Hitachi 550 video camera

shipcord · Post by **shipcord** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:41 am

Can I use ULead Video software with my Hitachi 550 camera. The bundled soft ware it came with is terrible. It is very hard to use and the results are very unprofessional. It's My DVD and Movie Album SE3.

Should I use Video Studio or Movie Factory. I have used video cameras for many years, but I am relatively new at the DVD stuff as you probably already figured out.

I need something that is pretty user friendly and that I can remove clips and had interesting wipes. Also Add voice dub ins.

Denise

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:28 pm

Hi Denise, welcome to the forums..

The choice depends on if you want to just create DVD's without doing much editing or do a lot of editing and create DVD's without much authoring..

Confused

VS9 is primarily a video editing program. Where you can import your video clips, cut, add titles, transistions, overlay clips/images, add audio (voice over) and music, effects, filters and such. Then create a DVD. The DVD portion does not allow much creativity, but does a nice job.

DVD MF4 & DVD MF4 Disc Creator allows you to import your video clips, do very little editing, then create/author DVDs. While DVD MF4 does not allow the degree of authoring that the Pro-level DVD Workshop does, it will allow you to create custom DVD menus.

I have both and use VS9 more then DVD MF4. I will add that DVD MF4 has a nice automated slideshow creator.

Decisions, decisions

What I done was downloaded the trial versions of each, tried them to see what would best fit my needs... Like buying a car. I always test drive before I buy...

Regards

Ron P.

shipcord · Post by **shipcord** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:39 pm

Thanks for the reply Ron
At the risk of sounding very uninformed, could you explain what you mean by authoring. I know I am interested in in editing.

I used to have an old editing machine for my vcr tapes that would cut in pictures and do a few fades and wipes. I loved it.

Are you familiar with the Hitachi camera at all? any comments on it?

Denise

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:47 pm

No I'm not familiar with the Hitachi camcorder..

Authoring is when you create a DVD. You create your menus, titles, and chapters. You can do about the same with VS9, just that it limits you on moving and resizing text and menu items.

Ron P.

shipcord · Post by **shipcord** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:11 pm

Thanks again
I will down load the trial versions and give them a try

Denise

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:34 pm

You camera is, of course, a mini-DVD model, and got pretty good reviews when it was released in 2004. It records to DVD-RAM and -R mini discs, but not to -RW discs. You will need to read your manual carefully as to how you need to treat your discs (i.e. whether to finalise them in the camera) before transferring the contents to computer. That being said, people with this camera have reported no problems in using Video Studio with it. People who either have a similar Hitachi camera or the Panasonic PV-GS120 or VDR-M70, which are apparently almost identical, may want to offer more specific comments.