Which softwear to get.

G-day all, I have just bought A Sony HDR-SR12 E (120 GIG)

I'm looking to use a software editing program that will help me import from camera to software / edit/ burn to DVD, I don't want to lose the HD quality as I'm hoping to Burn and watch it on my HD TV.I managed to use the HD Camera with my HD TV using a HDMI cable, I was very imprest with the results...Now can anyone help with the software?

PS I have been reading up on the Sony Vegas Pro 8.

Cheers Tony

Hi Tony

AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) is very very hard codec to edit even with a super ooper duper computer.... so you have three options.

1. Convert the AVCHD files to an intermediate codec for easier high quality preview realtime editing without any quality loss however this will take quite abit of time. Using my 3.2 Ghz Quad here it takes like 10 mins to convert 10 mins of AVCHD.

2. Edit with Vegas but be warned you can only get a very low draft quality preview as you edit and you will be limited to just very basic edits in realtime.

3. Do very basic edits in camera.

You can make a Blu_Ray or HD DVD but you need to make sure your lounge room HD player you buy can play home made burn't disks..... Not all can...

Another way is to get a HD player that can play other HD codec's like wmv, m2t, H.264 on normal DVD-r disks.

Or yet again is have one of these http://www.z500series.com/ and you can send the signal to it from your computer and watch.

1. Convert the AVCHD files to an intermediate codec for easier high quality preview realtime editing without any quality loss however this will take quite abit of time. Using my 3.2 Ghz Quad here it takes like 10 mins to convert 10 mins of AVCHD.

Hi wagsy

What do mean by this , this talk is all to new to me , all I like to do is copy to dvd and watch it on my TV, is there a better/easyer softwear programe you can recommend?

mmmmm..maybe you should just buy a lounge room type DVD recorder and feed the camera signal straight to it and record to a DVD that way?

If you download the FREE Super@ encoder http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html you can feed you raw AVCHD files to it and it can encode out DVD spec MPEG 2 files.

Then use those files in any normal DVD making program to make a normal DVD.

http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/te4xp.html can convert the AVCHD files to a DVD spec file as well.

If you use Vegas you can render out DVD's as well but you will not be doing any fancy editing with that AVCHD codec.

The 1920/1080 - 130mbps ish video signal that the camera shoots is heavily compressed down to just a 16Mbps AVCHD signal/file and dumped to the camera's hard drive.

Converting that AVCHD/file to an intermediate codec/format is like converting it to a better editing - less compressed format that is very easy to edit without any loss in quality but the files will be much larger in size.

What if I shoot the film in HD , would I be able to change format using Vegas Pro 8 to burn to Blu-ray disc?

This is so confusing wagsy!

Is there softwear that will do all, or would I need to buy more than one softwear?

ps What would you use/do if you were new to this and in my shoes??????

This is so confusing wagsy! ...What would you use/do if you were new to this and in my shoes??????

As a fellow newbie.. I totally agree... This is all new stuff to me too.. and is confusing.

I've been reading the various threads here in Wetpixel for a few months and its just now finally starting to gel in my thick skull how all this post production stuff relates and works.

I think "Wags" should write a book "HD Video from shooting through Burning for Non-Pro Dummies".

I'd be the first to buy it.

I agree, HD Videoing shooting is hard to learn, wish I had someone here to show me rather than trying to understand step by step (I feel stupid asking basic questions)

Wags shore knows he stuff when it comes to HD Video shooting!

mmm i think you guys need a program that you put your AVCHD file into, push a button and it makes a DVD or Bluray.

I'll do some resaerch and see what i can find for your guys.

Maybe I can make some video tuitions like this.

http://www.hdvunderwater.com/blue/blue.htm

The best way to learn is to read and tinker with the programs.

I am forever downloading programs to try.

A real good site that you can find a ton of info from is http://www.videohelp.com/hd

http://forum.videohelp.com/topic330400.html

More soon.

Great links wagsy,

do you know much about this one!

Express Burn Burning Software, it is free to download.

Tony

Let's first get one thing straight... you want to have HD playback on your HDTV, correct? If so, you also have to consider the hardware you'll need. You have a few options:

1. Buy a Blu-Ray player and a separate burner to connect to your PC. AVCHD plays directly in BluRay so you can just use the editing software that came with the camera to edit your clips. This is especially the easiest way if you want to do basic editing. Then use some sort of burner software like Toast, Encore or Nero to burn to your BluRay burner and playback on your Blu Ray player.

2. Buy a Blu-Ray player, edit with your included NLE software and burn normal DVD discs with your existing hardware. This method isn't full HD but it'll look better than normal DVD discs. Here is a link on how to do that:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24347

Your normal DVD player may play those discs if it supports H264. I'd burn one and try it first before buying the Blu-Ray player.

3. Buy a Blu-Ray player and the Sony DVDirect VRDMC5 burner. This burner connects straight to your camera and copies the files to a normal DVD. This DVD will not play on standard players but a BR player can play it. You can't edit but it's quick and painless.

Good luck

Yes you can dump the raw files to a Blu_Ray disk with that software but you are very limited in what yo can do.

There are software burning programs like "Express Burn Burning Software", popping up all over the place that can burn data to a Blu_Ray disk.

I would do some test burns and take to the shop and try before you buy a player.

Another thing to watch out for is the brand name of disks you are using. Just because it's a blank Blu_Ray disk does not mean it will burn/play in your Blu_Ray player.

I have some Ritek Blu_Ray disks here that my burner cannot burn too and some blank DVD disks that refuse to work in my Sony DVD player.

Another cheap option is to just plug your laptop/computer into you HDTV if you have VGA, DVI HDMI out. That's what we do here with our HD projector...just play the files from the hardrive.

It's pretty cool surfing the net on a 100 inch screen and watching HD clips is great. If you have laptop with a Blu_Ray player in it you can watch Blu_Ray moves as well and that Image Constraint Token (ICT), a electronic flag that throttles playback to low resolutions if HDCP is not present can be by passed pretty easy if you are using a analog-VGA connection.

You guys should download Sony Vegas 30 day trail and see if you can work with it.

Yes you can dump the raw files to a Blu_Ray disk with that software but you are very limited in what yo can do.

There are software burning programs like "Express Burn Burning Software", popping up all over the place that can burn data to a Blu_Ray disk.

I would do some test burns and take to the shop and try before you buy a player.

Another thing to watch out for is the brand name of disks you are using. Just because it's a blank Blu_Ray disk does not mean it will burn/play in your Blu_Ray player.

I have some Ritek Blu_Ray disks here that my burner cannot burn too and some blank DVD disks that refuse to work in my Sony DVD player.

Another cheap option is to just plug your laptop/computer into you HDTV if you have VGA, DVI HDMI out. That's what we do here with our HD projector...just play the files from the hardrive.

It's pretty cool surfing the net on a 100 inch screen and watching HD clips is great. If you have laptop with a Blu_Ray player in it you can watch Blu_Ray moves as well and that Image Constraint Token (ICT), a electronic flag that throttles playback to low resolutions if HDCP is not present can be by passed pretty easy if you are using a analog-VGA connection.

You guys should download Sony Vegas 30 day trail and see if you can work with it.

Hey wagsyI just downloaded Sony Vegas Pro 8, one word WOW there shore is a lot of stuff you can do with this edit softwear, but still need something like Sony Achiteck Pro 4.5 to burn DVD (HD STUFF).

Anyone out there know how to use the softwear, I geuss I can play around to see what happens , but better if you can help me !

Oh yer, I see you can buy a Blu-ray DVD burner (external) for a laptop, just had a chat to one of the guys at Good Guys store.

Well the first thing I would do is open up Vegas and dump a file from your camera to the timeline and see if it will edit smoothly.

More about having a Blu_Ray on a normal DVD-r disk.....

The mini Blu_Ray I made also played on the VISTA laptop dvd drive however it came up with this graphics card is not compatable to play HD Blu_Rays on.

So I navigated to the video file on the Blu_Ray-DVD-r itself and it played fine, out the VGA port and into the HD projector....looked great.

I used both Power DVD 8 and also the free Media Player Classic software player to play the file.

I then tried some raw AVCHD files and used the free Media Player Classic software player to play and they too beem straight out from the LAPTOP to the HD projector via a VGA conection.

So an option is to dump you camera's raw AVCHD files to a normal DVD-r disk and use Media Player Classic or Power DVD 8 to play them from your laptop/computer and out to you HDTV from normal DVD-r disk.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/?abmode=1

This way you don't even need a $$ Blu_Ray player and Disks.

Well the first thing I would do is open up Vegas and dump a file from your camera to the timeline and see if it will edit smoothly.

 

 

Hey wagsy, the only way I can import from camera is to !

1. Import to the supplyed picture motion browser that came with the camera

2. Open Sony Vegas Pro 8 then click file /import /media find the clip and dump to the time line .

3 The clip does seem to play very slow.

 

I see that the picture motion browser also is slow direct from camera import, so your wright wagsy not so smooth.

 

i,m stuffed not knowing what to do.

Yep...the AVCHD format that is used in these hard drive camera's is more about compressing data into less space than as a better quality format other wise they would of made it 25mbps like HDV m2t or even used 25mbps HDV MPEG2.

I cannot imagine what 25 mbps AVCHD would be like to try and edit.

In Vegas look for your preview settings and set it to low Draft and it should play better however your editing window will be very low res image and it defaults the image to a 720/540 image.

Also look for the Cineform intermediate codec in Vegas there, with it you can convert the AVCHD codec to the Cineform AVI one and then it will be very easy to edit in realtime.

However the whole point of hard drive cameras was to be able to get it into your computer to edit faster.....well if you have to convert it to an intermediate codec first then it will take you longer than importing from a normal HDV tape camera.

You are on the right track though, play with Vegas abit to see how it works.