The Official Sony HDR-CX300/CX350/XR350 Owners Thread

Hi Guys. How can I copy .mts files back to the camcorder for playback? I copied the files, but they show up as ? on the index page.

I recently purchased a Sony CX-350. I just took it to the beach and when I went from air conditioned condo to the very hot and humid outdoors, the lens appeared to fog over. Here's the strange part: it didn't fog over until about 10 minutes after I went outside. I actually got a few clear pictures off for a few minutes. Wiping the lens didn't seem to help so I am assuming there was some type of condensation on the inside. Has anyone ever experienced this? Is it normal?

At the beach now as well, with a cx-300. I have had the lens fog over as well, but only for the first few minutes. Sometimes it may not fog over until you turn it on and the lens cover opens. If you had it on for ten minutes, and then it fogged over, I would guess you are correct about the inside lens fogging. Check with Sony support and see if they have any ideas.

As a side note, my dad got the Sony Sports Pack last year, and I've borrowed it the last two years and love it. No worries about saltwater spray on the lens, or sand in any camera crevices. Plus the underwater shots look pretty cool. I got a crab to attack the lens earlier this week.

I'm on vacation and don't have the manual. I assume there's a way to do this, but can't figure it out. Can anyone steer me in the right direction?

this pic shot using HDR-XR350E

will the camcorder automatically switch from internal memory to SD card once the internal is filled up during recording? or it has to be set manually.

Please check for me? I just bought this camcorder and noticed whenever I tried to record any round subjects, during play back the subjects did not appeared to be round. I am wondering if this is due to wide angle distortion? Please check by pointing your Cam at any round subjects and advise your result. You can actually see it on the Cam LCD.

Thank You for testing. Yes the Cam was in iAuto mode, the distortion seem to be in all modes. It just bothered me that people facial shape change slightly.

Thanks for the answer. I forgot to thank you when I was on vacation. It really helped.

On another note, whenever I play video direct from the CX350 hooked up to a HDTV via HDMI, the video is spectacular. But when I move it to a pc and do any editing I can't get that same quality no matter what formats I use. Can you recommend any ideas for formats to try? I use Pinnacle Studio HD.


Also
I made a HD video of a paragliding trip in South America. I shot it with a Sony 350 camera in 1920x1080. I edited it in Pinnacle studio software and made a few different formats. The best was in AVCHD but when I play it on my Mits 65737 thru my PS3, I get really bad stuttering. I tried some other formats and they play fine but are not quite as sharp.

just interested if you managed to film something during your paragliding flights

my flight footage contains a lot of small roll movements. Actually I wasn't rolling like this. I suppose stabilizer compensate too much for my roll or may be it doesn't compensate at all roll movements.

any info how this stabilizer works?

I just purchased my new CX350 and I m very happy with the video quality.

There are just a couple of issues that I've noticed, any help would be highly appreciated:

1. When pluging in the hdmi cable connected to my LG 1080p 37" tv, I only see garbage on screen ie white noise, only when plugging the power adaptor does the display come on. Has anyone else encountered this?

Also, when on HDMI (with mains power adaptor plugged in), whilst playing a recording, the touchscreen menu comes on unexpectedly as if I would tap the touchscreen. This doesn't happen when using the component cable. Any ideas?

2. When backing-up the clips from internal memory, does one need to backup the whole folder structure? ie where I to restore backed-up clips at a later date, would they show in the playback menu just by placing them in the STREAM folder?

I'd apreciate any advice,
thx in advance
LP

Hi, got a cx350, love the camcorder,.....but have a few questions:
1. when I dowload to my PC, even via PMB, the file has fragments, each fragment corresponds to a single start/stop of footage,......my previous sony was a miniDV, and downladed one entire file which could then easily be viewed in windows media player as one continuous movie, or recorded to disk,.....not so with these fragments,.....the play one fragment at a time, disjointed,.....is this normal?
2. When I back up to external hard drives, and delete off my PC, then when I try to view on my PC again, either by re-transferring to PC from external HD, or by viewing from the external HD, PMB does not seem to recognize that it has already done the analysis, and does not play it,.....very complicated.
3. every time I download to PC, the analysis process for PMB after the download is unbelievably lengthy,......
this is sooo different from the simplicity of my previous camcorder and software,.....
Thanks in advance.

A guy sent me a private message asking me about backing up his CX350, but he cannot receive private messages (!). Here was his question and my reply (I have removed the name to avoid embarrassment):

Yes, there is the complete AVCHD file structure, so you have to navigate to the correct folder (STREAM) to play the files on a computer (.mts or .m2ts files) - not hard. Having the file structure is advantageous in that if you attach the drive by usb to a bluray player the bluray player will play all of the videos seamlessly. The Sony system of backing up from the camcorder is precisely designed so that you do not need a computer - a camcorder, a usb prortable drive and a bluray player (and HDTV) gives you great HD video on a big screen.

I do not use mac's. I hear they are a hassle for playing of editing video using the newer AVCHD video cameras.

"Hey Markr041,

I noticed you helped a board member with a question about backing up video for this camera. I just have a couple follow-up question.

I understand that this camera allows one to back up footage directly to an external HD. You said that afterward, one can go back and watch the footage, but essentially one clip at a time.

My question is...since AVCHD has a file structure, do you have to navigate through a bunch of individual files to get to the actual video? Is it easy to find within the file structure?

Also, you say it plays through movie maker on a PC. But what if you hook up your Western Digital HD to a Mac? Does it play through Quicktime? Or is it necessary to have Windows Media Player (something my Mac won't download, for whatever reason).

Last thing. If after a few months, I want to take that backed up video on my external hard drive and import it into iMovie, do you think iMovie will read it without a problem and allow me to edit my footage?

Thanks in advance."

Hi, Mark,
As a f/u to your reply to that other question,....if I back up my files directly to usb Hard drive, then I can play directly onto a bluray player without the camcorder? Additionally, can I back up from the first usb to a second usb hard drive through a PC?
Thanks.

1. Yes, you can take the usb drive taht was used to back-up the files directly from the Sony camcorder and plug it into a Sony Blu-ray player and it will play the files.

2. Files are files, so the files on that usb drive can be copied onto a pc.

I recently bought the CX 350. Love it so far. Questions/Comments:
* What really is iAuto mode - does that change Video Mode?
* What are the differences between the 4 Video Modes HD FX,FH,HQ,LP?
* When using PMB, date taken shows up as some date back in '08 and then date modified is the date I actually took the film? I have set date and time on Camera using menu?
* When using PMB and I burn a HD DVD, what really is this? The quality is great. I have Adobe Premiere Elements 9.0 and I cannot seem to get anything close to the same quality?
* How do I upload to YouTube at high quality? Using PMB the quality is terrible and same for Adobe? How does Ronald Kwok upload his awesome videos? The quality is excellent, especially on Blog????
* Does anyone know how best to edit MTS and then burn to DVD in a quality that matches going straight to PMB and then HD DVD?

Sorry for the long questions, thanks in advance.

Richard

Hi All,
I just ordered CX350V (upgrading from minidv SD to this). What accessories would you guys recommend? I got the FV70 battery for extra recording time. Do I need any special software for hooking up to sony bravia 1080i TV? Also I was searching to find out what HDMI cable to buy - could not find definitive answer.. Any help is highly appreciated.. Do I need external mic/flash?

Thanks in advance!