Panasonic hc-v700 and vs x5

[dmz]

Greetings,
Im looking to purchase a Panasonic hc-v700 and am wondering whether any VS PRO users have one of these and know if it works with VS PRO. I am hoping that I can record in 1080/60p and get VS PRO to import videos successfully for editing.

Cheers

David

[Ken Berry]

If you do a search for 'Panasonic 700' you will get quite a few responses, mostly related to its ability to film in full progressive 50/60 fps mode. There was a somewhat convoluted way of dealing with, and producing, such video using previous versions of Video Studio. However, with version X5, it is now an integral and easy part of the program. Under settings, you have to tick 'Enable 60P/50P settings'. And when you are outputting new video from a project, 50/60P now appears as an option for both Blu-Ray and AVCHD.

[dmz]

Thanks Ken.
Any hints on what rendering settings will ensure the best possible quality output?

[Ken Berry]

I see that you are in Australia, so I assume you will be using the 50P setting, instead of the 60P you mention, which is of course NTSC...

That being said, your camcorder films in AVCHD 2.0 format which, apart from the frame rate being fully progressive 50 fps, also uses the 'new' maximum international bitrate of 28 Mbps. Unfortunately, VS is still stuck at the old rate maximum of 18 Mbps. So when you finish editing and want to produce a new AVCHD file, you would choose the 50P 1920 x 1080 option. But you would take a hit in quality with the lower bitrate in VS. Mind you, I suspect that your eyes might not really notice that difference since it is still extremely good at 18 Mbps.

I have never tried this, but you might be able to make a new template using the full 28 Mbps maximum by storing a small piece of your original video with those properties somewhere on your computer. You then go to Settings > Make Movie Template Mansager. Then click the Add button on the dialogue box which appears. Give the new template a name, then click on the '...' button and navigate to where your clip is stored and select it. The file path will now appear. Close out of those boxes. Next time you want that format, select Share > Create Video File, and down at the bottom of the drop-down menu, your new template should appear.

VS also has Share > Create Video File > Same As First Clip, but I don't think that will work with your format video.... though you could try it.

[dmz]

Thanks heaps Ken.
I will give it a try and report back.

[lata]

Ken David

I have a few Pana 700 samples and they all seem to activate Same as First Video option

[dmz]

First thing is that I cannot capture using VS. Even after connecting the device VS says there is no device to capture.
Im assuming that I have to capture uring the supplied software (HD writer AE). This captures to an M2TS file whatever that is. And I can edit that in VS which is a good start.
When I create a video file and say "same as first clip" as suggested, it gives me this:
PAL double (50 fps)
MPEG Transport-Stream Files
24 bits, 1920 x 1080, 50 fps
Frame-based
(HDMV-PAL), 16:9
H.264 Video
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 25000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)

which is promising. Ill now have to experiment with other formats.....

looking at resultant output file is sad. There are blotches of pixelation using the above settings....

[lata]

Hi David

First the 700 records video to a memory card or internal hard drive.
There file are transferred to the pc rather than captured.
The process is the same as importing image files, that is using the camera as a removable drive, and Drag and Drop or Copy and Paste
Saving the files to a dedicated folder, a different folder for each project.

However we would recommend using the software that came with the camera to move the files to the pc, in your case the HD writer AE. which you have successfully done.
The properties of the video file look normal to me.
MT2S type is used when importing using HD Writer AE, use drag and drop and i think you get MTS, same video properties.
The video files you have are directly from the camera, video studio has not altered these.


The preview screen does not fully represent the final quality, play the clip using one of your media players to view quality, and checkout the pixelation. Should play ok

[dmz]

Thanks for the explanation.
I will use the HD writer to simply copy stuff from the camera. The reason I asked is that VS could capture stuff from my old camera (panasonic gs-300) .
However, I have played my output file from VS in media player and nero and the pixelation still exists.
The original m2ts file copied from my camera was around 180MB and when I used the settings above to render it in VS, it produced an mts file that was around 90MB so half the information was lost? Is that normal for any 1080/50p input file? Is that the best VS can do? Am I wrong in assuming that the output file should be as big as the input file?

Thanks

David

[lata]

Hi David

First the GS 300 is a mini DV type and connected to PC via firewire, the tape has to be played in order to transfer the data, and yes the capture prosess has to be used.
The Pana 700 is memory based, just like jpeg images can be copied to the PC.

I am just behind you in the change to using HD, I still use DV-Avi standard deffinition from my Pana GS 300. good camcorder.

You are using progressive 50 frames per second, did you enable 50 fps editing
Go to Settings enable 50 frames editing.

Give us some details of your video files, the original and the new rendered file, right click each clip in the library or timeline and select properties. They should be the same, but take note of the frame rate 25 or 50.
--------------------------------------
When You Share Create Video File-Same as first Video, view the details in the lower properties panel, these indicate the settings used to create the new video.

[dmz]

My gs300 never had any pixelation on rendering. Im very concerned that supposedly modern camcorders and HD are worse quality. It just doesnt make sense.
The settings used for rendering are those in one of my posts above.
I have looked at the properties of the original and rendered videos and they are exactly the same except for the file size. Yes they both have 50fps.
I expected that the highly recommended hc-v700 would produce better quality video than my old gs300. It appears it doesnt

[lata]

Hi David

The Panasonic 700 should produce very good video at least as good if not better than the GS 300.
You may have to view on a TV to notice the difference, but no way should it be worse.
We must be missing something.

----------------------
Try disabling Smart Render when creating the new video file, use Same as First Video clip option.
----------------------
I believe Ken mentioned using Make Movie Templates Manager, did you try this?
Use Make Movie Templates Manager to create a new template, use the Add option to copy the original properties, after you have created the template do not edit the template.
Again deselect Smart Render.

[pvreditor]

I see that you are in Australia, so I assume you will be using the 50P setting, instead of the 60P you mention, which is of course NTSC...

Just for the record, the National Television System Committee (NTSC), which was established in 1941 in the US to create broadcast television standards, didn't mention a 60-frame progressive standard. That came about with the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) in the 1990s.

50p is generally the preferred frame rate in countries that have 50 Hz power delivery, while 60p is preferred in countries that have 60 Hz power. A big reason for that was to reduce flicker on displays when viewed in certain lighting situations. That's not as important as it used to be, as there are ways to work around the flicker.

Sorry about the detour...

Bob Kovacs
http://www.bobkovacs.com

[dmz]

I did the movie templates thing and it gave me the same settings as "same as first clip". I also never use smart render and still the video does not come out well.
Is it just that the VS rendering engine is inferior and cannot produce good quality HD videos produced by some camcorders?
Thanks

[canuck]

Can you record a short (30 sec or so clip) with that camcorder and then upload it to a free web sharing site from where it can be dowloaded. "4shared" is such a site used by some in these forums. Also create a smart package of a project using that file and also upload it.