[t7731mg]

Hello,


I just bought my first camcorder - Sony HDR XR150 as my wife is having a baby soon. We want to be able to share clips with remote family members via of the computer.


I have been goofing around with it and not having much luck other than plugging the thing into my HD TV. Using the PMB software, I am able to import the file files, but they are choppy when I watch them on the computer and post them to facebook and/or youtube.


I have a Dell computer that is a few years old and I have a feeling that I will be told that the video card is outdated. Any suggestions?


One other thing. I am able to watch videos posted by others on youtube etc and the quality excellent. Thanks for the help.

 

[sabatical]

What software are you using to play back the videos on your computer? What are the specs of your computer? (CPU, RAM, video card model). Also, try defragmenting your hard drive - files from the XR150 are quite large so they take up a lot of room.


Try downloading Splash Lite - http://mirillis.com/en/products/splash.html


Are you uploading untouched videos to YouTube/Facebook? Try viewing the 320p version that YouTube provides. It should play back fine. (YouTube should also give you the option of 480p, 720p and 1080p if you upload footage direct from the camera)

 

[t7731mg]



What software are you using to play back the videos on your computer?

I am currently using the PMB (Picture Motion Browser) that came with the camcorder to upload and view video files on the computer in the m2ts file type. This application converts file from m2ts to wmv files for emailing and posting to facebook / yourtube, etc. I think that these are played on Windows Media player. Either way, the replay of these videos is pretty bad.




What are the specs of your computer? (CPU, RAM, video card model).
CPU - AMD Turion 64 x 2 - 1.6 GHz

RAM - 1.87 GB

Video Card - ATI Radeon Xpress Series (0x5975) 256 mb


Also, try defragmenting your hard drive - files from the XR150 are quite large so they take up a lot of room.

done.



Try downloading Splash Lite
I downloaded a trial version of splash, however I am not quite sure what it is. Do I use this tool to upload from the camera and then watch, or just watch?


Are you uploading untouched videos to YouTube/Facebook?
The videos are basically untouched, maybe cut a little, but not really edited.

Can I upgrade my video card, or am I looking at having to buy another computer?

 

[sabatical]

Try this:


Record 15 seconds of footage on you XR150 and transfer it over to your computer using PMB.


"Splash Lite" is used solely for video playback. People who have lower spec machines have found it to be able to play m2ts files where other applications can not. Hopefully, you'll be able to watch the video without it being choppy.


I just tried playing a HD-FX m2ts (24Mbps) video on an single core Celeron 1.7 Ghz laptop with on-board video and Windows Media Player and VLC resulted in very choppy playback. Splash Lite did much better, it wasn't perfect but watchable. It looks like your PC is a dual core with a better graphics card, so perhaps you'll have better luck


Also, instead of converting your m2ts file to WMV using PMB, try uploading the m2ts file directly to YouTube. The file will be much larger than the converted WMV file, so it may take a while. YouTube accepts m2ts files (I've uploaded footage from my XR150).


Let us know how you go

 

[t7731mg]

"Splash Lite" is used solely for video playback. People who have lower spec machines have found it to be able to play m2ts files where other applications can not. Hopefully, you'll be able to watch the video without it being choppy.

Splash Lite is better than Windows Media Player, but not quite as good as PMB for some reason. - Either way, I spent the extra money on this HD camera cause I wanted a great picture. I am regretting my decision at this point, cause I am quite certain I could have gotten just as good, or even better results with a $200 camcorder.



I just tried playing a HD-FX m2ts (24Mbps) video on an single core Celeron 1.7 Ghz laptop with on-board video and Windows Media Player and VLC resulted in very choppy playback. Splash Lite did much better, it wasn't perfect but watchable. It looks like your PC is a dual core with a better graphics card, so perhaps you'll have better luck

My computer is actually a single core processor. Probably a big part of the problem. Again, a less expensive, standard def camera would have been better, I think.



Also, instead of converting your m2ts file to WMV using PMB, try uploading the m2ts file directly to YouTube. The file will be much larger than the converted WMV file, so it may take a while. YouTube accepts m2ts files (I've uploaded footage from my XR150).

I tried uploading directly to youtube and the quality is much, much better. I guess my problem with this is that it takes about 4 minutes of upload for every one minute of video.

I guess there really isnt much more that I can do until I buy a new laptop. That being said, I am still confused as to why I am able to watch other peoples videos on youtube and they are great quality compared to mine. There still must be something that I can change when either recording or uploading.


Should I be not be recording on the highest possible setting? I know that this setting (HD FX) will use more space and take longer to upload. Would switching to HD FH or HD HQ reduce the quality of my videos even further.


Thanks a ton for your help.

 

[t7731mg]

Spent an entire Saturday playing with this camcorder. Just by chance, I noticed that some of the HD files I had recorded had an image size of 1440 X 1080 while others were 1920 X 1080. The instructions for the camera really, really suck, so I conducted my own little research product. Hopefully this will help someone experiencing the same issue in the future.


I recorded 30 second files in each of the five different settings (4 HD & 1 STD). I learned that HDFX and HDFH both have an image size of 1920 x 1080 and therefore both of their files were quite large. I then learned that both HDHQ and HDLP were both 1440 x 1080 and has much smaller file sizes. The standard setting had an image size of 720 x 480 and had the smallest file size of all 5. The rankings in terms of both image size and file size are below


1. HDFX - Largest files, longest upload times, very choppy when viewing on my older model Dell computer


2. HDFH - Files that are 30% smaller than the size of HDFX, however, still very long upload times and quite choppy when viewing on my older model Dell.

3. HDHQ - Files that are half the size of HDFX, still long upload times, however very good when viewing on my Dell and on youtube. This is the setting that I will be using until I upgrade my laptop.


4. HDLP - Files are 1/4 the size of HDFX, upload times are shorter, but viewing on my laptop was no better than HDHQ


5. STD - Files are actually bigger than HDLP but not HD. I would only use this option if I needed to store 50 hours of recording on the hard drive.

 

[bernhtp]

Your PC hardware is pretty light/old for HD video. The far better codec in Windows 7 might make it play smoothly, but there is no chance under XP or Vista without third-party products.

 

[t7731mg]

I have decided to buy a new computer. Any suggestions for minimum specs.

 

[sabatical]

Here is a link to a thread that discusses PC specs for playing and editing AVC-HD footage.

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=138324.0


I use a mid level notebook which has an Intel i5 2.2Ghz CPU, 2GB RAM, onboard video and 500GB hard drive, Windows 7 64bit. It plays HD-FX videos perfectly and editing using Vegas Video 10 is fine.


Adding more RAM would certainly improve performance.


Are you planning on building a desktop or a notebook?

 

[Paulo Teixeira]

i7 Quad-core processor


Windows 7 64 Bit


8GB RAM


7200RPM hard drive. Even better if you have more than 1 hard drive. This way 1 hard drive will mostly concentrate on running Windows and your programs while at least 1 or 2 more hard drives will have media and other files.


Nowadays it doesn't cost that much to have a computer with at least those specs.