[dexterq20]

Grabbed a GoPro HD camera last month and have since learned that my $500 Acer laptop is not up to the task of video editing, even though it's only 6 months old. I'm looking into getting a more powerful computer that is capable of editing my GoPro footage, but I really have no clue what I need. My budget is about $1000, and I'm looking at either a Dell Studio Series laptop or an iMac. Are these decent choices, and will they meet my video editing needs? What do I need to know about both of these computers? Anything else I should consider?

FWIW, I don't plan on making any feature-length movies. So far I've just attempted short 3-minute edits, and I've been using Cyberlink Power Director for editing (great program).

 

[kidwoo]

Any current i7 processor build with some ram will be able to handle gopro footage from a hardware standpoint. What you're going to run into though is that the compression format of the gopro files fvcking suck. I couldn't even look at, much less edit the things until I got a copy of mpeg streamclip and downloaded a bunch of codecs from a k-lite codec pack (both free). Now I can edit them no problem without even converting them for some reason but at first I couldn't. And my computer exists primarily for editing.

 

[dexterq20]

1. From what I can tell, the i7 processors are out of my price range. Is this going to be a problem?

2. I don't know what mpeg streamclips and k-lite codec packs are, where to get them, or what to do with them. (Sorry for my computer ignorance.)

On my current (slow) computer (2.1 ghz dual core processor, 4mb RAM), the GoPro files play just fine when watching the raw footage in Quicktime or Windows Media Player, but when I open Power Director to start editing, the program runs very slowly, crashes about every 10 minutes, and is very reluctant to play previews of my video. I'm assuming this is due to the fact that it's a very basic laptop without a dedicated video card. Am I mistaken?

 

[stringcheese]

Whatever you get, make sure it uses DDR3 ram so that it doesn't get stuck in the past. A fast hard drive (7200 rpm) would help for saving/accessing large files quicker. A decent processor is necessary too, it doesn't have to be the i7 or i5 but any dual core that's not a centrino would suffice. Oh and some kind of dedicated graphics hardware is pretty important, especially if you skimp on the processor.

 

[dante]

Any way you can go for a desktop instead of a laptop? The power per price is usually better, and you can get a pretty screaming desktop for a grand. Like this, although it seems like it only works with HDMI? Or this one?

Just a thought.