On Tue, 06 May 2008 23:28:42 +0200, Jay Truesdale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

So after lurking here for a while, I've decided to take the plunge and go
linux.  With the status of Ubuntu 8.04, I'd like to try and set up a
Cinelerra (and eventually Lumiera) edit system.  I have an aging XP  Avid
system at home and a FCP system at work.  The trouble I that I don't have
a clue about linux.

 Then I suggest you try it out with a Linux live CD (boot and run
straight from a CD, without installing) before committing yourself.
It may make you aware of specific problems that would be showstoppers
for you.

I'm wondering if there is anyone on the list who
might be willing to help advise me on what purchases would be best.  I
know there is a lot of tweaking that may be needed to get a system to
work.  My next computer has to be a laptop (I've got a teaching job) and
it will have to be dual-boot windows.  My concerns right now are: AMD
(Turon TL-60) vs Intel chips  And Nvidia vs ATI graphics.  My budget is
capped at $600, here are three models I am looking at:

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/5585790  (Toshiba)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8776149&type=product&id=1204332255236
(HP)
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/101500/HP-Pavilion-dv6810us-Widescreen-Notebook-Computer/

Any suggestions would be welcome.

 I'm not deeply into the details and performance of current hardware,
so I can only offer some general info.

 The hardware you suggest has fast enough CPU and enough RAM to run
Cinelerra and play one HD video track (HDV, for example).  For HD,
I think the both RAM and graphics I/O will be a too narrow bottleneck,
so it will probably be a bit unresponsive, and drop frames. (the L2
cache is too small for a single HD frame of video)

 Each of the two CPU cores should be more than fast enough to decode
a DV video stream.  But I am not confident that compositing two tracks
of DV will work without frame drops, especially around edits.

 My experience is that Cinelerra benefits more from fast I/O, which
the large L2 caches, fat buses and fast drives on beefy workstations
provide.  Laptops don't have that.  Using Cinelerra's OpenGL display
driver can help quite a bit, in some cases (if you get it to work
with your GFX chipset)

 Cinelerra's UI gets annoying if your screen is less than 1024 pixels
tall, unless you have an extra screen.  The four windows fit snugly
on a 1600x1200 screen, if you only have three tracks on the timeline.
And three tracks is the minimal usecase; video plus stereo sound.
If your laptop supports dual-screen, go for it!

--
Herman Robak

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