Canon HF20 / HF200 Official Owner's Thread - Page 15

Thanks Edgecrusher, I got it. So simple.....

Thanks for that info. I am not a fan of touch screen LCD's especially ones on camcorders. Now, if I was to purcahse the HF200, what software suite out there can edit / process AVCHD files? I installed Adobe Premiere Elements 8 and it would crash every time I drop an AVCHD file into the timeline. Tried to download Vegas Suite as well but all download links are broken on their website. Any one have a good recommendation?

Bow I would just read threw this thread. Some people like this and some people like that. I didnt like Vegas because I felt simple things were difficult to do. All these programs will have a learning curve to them. I would download trials of programs and play around with them. You may find one program does one thing better than the other and you might end up using both. Its really all trial and error and works best for you. We could all recomend something but in the end its what works for you. Theres alot of great suggestions in this thread just take your time and explore all your oppertunities.

Unfortunately, as I stated, Premiere Elements 8 crashes when I throw an AVCHD file in the timeline and all Vegas studio download links have been down for a few days. Both do not look promising at all. So I was wondering is there a comparable suite out there?

bowmah, I just googled "Sony Vegas Platinum" and found multiple working download links immediately. Try it again.

Hi everyone -- my first post; I'm new to the group and have lurking through a whole bunch of issues that y'all have done a great job of chewing over... very helpful, as I get to know my HF20.

I've also been evaluating software which claims to handle AVCHD... and have read through the helpful sub-threads on this. Have played around evaluating Cyberlink, Adobe and Sony (all very minimally)... all seem to handle my MXP clips.

I like all 3.... particularly PowerDirector for its more-friendly GUI (and consumer-friendly price). But there's definitely more "power" in Vegas and Premiere....but with respectively-steeper learning curves.

I think most who've weighed in on this issue seem to wave the flag for Vegas. Must say, I am leaning more toward Premiere, primarily for 2 reasons:

First, Adobe products have great online support, both from Adobe and a whole bunch of users. Seems to be a lot more -- and better, more in-depth -- free tutes available for Premiere than for Vegas...

Second -- I'm a serious amateur still photographer who has spent *years* refining my skills in Photoshop. I noticed instantly GUI and menu similarities (as with all Adobe programs) and didn't miss that one can import Photoshop (.psd) images -- with all layers -- directly into Premiere.... and manipulate each after import. (I would assume one could do some cool key frame effects with individual layers of stills imported from PS....???)

So, given all the above, I think I'm going to spend more time with Premiere Pro.

Anyone else "out there" using Premiere Pro? Thoughts from everyone on my thinking... Vegas vs. Premiere Pro?

Finally, I echo warnings from those more experienced than I that if you hope to successfully post produce (edit) AVCHD, you better have a hot box. Just by coincidence, before the holidays, I replaced my 7-year-old AMD Athlon 2800 with an Intel i7 with 8 gigs of ram and Windows 7. (The old computer doesn't even want to load the software...)

Thanks... for the help and all the things I've learned from this group.

I'm testing this "Wondershare" program, so far, it quick, easy, has basic edit functions and works without a complete computer crash like Adobe doe. anybody ever use Wondershare for ACVHD to DVD?

hi, I own a HF20, but I am having trouble uploading them to my computer. I installed ImageMixer 3 se ver.5, plugged in the camcorder and nothing happen. Open Imagemixer and it didn't pick up the camcorder. Help?

OS: Windows 7

Could I just chip in that a good program for just playing back those .MTS-files is CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra. The current version (9) costs a not insignificant $99.95, but the previous one (not surprisingly called 8) can be had for $29.95. Please note that you need to have the "Ultra" version for it to work.

I've only tried v9, but the site claims v8 will handle AVCHD just as well.

The thing here is that PowerDVD utilises you video card to show these files instead of relying on the CPU. If you're on a laptop this solution is probably not for you, but if you have a rig like mine with a not very impressive AMD Athlon X2 4600+ and 2 GB of RAM, but have a nice video card it play back theMTS-files without choppiness (even though my CPU is *way* slower than the quad cores others here have claimed doesn't do it smoothly). I have a GeForce 9600GT (actually, I have two, but this works with just one) so a newer card than that should handle this unless it's very low-end. Check out nVidia's "PureVideo" page for further reference. I''m sure video cards from AMD/ATi has some sort of equivalence to this, but I'm not familiar with this and won't recommend anything there.

Is there any way to delete part of a file from the camcorder? I left it on all night to record a mouse we have in the house and I only need the first 10 min of the file. Thanks!

Reviving an old question (that hasnt been anwsered yet):

how to prevent the camera to reset the vid file counter to zero every time you delete all scenes or format a card?

Ellaboration:
I have 3 SD 8 Gig cards and use the card reader in my PC to transfer the .mts files to my HDD. When I eiter format the card (on HF200) or delete all scenes the file name restarts at 0. This gives me an uncomfortable feeling when transfering and arranging files on my HDD for I have different raw videos which are all named 00001. I would love to be able to put all my raw files in one folder for when I start editing (instead of having to give each 'downloaded' SD card an unique name, thus ending up with tons of subdirectories)

Is there a way I can have the HF200 continue the video file numbering from the previous (last used) number (as a comparison my dslr continuos the numbering basically showing me the number of pics i've taken over its lifespan).

Any suggestion would be more then welcome

-------------
Video noob climbing the learning curve

Can the HF200 be set to record HD in avi format? Now that would be great. Anyone know?

Having read the threads regarding high end AVCHD editing I noticed a few things;
- HF2x users bought these for the high definition capture
- most users will need to invest heavily in new hardware if they want to view let alone edit their MXP files on older laptops and pcs

Currently I am shooting tons of videos of my daughter (got a 1.5 TB HDD to store it) in MXP (whats the point of buying a high def camera and shoot in low def?). The hardware I have isnt powerfull enough to edit it with programs such as Premiere Pro CS4. (My rig: AMD 64 X2 3800, 9800GT Geforce, 3.5 gigs). In the future I will get me a nice i9 with 12gigs and some quadro cards, but in the meantime I am 'stuck' with high quality raw material that I cannot (or hardly) edit. (I can playback the raw stuff though)

My question for the forum is what workflow to use in order to edit my current material and make it distributable (where I dont mind loosing quality in the edits for I will be keeping the raw source files anyway)
Some possible paths that come to mind are:
- shoot in lower quality (this is not an option)
- use a low end editing program (this is not the most favourable option since I like the creative freedom of PP CS4)
- render the raw .mts files into a more "cpu friendly" format that can then be used in a NLE (what format should that be?)
- this is where I ran out of ideas

Would highly apreciate your feedback

No it cannot. FYI, avi is not a format, it's a container. It can be so many different codecs.


Technically the other settings other than MXP are all still HD, but some are anamorphic HD like HDV tapes, and they are lower bitrate (compression quality), so stick with MXP.

This was posted a few pages back, it's a workflow for converting 60i to 24p if you need that, but also to make proxy files that are much smaller and editable so that you can then replace with the HD files at the end if you want. At that point, you can also render into any format of course.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...&postcount=379

Olo first of all thx for your reply. I was planning to look into that article allready.

As I am a video noob (going through some training videos on PP CS4) I am still a bit lost on the technicalities of 24 vs 60i and the use of proxy files.

Is it possible to work with smaller proxy files to do the editing, transitioning, color correction etc and in a later stage (ie when in possesion of decent a hw rig) to replace the proxies with the original .mts files (so that all the edits are applied).
I am thinking here of a non destructive workflow where you can trick the NLE into thinking that proxysmall.mpg is the same as originallarge.mts so that it applies all the edits and effects on it. Might be a bit a far stretch but could something like that be done?

Thx once again for helping

Hi once again

as I'm struggling through all the technicalities about formats, containers, bit and framerates I was wondering is there a comprehensive beginnners guide out there for video capture/ editing. Something like "video for dummies" (but up to date).

Most of the comments and explanations on the forums deal with questions at the extremes of the learning area, like: where can connect my power cable :-) on the one end versus how to create seperate streams for your audio and video, use an intermediate file format and then transcoding.

The middle ground is not really covered. Don't get me wrong, this forum helps a lot, as does wiki, but it is a tough nut to crack.

Any references for a comprehensive guide would be highly appreciated

That's exactly what the proxies are for. You make all edits and filters to the small file (really they're all pending edits that only will take effect on export), and it's easier to work with the small file. Then when you're completely done, in Premiere you would right-click the file in the library, select "Replace Footage" and find the corresponding original .mts, and then export to your chosen format. This is a way to do it on less powerful hardware.

you can edit the file in the camera and split it, take a look in the manual for how to do this.

First you must plug in the power supply and the hook up your USB cable. Open your LCD screen and hit the button ( think its bottom right )( theres a picture of a camera and arrows going to the left and right) you will get an option - to use a burner or transfer to pc. Obviously select pc using the joystick. Hope that helps

kaokong :
I had same problem (i7, 8GB) and after some digging, was told by software maker that they're not yet compatible with Win7, they're working on it.

Vegas users:
I'm shooting in MXP, 30p and would like to create projects in native res, however, there's no 1920x1080 30p option in video properties. Will picking the 60i option introduce artifacts?

Hello everybody,

I'm new to this forum.
I own a Canon Legria HF200 (so, the european version...) since august 2009.
I've been using it intensively since and am very glad with it.

I also bought:
- a PNY Optima 16 GB (class 6) SD card
- a polarizer filter
- a UV filter

I have a MacBook Pro 15" (2,4 GHz) and use iMovie '09 for editing. It is simple and, after automatically importing files in .mov format, works great!

For low light conditions, I found the best settings are:
- speed priority (1/25 or 1/12) or...
- Cinema mode with 25p output -> this increases drastically the sensitivity over interleaved mode "50i" (or 60i for non europeans)
- sharpness at "-1" since, in low light conditions, details are less present and settings other than "-1" only add noise without improving quality

Bye,
Robin

Thanks for that Robin! I'd seen most of the other hints before, but this may be something I will definitely try. The noise at low light is fairly high. I don't know if this will help with the "sparklies" in darkness. Has everyone experienced that issue? White dots sporadically appearing when filming in very low light?

Indeed, with the settings I mentioned, one can still notice a few white dots appearing now and then.

I think this is because the HF200 already applies a efficient noise reduction filter but...doesn't perfectly finish the work! Perhaps that a 2nd-pass filter would definitively remove these white dots (a kind a temporal noise reducer). We might think that since the dots are very scarce on each frame, this could be easily solved by an update firmware (well...but it's hard to guess really what is the difficulty behind this ;-)

Hi,

Got the HF20 a couple days ago. Is it possible to transfer files from the internal memory onto external SDHC card right on the camcorder?

Thanks,

Rob

Yes. In playback mode, press the FUNC button and use the joystick over to the COPY option.

olo567, I know exactly what you are talking about I asked the same question on page 8 of this thread but only got some obscure answer from nsnqst. In my case I notice this most on 1080p LCD but not so much (if at all) on my laptop.

As Robin164 suggested, setting sharpness to -1 helps, in fact I set everything in that custom effect to -1 (brightness, color depth and sharpness) and it seems to improve the sparklies when filming indoors (i.e normal lite living room)

I have also found this quick test to check in camera if you are going to get sparklies. Before you start filming in low light just set to manual focus and make a small adjustment to focus, the moment you adjust focus the image will be magnified (focus assist), if you see sparklies then you may find the custom settings might help.

Thanks O. That worked like a charm. Someday I'll have to read all 15 pgs of this.

For whats it's worth I think I mentioned a few pages back also that when viewing on my folks Samsung 1080p LCD I get really bad sparkles. Actually it was my first experience viewing and I was extremely disappointed. I don't get that same effect on my Plasma for whatever reason though.

Out of curiosity, do you use the same kind of connection on both TVs, or HDMI on one and component on the other of something?

And were you playing directly from the camera in both instances?

hey everyone. i have a canon hf20 and windows 7 ultimate 64 bit. i am trying to get the videos off the internal memory, but windows 7 doesn't recognize the camcorder. i can't find any drivers anymore. has anyone else had this problemf or the hf20 or hf200 and come help? thanks