wanted: Edius HDV workflow tutorial for dummies...

OK, finally got my new camera wet over the weekend and have started playing around with Edius 4. I think I got the hang of creating DV quality projects with basic transitions, color adjustments, and music tracks.

Capturing - I'm not sure if I've figured out how to do this directly from Edius. For the time being, I am using the Sony provided software to capture the clips into m2t native files to my HDD and then using Canopus Procoder to convert to DV. If I try to use Edius and set the capture to HDV input, it seems to play a few seconds and then stop... Is this a case of my computer just not having enough muscle to convert HDV on the fly? Premiere Pro 2 doesn't seem to have this problem. Yes, a total PC upgrade is in the works (Core2Duo E6600 or AMD Equivalent, etc...).

Now back to Procoder for Edius. If want to creat HDV output, then I should convert my clips to Canopus HQ codec for editing, right? When I try this, it appears that the captured video is now in 4:3 instead of widescreen when I add the clip in Edius... Maybe I'm missing something in the setup...

Also - compression/ file types... For the better quality fles for possible online distribution, which one to use? I was looking at the DiveFilm HD clips and was floored that those 480p quality files were only 100-200MB each. Were these using mp4 codecs?

thanks,

Current system: AMD A64 3200+, 1GB DDR400, ATI Radeon 9800 pro, 3 SATA HDD's.

EDIUS is a very strange program to use as first but it does not take long to get the hang of it.

Go here for a look and if you still having problems please make a post here and we can help you out.

This is were I picked up most things.

Happy learning

http://ediustraining.grassvalley.com/

and here

http://www.canopus.com/support/tutorials/EDIUS.php

Thought I would add abit more to help.

With capturing you can use EDIUS itself or use DV capture or MPEG capture which are programs that run outside of EDIUS.

You can edit in DV or raw HDV (m2t) or convert the m2t as it comes in to Canopus HQ codec for easier editing.

To convert to the Canopus HQ in realtime you need a P4 (3GIG) or better.

If not you can convert the m2t later after caputure to the Canopus HQ codec with procoder express.

With Prem Pro and Aspect HD my PC could not convert to the special HD codec's on the fly but with EDIUS it can.

If you are opening the Canopus HQ file on the timeline and it looks 4.3, then you may have a 4.3 timeline open Open a HDV or DV 16.9 one.

Windows media player will play the HQ file as 4.3 as microsoft has not yet programed wmp on how to display Canopus HQ files yet.

Yes HD online files are big but you can make them smaller if you want.

thanks Wags for the link... gotta a lot of reading to do tonite...

I thought I would add some extra helpful tips as I find them.

1. There are a few ways to zoom in and out of the timeline but here is one that I like.

Hold the Ctrl key down and scroll your mouse wheel...your timeline will zoom in and out

2. To move a heap of clips along the timeline hold the Shift & Alt key and click on a clip. All clips to the right of that can be moved along on all tracks.

3. To make a 4.3 clip fit in a HDV or 16.9 timline, just click on the 4.3 clip and hit F7, then on the presets dropdown pick, Fit to Width and bingo. If you add a sharpness filter to 20% it will make it better. If you are out to normal DVD, this way works really well.

Anyone with anymore?