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Canon Vixia HFS100 compatibility
pillowpc2001 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: May 28, 2009 18:59 Messages: 23 Offline
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I am thinking of getting the Canon HFS100 hi-def camcorder, and I was wondering if its videos are compatible with PowerDirector, and if they can be edited/saved at the maximum 24Mbps format. I actually don't have the full version of PowerDirector yet either, but from what I've heard, the software that comes with the HFS100 has some limitations, so I may need another editing tool...

I already have Sony Vegas Platinum, but it can only seem to either save just the video at the maximum bitrate, or save the video and audio but at only 16Mbps...
James W
Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline
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I have a Canon HG20 and I routinely record and edit using 1920x1080 30p at 24 Mb/s. PD does not give me any trouble.

Editing in high definition also depends on your computer hardware. I purchased a Quad Core Q9300 CPU a couple of months ago to speed up the rendering times. Previously I used a E7200 which edited fine, but rendering took a long time. You may find that different software has different requirements. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT
pillowpc2001 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: May 28, 2009 18:59 Messages: 23 Offline
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OK... Does it work with 24p too?

Thanks!
James W
Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline
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It also works at 60i and 24p. I use the 30p exclusively since I have no reason to change it. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT
pillowpc2001 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: May 28, 2009 18:59 Messages: 23 Offline
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Thanks!

Getting slightly off the subject - this is more a question about the camcorder, not PD - but I was wondering which of the 3 settings (24p, 30p, 60i) would be best for ordinary home movies. For other video projects that I do, I would probably use the 24p, but for regular home movies I figured I'd just use the default 60i... Would it be worth it to cut the frame rate in half to use 30p instead of 60i?
James W
Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline
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I actually have the same question. Canon makes it sound like 30p is the "best" setting. Maybe someone else knows more about this. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT
pillowpc2001 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: May 28, 2009 18:59 Messages: 23 Offline
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Well, I got the HFS100 now, as well as downloaded the trial version of PowerDirector 7 (although I can't do any major testing, because my SDHC card hasn't arrived yet...). However, I did download some sample videos a little while ago, and have been experimenting with them in PD. Two more questions:

1) Is there a way to load a video project made with PD back onto the Canon camcorder (I'm guessing your HG20 works the same way, if there is a way)? I thought I'd be able to use the software it comes with (Pixela ImageMixer), but for some reason it won't even install on my computer...

2) I made a custom setting in PD that uses MPEG-2 1080i at 24Mpbs, this also seems to use SVRT too... I played it back and it looks good, but then again my resolution is only 1280x768; do you think the MPEG-2 24Mpbs setting would be good to use (ie minimal to no quality loss)? (edit 6/5/09 - I also may take video in the 17Mpbs setting; if I make another custom setting in PD that's the same as the above except at 17Mpbs, would this also have minimal to no quality loss?)

Thanks!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jun 05. 2009 13:37

James W
Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline
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As far as I know you can not import a mts file back onto the camera. I never actually tried, but I remember a post on this forum where someone tried this and it was not successful. Each camera manufacture uses a slightly different format for capturing/saving video. The output from PD will generally not work with the camera.

As for AVCHD it seems to only work if the file has not previously been edited. There is a long post about AVCHD and SVRT. I would do a search for AVCHD and you will surely find it. The last I heard (about three weeks ago) is that Cyberlink is working on redoing the rendering algorithms and a new version may be released soon.

Have fun with your new camera!

Here's a link to the post concerning AVCHD and SVRT.
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/5480.page

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Jun 05. 2009 16:22

Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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I have a Canon HF S10, but I'm a bit of a newbie in video editing. You can transfer clips back to the camera from the ImageMixer Library - not sure why it won't install on your machine.

I've had very little success using HD clips in PD7. They look great on the camera, wonderful when I plug the camera directly into a TV, fine when I play them in the AVCHD player that is built into the software (Pixela)... but as soon as it's in PD7, it st-starts jerking all ove the place.

I think it's probably something I'm doing wrong (usually is). I'll keep playing with it to see if I can get them to talk to each other, but I don't like my chances.

Hey - James & pillow - why don't you pop over one day and you can show me what to do!

Cheers -

Tony

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jun 05. 2009 16:39


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James W
Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline
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Hi Tony, I checked with Delta and they want about $900 for me to fly round trip to Sydney. I can send you the bill if you want to schedule a service visit. :

What computer hardware do you have? My old computer was an E7200 and PD could playback my AVCHD files, but rendering was slow. It didn't stutter all that much. After a couple of months I sent my E7200 to my father to upgrade his computer and I got my Q9300. I'm using less than 5% CPU usage now playing a 24 mbps AVCHD file under high preview settings. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT
pillowpc2001 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: May 28, 2009 18:59 Messages: 23 Offline
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So at this time there's no option to edit video and keep the original quality? It doesn't matter if it uses SVRT or not - I just mentioned it because the setting I was using did...

Is it possible to burn an AVCHD DVD and keep the original quality? I made a test DVD, and while nothing else on my computer that I tried (not even Windows Explorer) could read it, PowerDirector could, and it looked like the file size was reduced from 207MB to 142MB...
James W
Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline
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I normally render my file project as a HD MPEG2 file. The file size gets much larger, but the quality is not as degraded. We'll have to see if Cyberlink address this in upcomming updates. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT
pillowpc2001 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: May 28, 2009 18:59 Messages: 23 Offline
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OK... How long will it be until the PD update? And is it going to be a "full" update (ie I can buy the box and it will already have the fixes), or a downloadable "patch"?
pillowpc2001 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: May 28, 2009 18:59 Messages: 23 Offline
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Never mind...I ended up sending the camera back... Between software problems, and the fact that I don't really have a way to play back the AVCHD DVDs right now, it just didn't feel like the right time for an HD camcorder...

Maybe I'll try again a few years from now, when I'm more prepared, and it'll probably be half the price too...
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