptop is sure sexy, I'd love to see someone try to swap the chip out for the next PPC. (Not a Mac comment--same goes for the sexy VAIO laptops.)
There also needs to be a much faster multi-device bus protocol. USB is great for input devices. Firewire comes close. SCSI and AGP are more what I'm thinking, and it's hard to find decent support for either in a laptop.

PDAS AND COMPUTERS

I'm going a step further than most and predicting that PDAs and computers as we know them -will- converge--eventually. When the highest-power consumer computer runs off a methanol fuel cell, fits in your pocket, and displays data on your retina, PDAs are superfluous. This convergence is, of course, two-way: authors of desktop software could learn a lot from playing with a Palm. (i.e. software should start instantly, UIs should be uncluttered, etc.)

SOLAR POWER

As a resident of Phoenix (hello Tucson Sailors!) my first thought when I bought my VDX was to built a solar-power Springboard. However, Handspring specifically warns developers away from trying to feed power back in through the Vcc lines, which are probably heavily buffered. What's more, the VDX doesn't even have a power-in pin on the cradle port, so a solar accessory would have to replace/augment the battery door. Which is fine. I'd love to have a combination solar-cell/glare-reducing-screen-shade for when I'm editing documents in the sun. (Hm...I'll work on that.)


Okay, I'm done.

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Kona, Hawaii ,USA
Posts: 40

My goodness, what a list

Hmm where should I start.

My old M100 was pretty trustworthy, I made hundreds of dollars on mine writing magazine reviews of software products, it more than paid for itself when I owned it, I couldn't afford the big, heavy, clunky PC laptops at the time that ran about 1 hour on a battery charge if you were lucky.

Yes, professional digital video can be easily edited on a Macintosh PowerBook laptop, I can't speak for the Windows laptops but for PowerBooks it's no sweat. Since Final Cut Pro came out the portable editing studio has really come to life. Just visit:
http://www.lafcpug.org/
and
http://digitalfilmmaker.net/

At the second link you'll see a report done at the recent NAB with a bunch of video shot on miniDV and edited on Final Cut Pro on a laptop (an older G3/500 laptop). It's great to use Firewire and a pain to use SCSI (which is very expensive, a pain to play with 50 pin cables, scsi addresses and termination voodoo). That's the beauty of digital video over analog, you don't need a super-duper fast SCSI drive to capture video. I've captured perfect digital video to my Firewire drives without any dropped frames, no wonder I sold my analog card. The newer Firewire bridgeboards out now have even faster throughput, over twice the speed needed for digital capture so it's overkill for that but still nice for file transfers. The refresh rate on the PowerBook is great, the non-linear editing on a PowerBook is superb.

Watch this video to see what can be done on a laptop, at least an Apple laptop: http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/powerbook_g4-2.html

No upgrades? Hmmmm, I bought a G3/233MHz PowerBook a few years ago with a paltry 2GB hard drive. I put a G3/466MHz processor card in it, 256MB of RAM and a 12GB hard drive in it all with no more than a phillips screwdriver and removing three screws. Wasn't hard at all. Oh yeah, I'm also typing this via an 11Mbps wireless LAN. Seems pretty upgraded to me.

Also when I'm on the road and need to transmit images from a golf course back to the AP it's much nicer to not have to haul my desktop computer around along with my camera gear, actually my desktop is only a G3/333MHz so my laptop is faster.

When folks ask my advice on whether they should get a laptop or desktop it's true I tell them that you'll always get more bang for your buck with a desktop. But if you MUST travel or have some kind of space limitation then a laptop is great. The PowerBook G4/500 rocks as a computer.

Oh and I guess we're supposed to be talking about PDAs here. My Handspring Visor has a GPS unit that I power via a car adaptor plug clipped into the bottom of the Visor at the Hotysync port, works great. I think there was a report online about a journalist that sneaked into the warzone in the Balkans with a PDA and filed some reports from there. Apparently he slipped through the 'no journalists' ban since he wasn't carrying a laptop, just his PDA unit.

I'm going to be doing some tests to transmit photos via Handspring Visor and cellphone to see if it can be done and if so I may leave even the laptop home at times.

Laters,
Baron

__________________
"Real intelligence is a creative use of knowledge, not merely an accumulation of facts." -- D. Kenneth Winebrenner

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 16

Well, my point was not that you -couldn't- upgrade, it was that your system is guaranteed to be obsolete pretty soon. Yes, you can put a new G4 in, but what about the MegaGroovy5 (or equivalent followup)? *g* And how do you increase the screen resolution? The answers on a desktop machine: 1. buy a new motherboard ($100-200) and 2. buy a new video card (<$100). On a laptop...buy a new laptop ($boucoup). (Once again, I do not discriminate between Apple and PC. :-)

As for PDAs, we're having the same issues with the Visor, thanks to Handspring's cost-cutting (*ahem*ROM*ahem*)

Anyway, this is getting tres off-topic. *g*

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Metro Station, Hollywood and Highland
Posts: 1018

Re: My goodness, what a list

quote:

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Originally posted by MediaBaron
I think there was a report online about a journalist that sneaked into the warzone in the Balkans with a PDA and filed some reports from there. Apparently he slipped through the 'no journalists' ban since he wasn't carrying a laptop, just his PDA unit.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Kona, Hawaii ,USA
Posts: 40

Good call!

Good call Gameboy70 on the story about the PDA Journalist.

Yes, my M100 had four 32K RAM banks so I could 'back-up' my data from the main memory bank I was working on. I even slapped an RJ11 connector box on the bottom of a M100 so it would have a native RJ11 jack for telephones, also made a nice incline stand.

I think a Targus keyboard for my Visor would be pretty nice seeing as how heavy my laptop seems to get all the time.

Also for M100 owners, wasn't there a product advertised in the M100 magazine that got rid of scratches on the plastic screen? Might be good for PDAs today but might also be too harsh. I think it was like rubbing compound that had several grits, the final one was like toothpaste to bring the screen back to its smooth and shiny glory. I also remember folks just using toothpaste to get rid of some screen scratches.

__________________
"Real intelligence is a creative use of knowledge, not merely an accumulation of facts." -- D. Kenneth Winebrenner

Registered: May 2001
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 101

quote:

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I have been considering the unit as a potential spousal replacement.
When is the new Get-Me-Another-Beer MMC module coming out?

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I didn't know that "low brows" could successfully interact with new technology.

__________________
www.studio1809.com
P.S. I feel at home with geeks like you.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

quote:

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Originally posted by PastaGrrrl

I didn't know that "low brows" could successfully interact with new technology.

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__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Last edited by dick-richardson on 06-10-2001 at 07:31 PM

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 501

Dick -- off topic, but your new Avatar is ****ing hilarious! Bravo!!

__________________
Jeff Meyer

"And he died like he lived: with his mouth wide open."

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

quote:

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Originally posted by bookrats
Dick -- off topic, but your new Avatar is ****ing hilarious! Bravo!!

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I missed this. Thanks.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.