VS11+ export HDV to HDR-HC3 tape -- transitions are missing

[djonathan]

HDV video captured from my HDR-HC3 is OK.

My edited HDV project looks fine -- title, transitions, clips, etc., when rendered to a file.

But when I choose the "HDV recording" to write to the HC3 tape, the intermediate rendered file is complete, but the title and transitions are missing from the tape. Instead there are blue (no recording) gaps between the video clips that end up on the tape.

This is my first attempt at export-to-tape.

-David

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forums!

This is the first time I have heard of such a problem with HDV Recording. I regularly do it, as do others here on the Board. VS11/11.5+ has a problem exporting back to Canon HDV cameras. This is a known bug. But no one has reported a problem with other HDV camera brands. In fact, quite to the contrary, Sony owners have specifically reported no problems.

Can you please give a little more detail about your workflow. You say the edited project looks fine when rendered to a file. Can we assume you mean you have rendered it to another HDV file (Share > Create Video File > HDV)?

When you attempt to send it to your camera, do you have the project in the timeline and simply choose Share > HDV Recording? This is, as far as I am aware, the correct workflow, and as you probably realise, VS first creates the intermediate file you mentioned which should be in the correct Transport Stream of mpeg-2 format recognised by your camera. But I am at a loss to know why the video clips are obviously being rendered to the TS version of .m2t but the titles and transitions are not.

Have you tried instead putting the original rendered file (i.e. the one where everything is there) in the timeline and exporting that? I realise it means another recode, but you are maintaining the same quality settings, so any loss in quality is unlikely to be perceptible to the naked eye.

The only other thing I can think to suggest is to update your DirectX from the Microsoft DirectX website. The current one is dated June 2008 and can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
Note that it updates both DirectX 9.0c (XP) and 10 (Vista). The number of your DirectX installation will not change, but the patch gives extra functionality in a number of areas and corrects other faults in VS11 in particular which appear linked to Windows recent updates. Note that DirectX is not included in the usual pattern of Windows automatic updates. It has to be done every so often by the user manually. So unless you have recently done this, you are probably still using the original, non-updated version of DirectX which came with your computer.

[djonathan]

> Can we assume you mean you have rendered it to another HDV file (Share > Create Video File > HDV)?

Yes.

> When you attempt to send it to your camera, do you have the project in the timeline and simply choose Share > HDV Recording?

Yes.

> But I am at a loss to know why the video clips are obviously being rendered to the TS version of .m2t but the titles and transitions are not.

As I recall, the intermediate file is given a .mpeg ending, but now I have to read up on what "transport stream" means.

The baffling thing to me is that once it has been rendered, it is just a bitstream. What remains that would be different about a transition vs. a video section?

BTW, it looks like every time I select "HDV Recording" VS11+ wants to render a new intermediate file. I can't just tell it to use an existing intermediate file. Am I missing something?

> Have you tried instead putting the original rendered file (i.e. the one where everything is there) in the timeline and exporting that?

No, will try later.

Will also look at DirectX version later.


Thanks.

-David

[Ken Berry]

BTW, it looks like every time I select "HDV Recording" VS11+ wants to render a new intermediate file. I can't just tell it to use an existing intermediate file. Am I missing something?

No. It will always render an intermediate file to ensure that it is in the correct transport stream format recognised by the camera. That is why I talked about it recoding the original file you produced successfully.

(As a matter of fact, I use the HDV Recording process both to get my edited file back on the camera, but also as a substitute for the Share > Create Video File > HDV process. And I use the resulting intermediate file both for later producing a hybrid AVCHD disc and to have a file stored on the computer which I can stream to my PS3 via the network connection. The PS3 apparently can only see the .mpg extension, and as you discovered this is what the intermediate file uses, rather than the original .m2t from the camera... which is of course mpeg-2 as well, just another version/stream of it.)

Please let us know if the DirectX update made any difference, and what happened when you used the successful file as the basis of the export process.