The "Official" Canon HFM31 / HFM30 / HFM300 Owner's Thread - Page 2

I am hoping someone can help me here. I just bought the M31 but the video transfer software that came with it is only for the PC. Does anyone know how I can transfer the files to a mac? When I plugged it in with USB the m31 wasn't even recognized by the computer. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Are you trying to plug it in a PC or a mac?

... So am I. I have the Canon HFM300. I have the exact same problem on my Mac. I have to get these video files over. It's a professional necessity. Anyone have any ideas? The manuals are useless.

Have you tried the new update on Canon website for Mac?

Link: http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consum...ersAndSoftware

Also, iMovie will actually let you import the files, once you've gotten your mac to recognize the device. Mine didn't get it either the first time I connected it, but did subsequently and then I realized all of the video files are executable files, but iMovie will import them and convert them to MOV files. A long way around trying to get them into Avid so I can edit, but it worked. Good luck.

With Final Cut Express, use Log and Transfer.

I was told that the M31 worked "better" with a mac than a PC when I bought my M31 a few weeks ago. In fact, it doesn't work at all. I have been pulling my hair out trying to get the .MTS files the camera outputs into any editing software - Final Cut Express HD, iMovie, whatever. The Mac doesn't recognize the MTS files. Canon isn't helpful. My dealer isn't helpful. I should've stuck with Sony. Bad choice and a waste of money.

Amazon is throwing in a Free Lowepro Camera Bag with every purchase of Canon HF M300 for a total of $456

Simply add both the qualifying camcorder and the qualifying camera bag to your Shopping Cart, and Amazon will automatically apply the discount at checkout.

What models of the Lowepro bag qualify? I added both to my cart, went through the checkout up to the last page and didn't see any discount in the amount of the bag. I tried both the 120 and 100, but not the 110 yet.

thanks

New here, I`m a DSLR hobbyist and I`m trying to venture into homemade videography hobby.

I just got a Vixia M30. I really notice that low light capability on this camera is good, but not the best.

I was looking at Samsung 204 which is a lot better than the M30 in low light, but I could not get it here locally. I need the camera by Thursday.

I notice that when you set the image quality of the M30 video to the highest setting and set to 60i and cinema mode, the usb transferring will not work to my IMac. It works when you set the compression to the second highest setting and whatever setting for 60i, 30p,24p .

But, take note. I have to open the Imovie program first, then hook the USB to my M30, then my Mac will import the videos. If I don`t open the Imovie program and hook up the USB cable, the Iphoto program automatically initialized which I don`t need. What other great movie editing program should I get other than IMovie?

I`m kinda thinking selling my DSLR gear that is worth $2500 and move to videography. But I don`t want to waste money buying 1k camcorder and realized that editing videos is longer than post processing photos and maybe not my cup of tea?

Any special or optimized settings for low light? with less grain or noise?

The following bag qualifies...

Lowepro Clips 100 Camera Bag for Digital Video Cameras (Arctic Blue)

With a Mac:
1. Open iMovie (or whatever software you are using to import).
2. Plug in the M30/M31 to power (required) and connect it to the Mac with USB.
3. Power on the M30/M31 *and* open the screen.
3a. If the M30/M31 isn't asking you what you are connected to, then hit the camera<-->play button (beside the DISP. button).
4. Touch the onscreen button for "computer/printer".
5. In iMovie, hit "command-I" or File --> Import from Camera.

It should find your camera and allow you to import the video. It is pretty straightforward once you know the above process. Enjoy!

I have worked with several video camcorders with my MacPro, using OS X 10.5.8 with few if any problems. That is not true with the Canon HFM31. IT IS NOT MAC FRIENDLY! It will NOT load video files directly to either iMovie or to Final Cut or anything else in spite of what the Canon tech support person will tell you after they read their canned information from a printed manual in from of them. As other posters here have CLEARLY said, the CANON produces MTS (.exe) files and the Mac simply doesn't recognize them! You have to buy third party software to try to convert the .exe files to mov. files, and the two programs I tried all night long - after spending $35 each on them - did not do an adequate job at all. Fuzzy, grainy, sound out of sync with the video, and terrible compression distortion. And they each took a very loooong time to do the conversions. It was a very slow, tedious process.
Don't waste your $1000 on this model CANON camcorder if you own a Mac! Check the reviews for other camcorders online first, and watch out for shills promoting products that they themselves have never tested on a Mac (even if they claim to be lifelong Mac users.)
Generally speaking the miniDV tape camcorders work very well with Macs, but the digital ones are generally NOT MAC FRIENDLY despite what their promoters will tell you. Save yourself a lot of wasted money and frustration and check you sources carefully BEFORE you buy!

Not quite true. Cards write slower than they read, so the posted numbers are an average. Cheaper cards also have a write cycle that looks like a heart beat, with peaks and valleys repeated over time. For example, a card may write as slow as 3MB/sec, and as fast as 8MB/sec, but it's average will be 5.5 . An inconsistent write cycle may simply cause the card to stop functioning if the data rate exceeds its low-end performance. Two of the three brands mentioned above have greatly varying write speeds. The Panasonic I have not tested.

What I have tested, and shows the most consistent write speed (flat line) is PNY brand. Just yesterday I posted the results of a 32GB Kingston in another thread, and it's write cycle is smoother than the Transcend, ADATA, or Sandisc.

MTS files are not executables, they are MPEG-TS files.

Well, this says a lot about Macs, does not it?

This can also be phrased as: don't waste your money on a Mac if you own a modern AVCHD camcorder.

DV video is digital, as in Digital Video.

If you want to stay with proprietary solutions, then continue buying Apple products and re-encode everything either to ProRes or to AIC. Or you can embrace a current standard in home video, which is AVCHD, and use software that can handle it properly.

My modern mac has no trouble with AVCHD, but until I followed the directions in the manual I didn't get a successful import the first time either.

Thanks for removing my post

I can confirm this as working though unhappy about lack of intuitive import, particularly to Final Cut Pro, so will continue to look for improvement. Thanks for the walk through.

I just wanted to clarify that I initially tested the on-boarding process with iMovie. The process does work as well with Final Cut Pro but you need to use the Log and Transfer function.

Cheers,

THANK YOU for posting this. It worked perfectly.

D

Hi guys, im newbie here
thinking of getting m300 soon and knowing that m300 cant convert HD video to SD, hence can i use third party software to do the conversion?

And is m31 video quality on par with m300?

Thanks in advance

Hello,

I can film and playback 60i and 24fps videos on my M31, but whenever I import the files into Final Cut Pro they all get converted to 30fps. (I also tried importing the files onto a PC using their Pixela software and the same thing happened).

Is there any way to transfer 60i videos onto a computer?

Regards.

60i and PF24 are indeed recorded as 30fps interlaced video.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine#2:3_pulldown

Interesting, thanks a lot.

So if I want to get the 60fps 'video look' that I see on my camera during recording and playback (and that I don't get once they're imported), what do I have to do in FCP so that they look like that?

Thanks again.

I do not work with FCP, so I cannot give you detailed instructions. 60i and 30i is the same thing, just different notations. Actually, they are 59.94i or 29.97i, rounded up. So, a project setting with 30 (that is, 29.97) frames per second, interlaced, should work for your 60i videos.

If you want to handle PF24 properly, you need to IVTC it first into native 24p. I believe that there is a tool or a plugin for FCP that can do it.

thanks a bunch.

I found the inverse telecine tool in FCP to convert them into 24p (for those interested: select the clip in the browser and click 'Tools' - Reverse Telecine 24p, or open the 'Cinema Tools' application). Easy to use and works well.

As for getting the 60i files to playback at 60fps on a computer (to get that 'video look'), I found two semi-solutions: one is to edit the videos in 30fps and then export the final product as a 60fps project. The other is to change the settings of the sequence to 60fps timebase and render it (which makes it very slow to work with). Also both effectively double the bitrate and size of files.

I'm still working to see if there's a better way, but at least it gives the desired effect and doesn't appear to reduce quality.

Anyway, thanks Ungermann!

P.S. as I was reading the wiki article on interlacing, it occured to me that the problem could be that my computer screen can't display interlaced videos, so it de-interlaces them (poorly) before displaying them, which would explain the playback at 30fps and why the clips have major zebra lines when there's the slightest amount of motion.

The clips show combing on playback? Definitely the player uses dumb "weave" deinterlacing, combining both fields. Lame. CoreAVC for Windows allows selecting deinterlacing method, but I haven't yet found a similar codec for interlaced MPEG-2 videos. Interlaced MPEG-2 videos on my computer look blurry because of "blend" deinterlacing.

See more here: http://www.avchduser.com/articles/wa...aced_video.jsp

I'm considering buying a M300... but don't know what I'm getting myself into when it comes to archiving. I want to be able to save movies as 1080p HD content. I know that I don't want to have to buy multiple SDHC cards or Canon's DW-100 burner.

So what are my options for raw archiving?
- Does the ImageMixer software that comes with the camera do this?
- Can I plug the SDHC card into my PC and copy the raw files off?

What about editing s/w?
- Windows Live Movie maker supports AVCHD files in .m2ts amd .m2t formats. Any chance that's what the M300 creates?
- Is there a better piece of s/w that I should look at?

Thanks, Bryan

You can use ImageMixer and I have been using it but if you have other software, you can plug your SDHC card and edit it directly.

I use Windows Live Movie maker and the output is a .wmv file.

Prices seem to spiral down.. Amazon has Canon HF M300 for a total of $352 now and the price seem to change fairly quickly..