Test Bench:
Compaq Presario 7000Z DVD-R Turnkey Editing Computer

Stephen Muratore
Special Issue 2001

The Compaq Presario 7000Z with the MyMovieSTUDIO bundle takes its place among a new generation of computers from the big manufacturers that are designed, among other things, to edit video right out of the box. In reviewing these turnkey systems, we do not focus on the features of any specific software application, but on whether the system, as a whole, delivers on its promises: simple hookup and lack of reliance upon the user to install hardware, software or configure the system. The Presario with the MyMovieSTUDIO bundle should, among other things:

• Capture video and sound from a DV camcorder and audio from an audio CD, and enable the user to edit these into a finished video.
• Output the finished video to videotape or DVD-R disc, playable in a stand-alone DVD-Video player.

Also, it should perform some basic functions, such as rendering previews and final videos, and burning discs, at reasonably fast speeds.

Though its $3,156 price places it a notch or two above the baseline cost for home machines, the Presario's Athlon processor, Windows Me operating system and all-purpose hard drive proclaim that this is meant to be a home PC. Video editing is not its exclusive function. One more thing about that price: Compaq is now selling a very similarly equipped Presario 7000T-1.5 for only $2,129.

Did this machine fulfill all of its promises? Yes. Is it worth the money? Yes. Could it be made even easier to use? Yes.

Hooking up the Presario took 20 painless minutes. The Presario politely sports one of its FireWire jacks and two of its USB ports on the front panel. The inputs and outputs on Compaq's own cards come color-coded.

The FS940 19-inch monitor has slots on either side for hanging its standard JBL speakers, and a DC power-jack on its back to supply them with juice. Nice touch. Speaking of speakers, this system also came with a set of five additional Klipsch surround-sound speakers. This embarrassment of speakers gave us a choice whether to hook up for simple stereo, surround sound or both.

This system has no inboard DV codec for translating the incoming DV signal into a form the computer can use. Without a work-around, this would condemn us to previewing our audio and video through our camcorder's viewfinder and speaker or headphones. Here's the work-around. First, we ran one of our camera's analog video outputs to an NTSC monitor. Next, we patched the camcorder's analog audio outputs (this required an adapter) into the sound card's line input. Now we could preview video through a monitor and sound through the nice JBL or Klipsch speakers.

Our objectives were to make a short video and output it to videotape and DVD. As a sidelight, we thought we'd try also to output to video CD.

We set StudioDV to autolog and captured from a DV tape at "preview quality." The machine did this flawlessly in little more than real time, giving us a photo album of picons (picture-icons), each representing a distinct shot.

We opened Premiere, logged three clips into a batch capture list and let the machine capture them at full resolution. Again, the machine performed without a hitch, capturing our clips and delivering their picons into a bin in little more than real time.

We jumped back to StudioDV, placed three clips into the timeline, added a title over the first, and a three-second dissolve between the last two, and previewed. The machine didn't require any rendering time; it immediately showed us the preview .

Not so with Premiere, given the same clips, similar title and three-second dissolve, our 42-second movie took 57 seconds to render before we could preview it. To be fair, this would have gone much quicker had we chosen to capture in preview quality as we had in StudioDV.

Back in Studio, it was time to meet the rendering trade-off. When commanded to make our 42-second movie, it recaptured the essential footage and rendered it all at full-resolution in two minutes, 22 seconds. We had no trouble off-loading this to tape.

In Premiere, rendering the movie took only 58 seconds. Since all clips were captured at full resolution, recapturing them was unnecessary.

The end product of all this sophisticated editing was two similar 42-second movies. We chose one as a test file and proceeded to the disc-burning phase.

• Digg This!
• del.icio.us
• Technorati
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit