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I read the Canon manual but could not figure out how you are supposed to capture live video directly to the PC without a Firewire port? All my other DV cameras used Firewire to capture with....Thanks!
HF10/100 video capture to PC with no 1394 port?
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The HF10/100 uses USB. DV and HDV uses firewire. Another plus for AVCHD.
AVCHD cams record to files. Treat your camera as an external disk drive.
You could get an Intensity HDMI capture card from Blackmagic Design and record uncompressed video direct to your PC from the Canon's HDMI out.
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So the live AVCHD capture streams right to the PC via USB?
No... AVCHD doesn't support Live mode (other than via a capture board, HDMI or component).
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So, I'm a little confused now. One poster says they use USB now I'm hearing you need a HDMI capture card.
What if I went with a model that does have a 1394 port like the SR12?
What if I went with a model that does have a 1394 port like the SR12?
The SR12 does not have a FireWire 1394 port. Only USB 2.0 for data transfers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wirelessness /forum/post/14285714
So, I'm a little confused now. One poster says they use USB now I'm hearing you need a HDMI capture card.
What if I went with a model that does have a 1394 port like the SR12?
The SR12 does not have a FireWire 1394 port. Only USB 2.0 for data transfers.
Live capture via HDMI (you will need a special processing board like BlackMagic), clip transfer via USB. If you want tapeless and Firewire, look at the JVC HD7. Not sure about newer models.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wirelessness /forum/post/14285714
So, I'm a little confused now. One poster says they use USB now I'm hearing you need a HDMI capture card.
Live capture via HDMI (you will need a special processing board like BlackMagic), clip transfer via USB. If you want tapeless and Firewire, look at the JVC HD7. Not sure about newer models.
Because the hf-10/100 is tapeless (recorded on SDHC card), the file is created, for example like a jpg picture file from a digital camera, where you can just transfer the file via usb to the computer so you can edit it. Because of this, there is no capturing whatsoever.
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Any specific reason why you would want a firewire?
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Just to make it really clear: "capturing" means turning video in to a file which can be played back later.
When the camera isn't in record mode, you can feed what the camera is seeing via the HDMI port to a TV or capture card.
When you press record, the camera starts the capturing: creating a file in the onboard flash media. Once you stop the recording, this file can then be transferred/downloaded to a PC or played back by the camera and e.g. fed to a TV.
To transfer the files you can either link to a USB 2 port and transfer at up to 480Mb/s (comparable to firewire), or remove the SDHC card and place in a card reader (some are USB, others are on the PCI bus of the motherboard which may allow faster transfer).
Note that the rate of transfer is limited by the flash memory and the host interface, but typically you can transfer at many times the recorded speed, i.e. 1 hour's recording in a few minutes. Once transferred, you can re-use the flash memory for new recordings.
If you really want live streaming capture from the camera (i.e. can't afford camera downtime for the transfer, or need to record several hours continously), you will need an external capture device such as a HDMI card. But I doubt it.
When the camera isn't in record mode, you can feed what the camera is seeing via the HDMI port to a TV or capture card.
When you press record, the camera starts the capturing: creating a file in the onboard flash media. Once you stop the recording, this file can then be transferred/downloaded to a PC or played back by the camera and e.g. fed to a TV.
To transfer the files you can either link to a USB 2 port and transfer at up to 480Mb/s (comparable to firewire), or remove the SDHC card and place in a card reader (some are USB, others are on the PCI bus of the motherboard which may allow faster transfer).
Note that the rate of transfer is limited by the flash memory and the host interface, but typically you can transfer at many times the recorded speed, i.e. 1 hour's recording in a few minutes. Once transferred, you can re-use the flash memory for new recordings.
If you really want live streaming capture from the camera (i.e. can't afford camera downtime for the transfer, or need to record several hours continously), you will need an external capture device such as a HDMI card. But I doubt it.
I have a few questions before I purchase an HF100. My first question was if you could use a card reader to transfer the file instead of the USB connection on the camcorder itself (which I'd expect to be really slow) but you answered that one already. The answer is what I was hoping for. Thanks.
The next question is regarding playback. Can the camcorder's files be transferred to a PC then played back using generic media players like WMP, MPC, VLC, etc? Or will I need to use some cumbersome editing application for basic playback?
Quote:
Originally Posted by number.cruncher /forum/post/14286306
To transfer the files you can either link to a USB 2 port and transfer at up to 480Mb/s (comparable to firewire), or remove the SDHC card and place in a card reader (some are USB, others are on the PCI bus of the motherboard which may allow faster transfer).
Note that the rate of transfer is limited by the flash memory and the host interface, but typically you can transfer at many times the recorded speed, i.e. 1 hour's recording in a few minutes. Once transferred, you can re-use the flash memory for new recordings.
I have a few questions before I purchase an HF100. My first question was if you could use a card reader to transfer the file instead of the USB connection on the camcorder itself (which I'd expect to be really slow) but you answered that one already. The answer is what I was hoping for. Thanks.
The next question is regarding playback. Can the camcorder's files be transferred to a PC then played back using generic media players like WMP, MPC, VLC, etc? Or will I need to use some cumbersome editing application for basic playback?
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You can use those programs to play back the files as long as you have the proper codecs. I think VLC has the codecs builtin.
VLC don't support them natively (yet).
You'll need three DShow components for playback in WMP, MPC or BSP, and if you buy the HF100, they'll all come with the software along with the camcorder:
1. A TS splitter that supports AVCHD (example: Haali Media Splitter)
2. A H.264 decoder (example: CoreAVC)
3. An AC-3 decoder (example: AC3Filter)
Note: If you get a Sony camcorder, you'll get #1-2, but you'll have to use AC3Filter for audio playback.
I've put the ones I would suggest to use if the ones coming with the camcorder software don't work to your satisfaction. CoreAVC isn't free, but is relatively cheap compared to other alternatives, like PowerDVD Ultra.
Mirillis.com had a promising little free player going on, but looks like free was too good to be true. :S
You'll need three DShow components for playback in WMP, MPC or BSP, and if you buy the HF100, they'll all come with the software along with the camcorder:
1. A TS splitter that supports AVCHD (example: Haali Media Splitter)
2. A H.264 decoder (example: CoreAVC)
3. An AC-3 decoder (example: AC3Filter)
Note: If you get a Sony camcorder, you'll get #1-2, but you'll have to use AC3Filter for audio playback.
I've put the ones I would suggest to use if the ones coming with the camcorder software don't work to your satisfaction. CoreAVC isn't free, but is relatively cheap compared to other alternatives, like PowerDVD Ultra.
Mirillis.com had a promising little free player going on, but looks like free was too good to be true. :S
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The HF100 comes with Pixel Imagemixer software. This has its own player and also installs a codec so that you can open the files in Windows Media Player. You need to associate .m2ts files with WMP, though (they're not by default). And be warned you need a powerful PC for these software-based codecs. My 2.2GHz T7500 Core 2 Duo runs at 90% when playing back.
There are other solutions such as PowerDVD which uses hardware in the latest GPUs to help. My CPU usage drops to about 5-10% and footage is noticeably more fluid. But its currently $100 which I think is too steep if you only need the codec and not a full blown Bluray player.
There are other solutions such as PowerDVD which uses hardware in the latest GPUs to help. My CPU usage drops to about 5-10% and footage is noticeably more fluid. But its currently $100 which I think is too steep if you only need the codec and not a full blown Bluray player.
I'm pretty sure I've got those codecs already on my system. Obviously, a hardware-accelerated codec would be preferred, but my main CPU is a 3.2GHz quad-core, so it should be able to handle software playback.
My family's PCs are nowhere near that powerful though, but it seems like I have several simple options for playback, so I can experiment and see what works best for them.
Thanks guys!
My family's PCs are nowhere near that powerful though, but it seems like I have several simple options for playback, so I can experiment and see what works best for them.
Thanks guys!
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405 Posts
I find that PowerDVD 7.0 Ultra plays back the videos much smoother than CoreAVC. Seems CoreAVC has an inferior deinterlacer.
Set deinterlacing to "hardware" in CoreAVC, and your graphics card will handle it. It should produce the same deinterlaced video as PowerDVD, which uses that card by default.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTV Freak /forum/post/14298033
Seems CoreAVC has an inferior deinterlacer.
Set deinterlacing to "hardware" in CoreAVC, and your graphics card will handle it. It should produce the same deinterlaced video as PowerDVD, which uses that card by default.
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There is no hardware deinterlacing option in CoreAVC. Besides the deinterlace, powerdvd produces better PQ.
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