I'm travelling for five months with a high-def camcorder. I want to take an ultraportable laptop with me so that I can store/edit some footage as I go.
Gareth Weetman
Most netbooks aren't powerful enough to play HD footage reliably, let alone edit it, but you could still use one for backing up files. The Samsung NC10 and similar machines have 160GB hard drives, and you could also carry an external hard drive: choose one specifically designed for portability.
The sort of thing you'd need for editing on the move would have an HD screen, a dual-core processor, a FireWire port and, ideally, a Blu-ray drive, which is needed to burn HD to DVD discs at full quality. I don't think there are any of those around, but the Sony VAIO VGN-CS11Z/R (where /R indicates bright red), VGN-CS21Z/Q, VGN-CS25X and VGN-AW21M/H come closer than most. The CS25X has a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB or 4GB of memory and Blu-ray drive at a relatively light 2.5kg, but the 14.1-inch screen only has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. The AW21M has an 18.4-inch 1680 x 945 widescreen for around £1,100 but is nobody's idea of an ultraportable. Someone with a PhD in Sony model numbering schemes may find something more suitable.
Instead, store your movie files on a smaller, cheaper laptop or netbook until you get home, then edit them in HD on a desktop PC with a quad-core processor, 4GB or more memory, and 64-bit Windows Vista or Windows 7 for less than the cost of a comparable laptop. Either way, maintaining full HD quality from camcorder to HDTV set can still be something of a challenge.
