Capturing Video from Canon HG10 HDD

[Sigma Six]

Any help on how to capture video from a Canon HG10 into SpeedEdit would be greatly appreciated! (HG10 is Canon's new High Def hard drive camera.) Camera has a USB connection but no Firewire.

I have tried the following with no success:

1. Cannot get SpeedEdit to recognize the camera via the Capture menu.
2. Cannot get SpeedEdit to recognize the ACHVD files that I copied from the camera's HD to my computer's HD using the backup utility provided with the camera.
3. Cannot get SE to recognize the "InterVideo Win DVD File" files that are created via Corel software that was provided with the camera.

I am dead in the water - any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[ScorpioProd]

1. SpeedEDIT only captures DV and HDV.
2. SpeedEDIT doesn't support AVCHD.
3. SpeedEDIT doesn't have a DVD ripping ability. You would need to rip the DVD to its MPEG files for them to work in SpeedEDIT.

[Sigma Six]

ScorpioProd,

Thanks! I did convert/rip the InterVideo Win DVD Files into MPEG and SpeedEdit recognized the clips. Do you know if this will compromise the quality of the video since I am not capturing/editing in native format?

If so, are there any better methods of getting the video off of the HD into SpeedEdit?

Thanks!

[ScorpioProd]

A MPEG DVD ripped to its MPEG files shouldn't change the quality at all. The ripping doesn't involve decompressing/recompressing the video, it's really just a "repackaging" of the MPEG streams that are on the DVD into a different form or wrapper.

Note that what I mean here applies to DVDs made of MPEG video. If what you're asking is does converting the AVCHD to MPEG-2 result in a quality loss, then yes, that would.

AVCHD is a very new format, one that isn't well supported by NLEs yet. Although working with native AVCHD would result in the least quality loss, it is too complex a codec to work with very quickly, even with today's fastest computers. NLEs typically have you convert AVCHD to an intermediate codec first to work with it. At least that's what Vegas and Final Cut Pro do.

[Sigma Six]

ScorpioProd - thanks for all your help and the great yet disappointing info.

Anybody know if/when SpeedEdit will provide an intermediate codec to convert AVCHD so it can be used in the program?

In the meantime looks like I will have to live with converting AVCHD to MPEG-2to use in SpeedEdit...

[ScorpioProd]

Well, SpeedEDIT does have the SpeedHQ codec which can be used as a very high quality intermediate codec...

It's just you need a program to convert the AVCHD to it...

[Sigma Six]

It's just you need a program to convert the AVCHD to it...

Any recommendations?

[Goldenthesarge]

I've heard Sony Vegas will do this convert.

[ScorpioProd]

True, I was trying to come up with a suggestion that wouldn't need a full additional NLE, though...

But yeah, since you mentioned it, Sony Vegas Pro 8 does offer full AVCHD support.

Thing is, if you get Vegas for it, you might want to just edit it there instead of bothering to render it out to another format to bring it to SE.

[Mike Watkins]

True, I was trying to come up with a suggestion that wouldn't need a full additional NLE, though...

But yeah, since you mentioned it, Sony Vegas Pro 8 does offer full AVCHD support.

Thing is, if you get Vegas for it, you might want to just edit it there instead of bothering to render it out to another format to bring it to SE.


>>
Sure, as long as you don't mind slow editing and non real-time. Otherwise, stick with SpeedEDIT. I've used them all too ;-).

[ScorpioProd]

Well, as always, it depends what you're doing.

I edit in Vegas Pro 8 all the time, and I wouldn't call it at all slow or non-real-time in terms of the edit experience. There are some things it can do faster than SpeedEDIT, in fact.

If you're looking for real-time full quality output you can tape, then sure, for that SpeedEDIT would be better. For me, DVD is my output, so the real-time aspect doesn't come into play for me, while the individual feature sets do.