Transferring from Sony HDR-HC7

[Bunbury]

Hello. I've recently purchased a Sony HDR-HC7 (tape), my first camcorder. Very nice unit, from my experiences so far. However, when it comes to transferring video off the unit, I've run into problems.

 

The issue(s) is this. My first test was to record a nice 2 minute piece of footage in HDV1080i mode to get a feel for the quality. Then, I connected to the PC using the iLink/ieee cable and the Sony Picture Utility software which brought down a M2T file. (This was my first exposure to a streaming format). I then purchased Roxio Media Center 9 to convert to a video file, (eg. wmv or avi.) The problem is that it takes over an hour to convert a 2 minute bit of footage and 100% CPU so I can't actually get on with other work. The result was nice, but is there a quicker way to convert from a HDV M2T format to say AVI with Roxio or anything else? Am I missing something (being a novice dunce)?

 

After playing a bit with the HC7 I found that I could record in HD1080i and convert to DV camera as the data is downloaded from the camera. The great thing about this method is that it instantly produces an AVI file. The problem here, is that it takes the 16:9 letterbox I recorded it in and can watch nicely on the LCD of the camera and crushes it into 4:3, ie. making everyone look alot thinner! I would like the file to be in 16:9.

 

It seems I can set the camcorder up to video in DV 4:3 and then I can download the 4:3 and everything's lovely, (except the fact that I would then have wasted half the value of the camcorder as that isn't HD.) The dillema here is the get HD off the camera quickly and converted (if necessary) to a video format for editing in WMM or Roxio VideoWave.

 

Thanks

[Bunbury]

The problem is that it takes over an hour to convert a 2 minute bit of footage and 100% CPU so I can't actually get on with other work.

 

Just found the background conversion setting which is helping a bit!

[ggrussell]

EMC 9 does support burning Blueray discs if you have a Blueray burner. That's about the only way to keep the files in HiDef. Videowave does have output options for WMV HD and DivX HD, but there aren't that many DVD players that support those formats.

 

You need to understand that HiDef contains much more frame data than regular standard def video and it will need more CPU power and time to convert or render. I wouldn't even consider any CPU other than Quad Core (or better) for HiDef editing.

 

I have read in other forums that using a HiDef camcorder to record DV 4:3 standard def does give much better results than using a SD camcorder. At least you do have that option until you're ready to go HiDef full time.

 

When you record in SD using DV, you should be able to capture with Media Import in EMC 9, too

[Bunbury]

Thanks, that's very helpful to know. Thought I might have been starting with something too involved.

 

I now seem to have another problem. I've just record a bit of video in DV mode and when I run Roxio Media Import, it offers me "Sony DV Device" from the drop down menu of items and the camera seems to response to the selection but then RMI throughs up an error "Failed to setup system components for showing picutre or sound"

 

 

Any ideas? Thanks.

[ggrussell]

Hmm... Sounds like a possible video card issue or sound card. What video card do you have? Parts of EMC 9 depend on DirectX. Make sure you have updated video card drivers and the latest updates to DirectX 9. You need to do both of these manually. Windows update doesn't.