Do I need to have a specific video card for editing HDV? I tried to dump some HDV tape from my FX7 onto my laptop and it mentions something about my videocard. If this is the issue, how can I find out what kind of video card I have?

If you're using Windows, Device Manager should be able to tell you.

You should go to the website of your NLE to find the minimum card they recommend.

Adam is basically correct but I'll say this..

#1) IF you are trying edit on your laptop, there will be no option to "upgrade" the video card in this.

#2) I am aware of no NLE video editing software that reccomends or requires s certain level of video card to playback HDV. Just about any card *should* do it just fine. With that said, the 8600GT/GTS series of video cards from NVidia are fine overall video processing cards and have lots of hardware assisted playback features to ease the burden on your CPU.

Jon