As an early adopter I'm a technology companies dream, I always want the most up to date gadget be it a camera, TV, PC, mobile phone, camcorder, car, well anything really. But in my old age I'm getting a bit more savvy. I only bought a BluRay this year, well I think that was a measure of constraint and even then it was the WiFi features that sold me on it. Admittedly I was waiting for the war between HD and BluRay formats to be fought out. Now I've also decided it's time to look at a HD Camcorder. And the model I'm looking at is the Panasonic TM300 even though the new TM700 is due to go on sale, what self-control!
But a HD camcorder causes some terrible problems, it's the knock on effects. To watch HD you need an HD TV, well I've got one, it's a lovely Pioneer plasma but it's also 6 years old and I can hear a Samsung 46 inch Series 8 LED calling me. I'll need a BluyRay player well that's okay I've got a new shiny LG, but I'll also need to be able to write to BluRay so I'll need one of them to put in my PC. But luckily since I've waited it out I have other options like I could instead write my productions to a hard drive that I can connect to my BluRay player by USB so that will save me there. But the real trouble comes with editing and creating these marvellous productions. Well I have Premier and After Effect CS4 and because I've waited it out and the standard format for HD recordings in AVCHD I should be okay with Premier, so that's sorted (I hope). The problem is the power required in a PC to be able to process HD video. My PC is about 2 years old, a Dell HPS720, with quad processors and 8gb of RAM. I've updated the Windows XP pro to Vista 64bit and also Windows 7 professional 64bit, but will this be enough, I suspect not. Last year I bought my wife an Apple Mac which has iMovie 09 so maybe that can do the job. I hear so many with HD video saying they use Macs.
But I fear that, no, it may be time to have to look at a new PC. Something with the new Intel Core i7 Processor, Windows 7 64 bit, plenty of RAM and loads of fast HDD. My last few PCs have all been Dells, so naturally I've looked at the XPS 8100 with the Intel Core i7 Processor 870 or do I need to look at the Dell Alienware (what an ugly machine) with an Intel Core i7 950 processor? But that looks very expensive. Maybe I should look at something else, a friend in the technology business suggested the best PCs are the HP models but which one? Maybe I should contact some of the companies selling Adobe and video editing solutions for a suggestion?
On the other hand it might be easier not to bother with an HD camcorder! I doubt though I have that much self control!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luQubVABroQ