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The Official Panasonic HDC-TM900 Owners Thread - Page 41

post #1201 of 1344
4/14/12 at 5:02am
Ahh thanks for the heads-up and link aloke....I only thought to drop that link here as I had seen it mentioned a number of times within this thread.

What are the main complaints? Not sure if I can tackle another large thread this weekend...and I was contemplating grabbing one based on comments here.

I think I'd prefer a 2tb model tho.
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

post #1202 of 1344
4/14/12 at 7:44pm
Mostly the unit constantly rebooting, some hardware issues with the power switch, HDMI ports, new firmware updates breaking some features.
It is worth a visit if you are thinking of buying.
Like you, I'm waiting for the next version with maybe more storage (although one can add USB drive to add to local storage). The unit is almost 2 years old this October, which is a long wait in the word of tech.
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post #1203 of 1344
4/15/12 at 8:20am
Yeah, I'm holding off for now. In the meantime, if I created a AVCHD Video or an .wmv and wanted to put that back onto the SD Card and hook that up to the TV to re-play...is this doable? Will the camera recognize a full video file?

Seeing a number of folders within the SD Card and/or Camera that are potential: DCIM, MISC and Private with a few folders under Private: \\AVCHD\\BDMV or \\IISVPL
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post #1204 of 1344
4/15/12 at 8:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by STR3T View Post

...... if I created a AVCHD Video or an .wmv and wanted to put that back onto the SD Card and hook that up to the TV to re-play...is this doable? Will the camera recognize a full video file?

Seeing a number of folders within the SD Card and/or Camera that are potential: DCIM, MISC and Private with a few folders under Private: \\AVCHD\\BDMV or \\IISVPL

I've done that with the HD Writer software that comes with the camera. You have to use it to move the files to your PC. You can do some reasonable editing with it and then put the finished video back on the camcorder for playback. If you use any other method to copy your files from the camcorder to the computer, HD Writer ignores them.

The camera makes three tiny "accessory" files with every video clip. The only apparent use for them is in HD Writer and the camera itself.

It may be true that there is a way to create those accessory files, but I have not found it. Even if you figure out where to put the primary video file on the SD card, I don't think the camera will acknowledge it is there without the accessory files.

HD Writer is also a little unique in that it will handle 1080p in both editing and output. You can shoot everything in 1080p60, copy it to your PC, combine clips, edit and make a new file that is in 1080p. You can put it back on your camera for playback, but you have to use HD Writer. I've also been able to play the new 1080p on my WDTV Live Plus (old model, with small remote). The odd part is the HD Writer knits the clips together differently than other editing software in that most software "renders" to a variety of formats. The rendered clip will be of a different quality and file size, depending on settings, than the original. With HD Writer the result will match the original in both size and quality.

I have a Sony camera too. It works in a similar fashion using PMB or Picture Motion Browser software.

Bill
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post #1205 of 1344
4/15/12 at 8:41am
"....can do some reasonable editing with it and then put the finished video back on the camcorder for playback."

What are the steps to put it back on the camera bsprague...do you recall specifics?

Although I think it's too late as I've relocated the movies to a different hard drive...so they don't show up in HD Writer any longer...bah.
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post #1206 of 1344
4/15/12 at 9:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by STR3T View Post

....What are the steps to put it back on the camera bsprague...do you recall specifics?

My version of HD Writer is 2.6. The TM900 comes with 3.0, I think. So it may be slightly different. In 2.6 there is a drop down menu from the tool bar that is titled "Copy to Media". Anything that is plugged in and on can be the target, including the camera. I haven't tried it, but an SD card plugged into the computer can be a target too. I think it makes SD cards that a plug and play with the camcorder.

My version of HD Writer has a .pdf 135 page instruction manual. When I realized that Panasonic seemed to think that the software was an integral part of the camcorders feature set, I printed the whole thing. I put it in a 3 ring binder where I could read it and make notes in the margins.

Reading the manual convinced me that the first step in my "work flow" is to use HD Writer to move, store, rename and catalog my clips. My second step is to backup my computer to an external drive. Then I clean up the SD card in the camera. Doing it this way gives me several options that are difficult to achieve other ways.

For example, Panasonic believes you should be able to quickly make HD product that plays nicely in a Panasonic BD Player. Their BD players have SD card slots in the front! You can either put in the SD card directly from the camera or make one with HD Writer. They also make sure you can quickly make HDDVDs from ordinary DVDs for their players. And, they don't seem to want you to suffer any quality loss that might come from rendering in other software.

Bill
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post #1207 of 1344
4/16/12 at 4:24am
Nice, thanks again bsprague. Did not get to it yesterday.

Now, one more convenient item I saw mentioned here for PS3 was a USB flash card w/ an SD slot... Anybody have/seen one that is SDXC compliant?
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post #1208 of 1344
4/21/12 at 6:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsprague View Post

For example, Panasonic believes you should be able to quickly make HD product that plays nicely in a Panasonic BD Player. Their BD players have SD card slots in the front! You can either put in the SD card directly from the camera or make one with HD Writer. They also make sure you can quickly make HDDVDs from ordinary DVDs for their players.

This philosophy makes sense - it's good for the consumer and good for Panasonic. Canon is at a disadvantage in this regard.
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post #1209 of 1344
4/25/12 at 1:19pm
I read all the reviews where some received one with loud fan noise, sent it back and received one without loud fan noise. Some even had to send it back three times before getting a quite one.

The one I received is loud. I called tech support and the rep told me they are aware of this problem and that I need to send it to panasonic repair so they can replace the fan. I sent it to repair, but they are telling me all they did was adjust the fan. WTF kind of crap is this??? Has anyone here had the same experience with panasonic repair. I am really regretting I did not just return it.
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post #1210 of 1344
4/25/12 at 7:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joatm0n1 View Post

I read all the reviews where some received one with loud fan noise, sent it back and received one without loud fan noise. Some even had to send it back three times before getting a quite one.

The one I received is loud. I called tech support and the rep told me they are aware of this problem and that I need to send it to panasonic repair so they can replace the fan. I sent it to repair, but they are telling me all they did was adjust the fan. WTF kind of crap is this??? Has anyone here had the same experience with panasonic repair. I am really regretting I did not just return it.


Always return a defective item rather than have the company repair a brand new camcorder.

Live and learn
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post #1211 of 1344
4/28/12 at 12:42pm
Hi guys,

I recently bought a TM900 and need some suggestions on editing my video.
I plan to record a concert (my family and friends singing) and want to
record everything in 1080/60p. Then what I want to do is to use my
material to author a DVD and also a Blu-Ray with menues etc and give
to them. I want to make sure I preseve the best quality as much as I can
on the final disks while making sure that they can play the disks at home
in their own regular DVD & blu-ray players.

So the question is what video editing program is the best for this
purpose and how I should render there?

I see 3 popular programs but not sure on any of them..

Cyberlink Power Director 10
Sony Vegas Pro 11
Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5

Appreciate your input ..
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post #1212 of 1344
4/28/12 at 2:57pm
You do know that you can download ALL of those programs free for a 30 day trial, right?

I prefer Sony Vegas from what I saw while using it that 30 days.
But download one at a time since you can only have a 30 day free trial once.

I tried everything and I still didn't see $600 worth of value with the codecs Sony provided. Nothing was as good as what comes out of the camera.
I want lossless editing. You can only get that when you do simple edits but that's ok with me.
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post #1213 of 1344
4/28/12 at 8:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by termite View Post

Hi guys,

I recently bought a TM900 and need some suggestions on editing my video.
I plan to record a concert (my family and friends singing) and want to
record everything in 1080/60p. Then what I want to do is to use my
material to author a DVD and also a Blu-Ray with menues etc and give
to them. I want to make sure I preseve the best quality as much as I can
on the final disks while making sure that they can play the disks at home
in their own regular DVD & blu-ray players.

So the question is what video editing program is the best for this
purpose and how I should render there?

I see 3 popular programs but not sure on any of them..

Cyberlink Power Director 10
Sony Vegas Pro 11
Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5

Appreciate your input ..

There are two that I use. HD Writer that comes with the camera is absolutely the best at preserving original 1080p quality. It lacks depth in creative features. When I need more transitions, audio control, video control, color correction, additional stabilization, etc I use Adobe Premier Elements 10. It has an amazing feature set. But, it does not render to 1080p for the final product. Instead, it renders to optimized presets for the intended target ranging from iPhones to Blu-Ray discs, or optimized uploads.

Last week I had nearly the same project as yours. My granddaughter had been picked as the only soloist at a grade school Chorus and singing event. 6 Broadway tunes and 4 others.

My camera was a SDT-750, a close cousin to the TM900. I put it in 1080p60 and full iA automatic. I stabilized it with a monopod and sat a 35 feet back.

I broke each song into a separate clip and, the next day, trimmed them with HDWriter. I copied each .m2ts song to my media player for perfect playback on my HD TV and to data DVDs for my son to play in exquisite detail on his laptop.

Next goal was to get granddaughter's solo on the internet. Preserving best possible original quality no longer counts because YouTube and Vimeo will do what they do. Best to "optimize" for the upload. I used Adobe Premier Elements 10 because it has a rendering preset for that.

Next goal was to get a disc playable on Blu-Ray players. Premier Elements is good for that too. It has a built in system to put up to 30 minutes of HD on a plain old DVD disk. The are called an "AVCHD disc". Worked perfectly. All ten songs fit into 30 minutes of space.

Next was some plain old DVDs for the school and my kid, who is to cheap to buy his family a BD player. Again, Premier Elements had the right presets to do that. Of course, the picture quality is not equal to the original, because it is SD.

There is a free download here: Adobe Premier Elements 10. But since it is only $80, just buy it. Great inexpensive training can be found at Lynda.com Premier Elements.

Good luck and have fun!
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post #1214 of 1344
4/29/12 at 12:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsprague View Post

There are two that I use. HD Writer that comes with the camera is absolutely the best at preserving original 1080p quality. It lacks depth in creative features. When I need more transitions, audio control, video control, color correction, additional stabilization, etc I use Adobe Premier Elements 10. It has an amazing feature set. But, it does not render to 1080p for the final product. Instead, it renders to optimized presets for the intended target ranging from iPhones to Blu-Ray discs, or optimized uploads.

Last week I had nearly the same project as yours. My granddaughter had been picked as the only soloist at a grade school Chorus and singing event. 6 Broadway tunes and 4 others.

My camera was a SDT-750, a close cousin to the TM900. I put it in 1080p60 and full iA automatic. I stabilized it with a monopod and sat a 35 feet back.

I broke each song into a separate clip and, the next day, trimmed them with HDWriter. I copied each .m2ts song to my media player for perfect playback on my HD TV and to data DVDs for my son to play in exquisite detail on his laptop.

Next goal was to get granddaughter's solo on the internet. Preserving best possible original quality no longer counts because YouTube and Vimeo will do what they do. Best to "optimize" for the upload. I used Adobe Premier Elements 10 because it has a rendering preset for that.

Next goal was to get a disc playable on Blu-Ray players. Premier Elements is good for that too. It has a built in system to put up to 30 minutes of HD on a plain old DVD disk. The are called an "AVCHD disc". Worked perfectly. All ten songs fit into 30 minutes of space.

Next was some plain old DVDs for the school and my kid, who is to cheap to buy his family a BD player. Again, Premier Elements had the right presets to do that. Of course, the picture quality is not equal to the original, because it is SD.

There is a free download here: Adobe Premier Elements 10. But since it is only $80, just buy it. Great inexpensive training can be found at Lynda.com Premier Elements.

Good luck and have fun!

Thanks Steve & bsprague for the feedback.
bsprague: My concert recording is going to be 2-3hrs long and because
of that I may not likely be able to put everything into a single blu-ray disk
for distribution.

I'll keep my 1080/60p recording with me until we have a better way to
distribute that material as is. In the meantime would premiere allow
me to simply drop frames and output a 1080/30p version? If so will that play
in regular blu-ray players without having to do any special tricks?

Also what tool can create Menus for blu-ray do you know?
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post #1215 of 1344
4/29/12 at 6:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by termite View Post

Thanks Steve & bsprague for the feedback.
bsprague: My concert recording is going to be 2-3hrs long and because
of that I may not likely be able to put everything into a single blu-ray disk
for distribution.

I'll keep my 1080/60p recording with me until we have a better way to
distribute that material as is. In the meantime would premiere allow
me to simply drop frames and output a 1080/30p version? If so will that play
in regular blu-ray players without having to do any special tricks?

Also what tool can create Menus for blu-ray do you know?

With a true Blu-Ray burner, I think you can get 2 to 3 hours that would play on a standard Blu-Ray player. You may have to drop from 1080p60 to 720p30 or similar in your editing software. But the viewing experience will still be good. I can't imagine watching 3 hours of anything, so I'm not even going to try!

Unless you have your own super computer, render times will be amazingly long. My experience last week was with an hour's worth of video that I edited to 30 minutes. Render time was a couple of hours on an i5 equipped laptop.

One of the output presets for PE 10 is 1080/30p. There are about 20 others that may give you high picture quality results. I don't know how I could test it for you. But, you can download the trial version and see what it would do with 3 hours of material.

Premier Elements does have tools for creating menus. I have not used them, but they are there.

Bill
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post #1216 of 1344
4/29/12 at 6:41pm
Thanks I'll check out PE. I hope the preset will not completely re-encode
the video. My hope is to obtain a 1080/30p from the original 1080/60p
by somehow making the tools simply drop frames.

Also I recently built a computer capable of handling these edits with ease
so that probably won't be much of an issue. I put in an i7 coupled with
Nvidia GTX570 because most newer tools are designed to use CUDA from
Nvida cards to handles these type of work with ease. I'm running Win7 64b
so these combinations should have enough horse power.

Thanks again for the suggestions!
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post #1217 of 1344
4/29/12 at 10:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by termite View Post

Thanks I'll check out PE. I hope the preset will not completely re-encode
the video. My hope is to obtain a 1080/30p from the original 1080/60p
by somehow making the tools simply drop frames.

Also I recently built a computer capable of handling these edits with ease
so that probably won't be much of an issue. I put in an i7 coupled with
Nvidia GTX570 because most newer tools are designed to use CUDA from
Nvida cards to handles these type of work with ease. I'm running Win7 64b
so these combinations should have enough horse power.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

I don't know if it makes the conversion by dropping frames.

Your computer has more power than mine.

Bill
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post #1218 of 1344
4/29/12 at 11:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsprague View Post

I don't know if it makes the conversion by dropping frames.

Your computer has more power than mine.

Bill

Google has helped me to find the following tip from another UK forum.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/camco...ners-club.html

See post #5 from PhilipL on how to do something similar in Sony Vegas.
Does anyone know how to do the same thing in Premiere?
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post #1219 of 1344
4/30/12 at 6:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by termite View Post

Google has helped me to find the following tip from another UK forum.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/camco...ners-club.html

See post #5 from PhilipL on how to do something similar in Sony Vegas.
Does anyone know how to do the same thing in Premiere?

I don't know about Premier Pro. In Premier Elements there are render presets for making 1080p files at several frame rates, including 29.97, 24 and 25. But, I'm not smart enough to figure out how it samples the original 1080p60 files.

If there is something you want me to try, I would be happy to do it.

Bill
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post #1220 of 1344
4/30/12 at 6:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by termite View Post

I'll keep my 1080/60p recording with me until we have a better way to distribute that material as is.

Newer Blu-Ray players have ports in front for USB drives or SD cards. Since you are trying to make Blu-Ray disks, I assume your audience has BD players. Have you considered distribution on flash drives or SD cards? I have a Sony BD player that will play 1080p60 from a thumb drive plugged into it. So, I know it works.
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post #1221 of 1344
4/30/12 at 9:55am
Thanks. Actually I'm not sure what my audience has and that's why I was
thinking of creating both a DVD and a blu-ray, burn and give to each
depending on what they can play at home. I may get a better idea when
it's closer to the actual event. (early June)
flash/sd based delivery can be an option also for some I'd think.
I think the first thing for me to do is to start learning some of these tools.
Then I can better formulate my questions here
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post #1222 of 1344
4/30/12 at 12:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by termite View Post

....I think the first thing for me to do is to start learning some of these tools....

I spent months working with four different editors. My progress was slow and frustrating. Besides being hung up on 1080p, I was disorganized.

Finally I picked one randomly and bought a book to go with it. By chance I discovered some "demo" videos for my new editing software. They were, in effect, sales samples for lynda.com who has an on line library of video training courses. I gave them $25 for a months access and took the course for my chosen editor. Within two weeks I felt confident I knew enough that I could turn clips into videos. I never opened the book.

My suggestion is to not "learn some of these tools" but pick one and try to master it with organized training from lynda.com or something like that.

Click here: Lynda.com Premier Elements 10. You will see four segments in a darker blue. Those are the free samples that are intended to show you their teaching method.

Bill
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post #1223 of 1344
4/30/12 at 12:57pm
Great! Thanks Bill.!
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post #1224 of 1344
6/15/12 at 8:05am
Where is everybody? Has the camera become perfect? Obsolete?
No one has any problems, questions?
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post #1225 of 1344
6/15/12 at 8:35am
I'm still loving my TM900. smile.gif

I sometimes have issues where the colours don't seem to be as rich, but I'm not sure if that's from my editing suite or the camera settings.

But it's not a major issue.

I've output to Blu Ray a few times and I'm just blown away at how amazing the footage looks and how good it sounds.

Also output to AppleTV 3 files and again, blown away by the quality.

Cheers
Keeb
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post #1226 of 1344
6/15/12 at 8:49am
Anyone found updated software (from Panasonic or other heavyweights like Adobe, Nero) that handle (input and output) 1080p60 files natively?
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post #1227 of 1344
6/15/12 at 8:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by keeb27 View Post

I'm still loving my TM900. smile.gif
I sometimes have issues where the colours don't seem to be as rich, but I'm not sure if that's from my editing suite or the camera settings.
But it's not a major issue.
I've output to Blu Ray a few times and I'm just blown away at how amazing the footage looks and how good it sounds.
Also output to AppleTV 3 files and again, blown away by the quality.
Cheers
Keeb
Which software do you use? and which file format/resolution for editing and output files?
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post #1228 of 1344
6/16/12 at 9:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by alokeprasad View Post

Anyone found updated software (from Panasonic or other heavyweights like Adobe, Nero) that handle (input and output) 1080p60 files natively?
I tried Panasonic for an upgrade to HD Writer via email to their tech support. The turned me down and said each camera needs the software it came with.

I also use and like the about $70 Adobe Premier Elements 10 on a laptop with an i5 processor and no graphics card. It reads 1080p60 fine, but does not render to it. What it does do is render to optimized file types people actually use to watch the short videos I make. In other words I can optimize for DVD, YouTube, iPod, laptop viewing, etc. That works for me.

My guess is that since 1080p60 has been in AVCHD 2.0 less than a year, it will be the next major round of software upgrades that will fully include it.

Bill
Edited by bsprague - 6/16/12 at 10:10am
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post #1229 of 1344
6/16/12 at 10:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by alokeprasad View Post

Where is everybody? Has the camera become perfect? Obsolete?
No one has any problems, questions?
My sense is that the entire camcorder section has slowed. It seem many of the frequent posters of 6 months or a year ago have gone elsewhere.

Bill
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post #1230 of 1344
6/16/12 at 12:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsprague View Post

My sense is that the entire camcorder section has slowed. It seem many of the frequent posters of 6 months or a year ago have gone elsewhere.
Bill

I've noticed this not only here, but on videomaker, creative cow, mu-43 forum, dvinfo and even dpreview. Maybe, with the good weather, people are actually out shooting! :-)

Best,

The Other Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution
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