Capture & edit in HD

Sue Whitham · Post by **Sue Whitham** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 2:35 pm

I have a new JVC HD camcorder and VideoStudio 11.5 Plus. My captured footage is very jerky on playback. I disabled things running in the backgound, but I think my settings may be wrong (I am new to HD). The camera footage is MPEG format - does that make it field or frame based? I use dual head device (2nd monitor) Should I turn this off too?
Any help on HD would be appreciated

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:49 pm

You need to give us the exact model of the camera so that we can look up its specifications and make more educated guesses than are possible with the information you have provided. I am not even sure what you mean by HD -- is that High Definition? Or is it Hard Disk? Anyway, the model number will resolve that mystery.

You also need to tell us a little more than is in your system button. How old is the computer for instance? That will resolve whether the 2.8 GHz processor you have is a Pentium 4 or a Core 2 Duo for instance, but guessing from the graphics card, which is pretty long in the tooth, I am guessing it is a P4.

If it capturing in mpeg format, then I would guess (again!) that it should be Upper Field First. But you need to right click on one of the captured files within the Video Studio timeline or library pane, and copy down ALL its Properties here please...

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:15 pm

Hi Sue

To add to Kens questions.

How are you connecting the camera to the PC?

If it is High Definition then firewire may be the best option.

Sue Whitham · Post by **Sue Whitham** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:48 pm

My new camcorder is a JVC GZ-HD7 Everio with 60g hard drive.
My Packard Bell (Celeron D 2.8ghz) is 3 years old but has been upgraded during that time as follows:
nVidia GForce MX4000-8x graphics card (128MB - 64 bit)
2 MB RAM (which can give 4MB virtual)
80gb original C drive
80gb internal D drive for storage
320g external hard drive
The footage taken has a .TOD extension and the following attributes;
Video: MPEG-2 Upper field first
24 bits 1920 x 1080 16.9 aspect
25 fps
Variable (max 28000 kbps)
Audio: MPEG Audio Layer 2
48000hz
16 bit stereo
384 kbps
In the properties/preferences options, I can't find a way to set the width and height to 1920 x 1080 as the user defined field is greyed out.
When the camcorder is connected via the USB connection, the .TOD files are transferred hard drive to hard drive and can be imported into the library from there. Clips will play,but not smoothly
I have tried the firewire connection (which I always used to import from my mini DV camcorder) and VideoStudio recognises the JVC and runs, but then reports that capture failed. Incidentally, when VideoStudio displays the info for the camcorder, it is as above except for the resolution which says 1440 x 1080 (MPEG widescreen)

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 3:52 pm

Hi Sue

I am aware of some playback problems when using large files in VS.
HD files are large and can cause playback problems.

VS has covered this by creating Proxy files.
These are smaller files representing your main video files. Playback should be improved.

Have read at the manual or help files regarding ¡¥Enabling Smart Proxy¡¦

Sorry I cannot be more explicit, but as I said I do not use HD.

Others on the forum may be able to give further help.

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:00 pm

Hi Sue,

I fear your pc is going to struggle to cope with HD video. Although the Celeron D is a big improvement on earlier Celerons, it's still not really up to the job.

When you play a clip and it stutters - are you playing it in Windows Media Player, or in VS? In any case, when you next do so, run Windows Task Manager in its "Performance" tab. This will show how much cpu usage there is when playing the clip, and I suspect it will be high.

There's nothing wrong with transferring the video using a USB cable - since you have a hard drive camcorder. Firewire can offer higher speed transfer if it's available but it should not affect the quality of the captured video. This is in direct contrast to capture from a tape type camcorder, where Firewire would generally be the only suitable connection.

To be honest, I believe that when you consider buying an HD camcorder, you need to also consider having a fast enough pc to deal with the footage, and also a suitable target playback device. We're currently in a sort of halfway house situation, where people have the pc's and HDTV's, but blu ray burners and blank media are prohibitively expensive, except to a small band of enthusiastic early adopters. My hope is that HD-DVD, being dropped as the chosen format for movies, might become a realistically priced format for home video with sensible burner and media prices. For the present time, you can burn HD video to a conventional DVD, and play that either in a pc or an HD-DVD player.

Regarding the use of the feature known as "Smart Proxy" - this should indeed help - but the big downside is that it takes VS a long time to create the files. You might try it, and decide that the benefit to you is worth it, but other users can't deal with the long proxy file creation time.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:41 pm

Yes, you are better off using your cam in file mode. If you use the firewire port that will be HDV compliant which is 1440x1080i. If you recorded in that mode it's OK, but if you didn't then just copy the files over and insert them into VS timeline.

When working with HD Video always make your project settings equal the source video settings.
To do this go to "Project Settings" "File -> Project Properties" (ALT+ENTER Hotkey).
First goto the Compression Tab and under Media type:"change the format to "MPEG2", this will allow you to select all the High Definition parameters.

Your project settings should be
Compression Tab:
Media Type = Mpeg2
Quality = 90-100
Video data rate = (HDV) Constant 25000kbs OR (HD) Variable 28000kbs (Note: Match your source)
Audio = Mpeg2, Stereo, 384kbs

General Tab:
Frame rate = 25
Frame type = Upper Field First
FrameSize = (Same as your Source, 1440/1920) etc
Display aspect ratio = 16:9

I also recommend making a template of the same as above depending on for format you recorded in, you can make many templates under "Tools -> .Make Movie Manager"

With an empty timeline save your project with these settings, then when starting new projects load your template and all the correct settings will be applied.
After your finished editing the normal procedure to make a new video file on your hardisk would be "Share -> Same As Project Settings"

Your computers processor is a lttle slow to work with High Def and play it back correctly, although I have used a 2.8Ghz HT Pentium 4 without any real problems I think the celeron may be underpowered.

If you have to purchase another computer I suggest a Intel Q6600 (quad) or equal for high definition video editing and playback..

Sue Whitham · Post by **Sue Whitham** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:58 pm

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will experiment with Smart Proxy to see what happens, but it's looking like a new processor will be the only real solution.
Sue.