Laptop advice needed for editing AVCHD

[Erkybaby]

Hi All

I'm looking to purchase a new laptop for editing footage from my Sony TG3.
I also need to use it to edit pictures from my Nikon D90.
I have been looking at the new 17" Macbook Pro as a fair few people have recommended I go for a Mac. I have a budget of £2000.
Do you think the Macbook Pro will do the job or should I be looking for a windows based laptop like a Rock, Alienware or Dell XPS?
Any advice would be great and much appreciated.

[RenaultSport]

Both would do as you have the likes of Final Cut Pro on the mac and Sony Vegas/Adobe Premier etc on the pc all of which will handle the AVCHD format the sony camera uses.

[tony79]

Macbook Pros will be more than capable of editing avchd (imported under a pro res codec in final cut). I'm able to edit with no problems on my imac (roughly similarly specced). Question is, whether you really need the extra 2 inch of screen or not as the new 17"'ers have none removable batteries which may or may not influence your decision. I've not played with a really powerful pc laptop with avchd so cant comment on their performance. But I must say, since I got the mac my old pc has been gathering dust and I will not be going back to a windows based machine again.

[A n d r e w]

Any Intel Mac will do the job. I edit HD video on a 2 GHz 2Gb Mac mini.

There is no "native" AVCHD editing on Apple software (iMovie, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro / Studio). Apple's editing applications "transcode" AVCHD using the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC: only Final Cut Pro uses the Pro Res codec) which makes editing HD much less processor-intensive than editing native AVCHD on a PC.

For a list of supported camcorders for iMovie, for example, check here: iMovie '09: Camcorder Support (actually, it lists the TG1, which is the US model number for the same camcorder).

Andrew.

[Erkybaby]

Thanks guys, I will go for the 17" Mac Book Pro and get Final Cut Express