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Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slideshows

Talk about computer software/hardware problems, related to digital video or otherwise.

Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slideshows

Postby videolady » Sun Aug 11, 2019 6:09 pm

I have been away from MuviPix for 8 months and away from ‘video editing’ for over 2 years. Now, I want to get back into it and am looking for advice for a new laptop (yes, I decided a laptop) and the right software.
My projects are really mostly photos, rather than video, and they are often around 40 minutes in length. I wonder if the large number of photos per project is more demanding for the laptop than video clips (?). I’d like to jump on a good deal I think is out there right now with kids going back to school. I live in Canada and best Buy has these offers:
Are any of these any good?
ASUS Vivo Book: i5 – 8265U processor, 15.6” screen, 8GB RAM, 256 GB SSD--$700 Can $
ASUS ScreenPad 2.0: i5 – 8265U processor, 15.6” screen, 8GB RAM, 512 GB SSD--$900 Can $
Microscoft Surface Laptop 2: i5 processor, 13.5” screen, 8GB RAM, 256 GB SSD--$1300 Can $. Plus pen and mouse--$180 can
Software Advice:
Then for software, I would like to get Adobe Photoshop Elements/Premier Elements as I worked with that in the past but is Premier Elements necessary for my ‘glorified slideshow’ of photos? Is tere better software for my typical projects?
I’m open to other suggestions, as well. I heard Dell may also have something good for my need.
Thank you,
Karen
(Aka Videolady)
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Re: Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slidesh

Postby Steve Grisetti » Mon Aug 12, 2019 6:45 am

Welcome back, Karen!

You don't say how you're going to display your slideshows -- but, if you plan to create DVDs of your slideshow then yes, you will need Premiere Elements.

But if you're going to show your slideshows on your computer, YouTube or using a projector attached to your computer, you can get by with just Photoshop Elements.

The slideshow creator is built into the Organizer, which comes with both Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements. And it's a nice little slideshow maker. Makes nice looking movies using good looking templates. Here's a demo of it.




On the other hand, if you just want to make slideshows and maybe burn them as DVDs and you don't have much use for the other Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements tools, you might want to go with ProShow Gold instead. The Premium version sells for about $70, and it's easy to use, low maintenance and it produces excellent results. Many Muvipixers are long-time fans.
http://www.photodex.com/proshow/gold
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Re: Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slidesh

Postby sidd finch » Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:50 am

I don't think the Microsoft Surface will be powerful enough to do what you want. Not sure if that is a surface pro or not.

You might check out something like a Dell G3 which has a good processor 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8750H Processor and a NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 with Max-Q Design video card. The price is approx 900 USD. Or, the Lenovo Z-Book series.

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Re: Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slidesh

Postby videolady » Mon Aug 26, 2019 2:24 pm

Thanks for the 'welcome back', Steve! I looked into (and considered) Pro Show Gold but was unsure about learning new software as well as reading some reports with customer service trouble, even though it seems to have been resolved. I found a sale with PS/PE 2019 here in Canada so I went with what I am somewhat familiar with!

Now, to get a new laptop...

Thx Again,
Karen
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Re: Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slidesh

Postby videolady » Fri Aug 30, 2019 6:56 am

sidd finch wrote:I don't think the Microsoft Surface will be powerful enough to do what you want. Not sure if that is a surface pro or not.

You might check out something like a Dell G3 which has a good processor 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8750H Processor and a NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 with Max-Q Design video card. The price is approx 900 USD. Or, the Lenovo Z-Book series.

Sidd

Thanks for your input, Sidd. I am leaning toward Dell .They have deals every week right now (I know,everyone does!) and I think I want to purchase a G5-15 laptop for $1,650 Cdn (about $1,240 US). I'm hoping I could get some feedback on the specs to be sure it will serve my purpose. For this price, I can't customize, so it is what it is.
16GB, 2x8GB, DDR4, 2666MHz - I have seen DDR6's in other machines and don't know if this would impact me.
256GB M.2 PCle NvMe SSD +1TB 5400rpm 2.5" SATA HDD - I have read that 7200rpm is much better so also don't know how this will impact me.
NVIDIA(R) GeForce RTX(TM) 2060 6GB GDDR6 - Hope this will be good with PS/PE 2019.
8th Generation Intel Core i7-9750H (12MB cache, up to 4.5GHz, 6 cores) - ok?
It also comes with McAffee LiveSafe Consumer for 1 year. Is this good or should I get something else? I have always used AVG Free, but not sure if that's still as good as it used to be.

I appreciate any input on this since it is a big purchase!!

Thx!

Karen
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Re: Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slidesh

Postby Peru » Fri Aug 30, 2019 9:23 am

videolady wrote:256GB M.2 PCle NvMe SSD


You want at least 512 GB. With the increasing size of Windows updates, you may end up short of space on the system drive.
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Re: Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slidesh

Postby videolady » Fri Aug 30, 2019 9:39 am

With Dell, I seem to only see 2 options for appropriate (gaming) laptops on sale, either 256GB SSD +1TB HDD OR 512GB SSD only. Suggestions?
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Re: Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slidesh

Postby sidd finch » Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:04 pm

I think you made a pretty god choice. Upgrading the M.2 PCle NvMe SSD down the road is something to think about. Right now Amazon has the Samsung EVO for 169 USD. I replaced mine and it is not too difficult if you feel comfortable doing that kind of thing.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-EVO- ... 8679679237

I would also suggest that instead of the 7200 rpm drive you might consider a SSD drive. This will keep everything really fast. The G5 also has a really good Graphics Card too. If you are using Adobe products you can google how to make the graphics an accepted card on Adobe's list.

Sidd
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Re: Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slidesh

Postby videolady » Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:23 pm

I am certainly not comfortable doing that myself so hopefully, down the road, I can find something on sale again and have someone change it for me!

Thanks for your input. I think I'll order today.

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Re: Right Software and Right Laptop for My Glorified Slidesh

Postby sidd finch » Fri Aug 30, 2019 2:37 pm

That's OK. From my perspective I would rank the priority as:

1. The 512 M.2 PCle NvMe SSD
2. 7200 RPM drive or
3. SSD drive

This is exciting.... Hope all goes well.

Sidd
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