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I have not tried upgrading through PD8, but I have several videos recorded with a Canon SD microcassette camera, that I burned to DVD in SD. Playing them on my Sony DVD player, it will "upconvert" to 1080i providing a worthwhile improvement in sharpness and contrast, only bothered by a bit of aliasing.
My video player with harddrive does the same thing with similar results.
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Thanks, Carl, my new Panasonic camcorder uses a Class 6 card, and seems to be working just fine.
The reason I ask is that I have a Panasonic SD camcorder with flash memory (no speed rating) that was not producing the video quality I used to get with a previous Mini DV camcorder using tape. My daughter-in-law is interested in this camcorder, and I was wondering if I should try a Class 4 card (actually the manual calls for this), before I give it to her.
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How would inadequate speed of the memory card in SD or HD flash memory camcorders be manifested? Would it cause frame dropouts, jerkiness, reduced resolution . . . ?
I am curious, because I have been reading reviews stating that some cards don't even meet their classification specs, and/or vary considerably within the same brand name and model.
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Hi JF!
Thanks for all that good info. I have used PD8 for some time, but only editing SD and burning to DVD, so HD is new to me, and I was unsure of what to look for in a suitable media player. I did not know that PD8 can produce that many file formats, so maybe the choice of player is not so critical.
I have been taking some test shots indoors and out with the new camera using 1080i/60 at 17Mb/s, feeding the video directly to the TV via HDMI, and I am very pleased with the results so far.
I agree that PD8 does a great job, but I would not exactly call it simple to use - at least I went through a good deal of trial-and-error.
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Denbigh - I agree that a separate HDD and media player is the logical way to go - but my problem is that I already have too many components and cables from TV, disk player, and a rather large stereo system. A combined player and HDD would ease my situation - not to mention my wife!
James - You are right about the cables. I ordered a gold plated mini-HDMI cable on the internet for $1.00, the shipping was $2.98! Many stores want $20.00 for such a cable - crazy!
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Thanks to you all for your informative answers. I just received the new camcorder today, and it looks good! By the time I had it charged, it was getting too dark for any real shooting, but today I will play with it. Took some indoor, artificial light shots that look promising - at least on the LCD.
I ordered a HDMI cable, but it has not arrived yet. But looking through the camera and TV manuals, it appears that I can run 1080i/60 through the provided component input cable and the TV will display in that format - I didn't know that and thought you could only get HD through the HDMI connector. Will I get the same display quality this way?
And - yes - I will be cautious about the media player choice. I know that the Western Digital players are preferred by many, but I have not found one with integral HDD, please advise if I am wrong on that. I will shoot some footage and run it through PD8 to see what the output options are.
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Hi All,
Well - I need some more advice. I have taken the jump to HD and ordered a Panasonic HDC-SD60S, which does MPEG4-AVC/H.264 (AVCHD standard compliant). It was selected based on size, reviews and a good price. In considering my HDTV playback options, I have decided that a HD Media Player with integral hard drive of 500Tb or more would suit my situation best, as it could be loaded with both videos and my wife's still pictures for easy viewing and storage. However, I could only find a couple on the internet that would seem to do the job:
Media Player #1:
Video Formats - MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI/VOB), MPEG-4 (AVI/XViD), DivX®, H.264, WMV, AVCHD
File Types - .mkv, .avi, .asf, .iso, .vob, .mp4, .mov, .wmv, .flv
Media Player #2:
Video Formats: MKV; AVI; DivX®; DivX HD; RMVB Real Media; WMV9; VC-1; MPEG-1; MPEG-2 (VOB/ISO); MPEG-4 (Xvid); Xvid HD; MOV; AVC HD; H.264; M2TS; TS/TP/M2T
(no file types listed)
And now my questions:
1) It appears that both players would play the raw video from the camera ok, but what about the edited and produced output files from PD8?
2) What is the file extension(s) of the produced HD output files from PD8? I need to make sure that the player can process them.
All comments are appreciated.
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Thanks Andrew.
I have one more question for Dafydd or anybody else. I understand that the edited memcards - from the cameras mentioned - play from your WD to TV, but have you tried to insert them in the cameras, and use the camera as the media player? I ask because I can do this with my SD Panasonic camera.
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Thanks Neil and Dafydd for the additional info, it is all very helpful.
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Thanks to all of you for your insightful comments. I am glad to learn of the uncertainty of reloading and playing back a produced video from the camera, I did not consider that, because I can do it with my present camcorder.
Clearly I have to do more research before jumping in, but the full suite needed, i.e. HD camcorder + BR disc burner for the computer + BR disc player for the TV (computer and TV are far apart in the house) is a tall order! I will also look into the media players.
You may hear from me again.
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This may be a potentially dumb question - but what the heck!
I am using my trusty Panasonic SDR-S26 SD camcorder to shoot travel and family event videos, rarely longer than 20-25 minutes in length (after all, how much more can you expect people to sit through?  ). I edit the videos in PD8, burn them to DVD, and play them on a Plasma HD TV. My DVD player "upconverts" the DVD Video to HD format, and the overall results have been pretty good.
However, I am attracted to the idea of getting a true HD camcorder, but from reading this forum - where it seems a fair number of people are having problems producing BR discs - and thinking through what it would require in terms of hardware acquisitions, I was thinking of another approach. I know you can run HD video directly from the camcorder to the TV, but would it be feasible to shoot HD, download and edit the video in PD8, produce it and then load it back to a memory card in the camcorder for playback on the TV? This would allow me to edit the videos (necessary!) and still enjoy them in full format without having to acquire a BR recorder and player.
If feasible, what would be the required amount of memory in the cards used for such videos?
System:
CPU I7-960 OC @ 3.84Ghz, Asetek Water Cooler
Asus P6T X58 MB, 6Gb RAM Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600Mhz
EVGA nVidia GTX 275 w. 1.792Gb DDR3 RAM
1 Tb SATA II HD, Kingston 128Gb SSD (FSX only)
Apevia 800W PS, Win 7 64-bit
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Jeff,
in my reply suggesting taking music from CDs I of course was only thinking of videos for home use.
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Jeff,
don't you have any good CDs? That is all I use.
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Steve,
I had the same frame detection problem when first using PD8. Setting the detection sensitivity to 100% cured the problem for me.
I also experience the reduction of framelength, but for me it is caused by the length of any transitions used.
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Hi Tony,
the website address says "patches", and the listing for 2220c says "This update file updates PowerDirector 8 to PowerDirector 8 build 2220c", so I installed it without uninstalling the current program - my usual practice - but then noticed that the "update" was of similar size to the existing program.
It works fine, so I suspect that the update just overwrote the original program, but for some reason it looks to Windows like a duplicate installation.
Thanks for your reply.
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Since 2220 is listed as a "patch", I installed it over the existing version. The folders and files appear and work normally, but the program appears twice in the Control Panel Uninstall/Install list. Is 2220c a full program?
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Hi sjordi,
I have a related experience. With a travel video shot with a new Panasonic SD camcorder and edited in the included Panasonic editing software, produced on a DVD in SDHQ 16:9, played back on a Sony "upconvering" DVD player, I get a 1-2 second freeze frame before every scene change.
However, previous DVDs made from SD videos shot with a Canon DV (mini cassette) camcorder and edited in a different program, play back perfectly in the Sony.
I am presently editing the first mentioned travel video in PD8, and I am curious to see how it will play in the Sony.
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Thanks for the link Glotzo!
I had previously found the 1.9998 beta version on another site - by intensive googleing, and don't ask me how - but it looks like this thread is the one to check for new updates from Sektionschef, and I have added it to my addressbook.
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Sorry for the outdated link - yes, I also use the 1.9998 beta version.
The problem with the Panasonic output data is the separate *.MOI files, which contain the aspect marker. The Video Cam Suite 2.0 program that came with the camera is not very useable, but at least it can also read the MOI files, so it should not be too hard to do in PD8.
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Hi Glotzo
I have struggled with exactly the same aspect ratio problem with my Panasonic SD camcorder, but luckily there is a solution.
Go to http://zyvid.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=280.0;id=221
and install the sdcopy program (no installation as such, just unzip and copy the folder to your hard drive. Open the program, select source and destination folders, rename MOD to MPG, check the "set wide screen Flag (16:9)" and Start.
The renamed files can now be opened in 16:9 format.
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