IdeaPad S10E & HDV Capture

A while back I posted HD Camcorders and Silly Formats in which I mentioned the HVR-DR60 & HVR-MRC1K HDD / CF recorders for HDV camcorders. Unfortunately these are very expensive units and are far out of the budget range for the average consumer. However after posting about the Lenovo S10E it suddenly occurred to me that this netbook would make an ideal direct to disk recorder with a couple upgrades and the addition of a Firewire Expresscard. Though I have not personally tried it, this netbook should be more then capable of capturing a single HDV feed.
Lenovo IdeaPad S10E £279.99
Crucial 2GB, DDR2 PC2-5300 Memory Module £19.54
Seagate ST9320421AS 320GB Momentus 7200RPM 16MB 2.5″ HDD £63.23
Belkin USB 2.0 and FireWire ExpressCard £56.33
So for a total of £419.09 you’ve got a hard disk recorder, with the bonus of a decent size preview monitor. Obviously the recording time is limited by the battery life of the netbook, though you can get additional batteries or power it externally. Also not to forget, you’ve also got a fully functional netbook out of it too.