Suggestions for Receiving Computers 720p HD

We are starting testing hoping to move from using Slingboxes to using the official broadcast system through a Teradek VidiU encoder. In testing, we have found that anything less than the HD setting and receiving at 2.1 Mbps produces very poor video quality. None of our stake's laptops have quad core processors, so we are now looking for three new laptops. We are hoping to spend less than $750 each and it would be great if they could serve us for the next five years or so.

Has anyone done testing on different processors and determined what a minimum processor generation and speed might be? I was hoping we would get some recommended models from the official testing done by the webcasting team, but all it says is "quad core."

I'm happy to hear any anecdotes as well. We have a conference on November 8th and would love to have them in place for that conference.

I haven't even started to use the new system, so I have no suggestion there. My only suggestion is have you looked at using Personal Video Conference (PVC)? I have been using that for the last 3 years and it has never given me an issue. I still have to shut down WIFI and we have some wiring issues, but other than that we have had a good broadcast each time we have used PVC.

My 2 cents worth.

After some research on processors and comparing processors on test machines we has that worked to older processor benchmarks, we went with refurbished Dell Precision M4600 laptops for $365 each http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemn ... 6834299244

I will post back here after testing with them and again after our Stake Conference on November 8th to report how they handle receiving the stream.