Greetings!
I have been doing some research for the past 3 weeks on laptops and have realized that I probably would be better off with a desktop ( the school district i'll be teaching in will give me an ibm thinkpad and i already have a Sony pcg-grz630 notebook)
I recently bought ATI's Tv Tuner USB 2.0 from Best Buy and realized that my 32mb video card and 2.4ghz pentium 4 processor is only able to watch TV and isn't fast enough to capture video without droping 50 percent of the frames .
I am looking for a desktop that will allow me to capture hours of video at the highest quality/resolution in the best format so I can edit it (not sure what software to use) and then burn it to DVD to use in class with my students. I would also like to hook it up to my digital cable and record movies on my HBO channels and HBO on demand.
I'd also like the possiblity to play a few ( maybe 3 or 4) games, such as Call of Duty etc, historical games that could be brought into the classroom for a day of entertainment and luxury.
So now for my quest. I realize it will be more cost efficient to build a computer. I dont have any experience, aside from watching a college buddy 3 years ago assemble my parts from tiger direct.
What I would like:
1. 256mb Graphics card dedicated
2. at least 200gb HD (7200rpm or higher)
3. 17-19" LCD screen with good track record of no dead pixels
4. DVD/CD Burner (not sure if dual layer is necessary and wouldn't mind if it had lightscribe like on HP's to etch in my own designs and pictures on DVD's/CD's)
5. P4 6xx series (em64t) or AMD Athlon 64 so that I can utilize the capabilities of windows xp 64 and longhorn and future apps etc, i'm assuming this is the future.
6. At least 1gb of DDR2 memory, and up to 2gig (financial reasons)
7. A case that will be VERY cool and have funcionality for firewire for digital video, usb 2.0 ports for my ati usb 2.0 tv tuner, video in/out and compatible with the above configurations, some internal uvl or lcd wouldn't hurt either
My main uses are importing TV, DVD's and VCR tapes fro tv onto my PC and want software/ability to edit them, take out commercials etc and burn high quality DVD's, internet use, music downloading, minimal gaming (3 or 4 games at most), PowerPoint presentation preparing including importing video into PP, modifying uxtheme.dll to customize the look of my PC, maybe some adobe photoshop.
I think I about covered it ... any and all advice would help as I do not want to purchase from BB/CC/CU or other major retailers who basically just supply HP's and other overpriced crap!!!
THANKS!
I have been doing some research for the past 3 weeks on laptops and have realized that I probably would be better off with a desktop ( the school district i'll be teaching in will give me an ibm thinkpad and i already have a Sony pcg-grz630 notebook)
I recently bought ATI's Tv Tuner USB 2.0 from Best Buy and realized that my 32mb video card and 2.4ghz pentium 4 processor is only able to watch TV and isn't fast enough to capture video without droping 50 percent of the frames .
I am looking for a desktop that will allow me to capture hours of video at the highest quality/resolution in the best format so I can edit it (not sure what software to use) and then burn it to DVD to use in class with my students. I would also like to hook it up to my digital cable and record movies on my HBO channels and HBO on demand.
I'd also like the possiblity to play a few ( maybe 3 or 4) games, such as Call of Duty etc, historical games that could be brought into the classroom for a day of entertainment and luxury.
So now for my quest. I realize it will be more cost efficient to build a computer. I dont have any experience, aside from watching a college buddy 3 years ago assemble my parts from tiger direct.
What I would like:
1. 256mb Graphics card dedicated
2. at least 200gb HD (7200rpm or higher)
3. 17-19" LCD screen with good track record of no dead pixels
4. DVD/CD Burner (not sure if dual layer is necessary and wouldn't mind if it had lightscribe like on HP's to etch in my own designs and pictures on DVD's/CD's)
5. P4 6xx series (em64t) or AMD Athlon 64 so that I can utilize the capabilities of windows xp 64 and longhorn and future apps etc, i'm assuming this is the future.
6. At least 1gb of DDR2 memory, and up to 2gig (financial reasons)
7. A case that will be VERY cool and have funcionality for firewire for digital video, usb 2.0 ports for my ati usb 2.0 tv tuner, video in/out and compatible with the above configurations, some internal uvl or lcd wouldn't hurt either
My main uses are importing TV, DVD's and VCR tapes fro tv onto my PC and want software/ability to edit them, take out commercials etc and burn high quality DVD's, internet use, music downloading, minimal gaming (3 or 4 games at most), PowerPoint presentation preparing including importing video into PP, modifying uxtheme.dll to customize the look of my PC, maybe some adobe photoshop.
I think I about covered it ... any and all advice would help as I do not want to purchase from BB/CC/CU or other major retailers who basically just supply HP's and other overpriced crap!!!
THANKS!