Capturing HD from Canon HV20 question¡K

Barney1 · Post by **Barney1** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:50 pm

I am trying to capture the video straight from my Canon HV20 HD camcorder and VS recognizes the camera fine and its capturing as I am writing this, but according to the GUI its capturing as a MPEG file not an AVI file. My old Sony standard def camera captured to an avi file. I tried to find a setting to switch this, but I will continue to keep looking in the manual and this web site as well. Thanks in advance!

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:08 pm

How are you capturing?

When you say GUI what do you mean by that?

Barney1 · Post by **Barney1** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:39 pm

Clevo,

When I say the GUI (graphical user interface) I mean VS 11+ itself. I just plug in the camcorder to the PC and then open VS and choose the capture tab. Then I choose the capture video icon and it recognizes the camera fine. The problem is that the only option in the dropdown window for ¡§format¡¨ is mpeg. I then click the capture video icon and it takes off. The problem is when its done it¡¦s a compress mpeg video, not a lossless .avi.

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:07 pm

Are you using the USB cable or the firewire?...sorry..this is what I meant by how are you capturing.

sl2008 · Post by **sl2008** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:49 pm

The HV20 is a high definition camera that records in HDV . This is a MPEG format. It can also record in DV mode , standard definition, which is an AVI file. I assume you are recording in HD, HDV format and therefore MPEG , not AVI. VS11+ is just doing the right thing.

Sergio

Barney1 · Post by **Barney1** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:28 am

Ok, I see. I am using fire wire to capture. Yes the recording is in HD so I guess that would mean mpeg, not avi for capture. I just thought that anything from a mini DV camera always was avi, which is loss less video. How much detail am I losing once I capture from the camcorder to the mpeg file and then render in VS11 + for the final output DVD? I know there is compression involved, but I always though it was once you created a DVD and that mini DV always was loss less video.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:30 am

I have only recently bought a HV20 of my own. As I understand it, if you are intending to burn a standard definition DVD of your high def video recorded by the camera, you have two options: 1) capture to HDV/mpeg-2 format (which will have 1440 x 1080 frame format) and convert it to standard definition mpeg-2 (720 x 480/576) for burning to SD DVD; or (2) capture to standard definition DV format, edit it in DV format and then convert to SD mpeg-2 for burning to SD DVD.

I personally will probably do the latter because DV is a known format for me to edit SD video in. However, I suspect that high def mpeg-2 is of such good quality that when converted to SD mpeg-2, you won't see any quality loss. I cannot yet comment, though, from practical experience on the editability of high def mpeg-2, but from the comments of the few users on this board who use it, it can be complicated but produces good results when done correctly.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:09 pm

My workflow is somewhat different in VS11+ for converting HD -> SD.
I'll import/insert or capture HDV into the VS11+ timeline, edit the HDV then output to a new HDV video file on my local harddisk.
(Usually using the "Share -> Create Video File -> Same As Project Settings")

Then I go into the "Share -> Create Disc -> DVD (Burning Module).
First I remove the project file that's carried over from the VS11+ timeline and inserted automatically into the burning modules timeline
Setup all the Burning Modules preferences, working folder, Project settings for the burning modules encoder.
Then I'll insert the edited HDV video file into the burning modules timeline.
Create chapters, menus and then burn a dvd or create dvd folders.
For myself this has been producing the best SD video file when the source is HDV.
The SD converted videos can still be accessible from the burning modules working folder temporary directories or you can import them
back into VS again.

If I export to SD from the timeline (HDV -> SD from the timeline), my fielding isn't as precise in the new SD file.
Letting the Burning module perform the downconversion/encoding the fielding/motion is very good, they look good.
I normally encode the SD video at VBR@9000kbs-9500kbs, Dolby 5.1@448kbs.
They look good on a large screen TV.

Barney1 · Post by **Barney1** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:31 pm

Again, great information I will take your advice and give it a try. Thanks again!