Video editng software for Canon HF-10

[inquisitive]

Any good, reliable, less time to convert to avi, wmv, etc. files and easy to use editing software for AVCHD camcorders like the Canon HF-10? I heard the editing software out there for AVCHD has frozen alot of hard drives. Thanks for info. BTW, what about the ImageMixer 3 software that comes with the purchase of the HF-10? How good is it? Thanks.

[dearcatastrophe]

i use FCP and have never had a problem. i think most the complaints about avchd come from people that don't want tape to die or have a vested interest in tape. i love avchd, and it's easy to log and transfer, work with and edit.

[inquisitive]

Who makes FCP? Does it run on Windows XP? What are the system requirements? Thanks.

[dearcatastrophe]

Who makes FCP? Does it run on Windows XP? What are the system requirements? Thanks.

oh, you use windows. fcp is an apple product. you might ask around about vegas, it seems to be the popular windows software here (and affordable).

if you were to move to apple, you would find final cut the way to go, very powerful, flexible and a ball to work with.

[FalconX]

On the Windows side I long used Pinnacle, though not for HD. Saturday I purchased my first HD camcorder (HG20) and I've been using Vegas 9 Pro (trial version). Running on Windows 7 so I expect it will work fine on Vista (and probably XP). I like the software more than Pinnacle.

Regarding AVCHD -- I'm not on the same page with dearcatastrophe. I only have 3 days of experience with this HD format, but I already hate it (and I have no preference for tape or other formats). I've read AVCHD is a superior technology (more efficient and what not), but here was my very real experience yesterday:

I recorded 1 minute of video.
I copied said video directly to Windows 7
Nothing plays raw AVCHD video. Nothing.

I tried GOM (my personal favorite), Media Player 11, KM Player, VLC, and Splash beta (formerly Oxygen...player specifically created for AVCHD). I installed Haali and the commercial codec (forget name) that everyone swears will fix "stutter," interlace artifacts, etc. Nothing would play it on Windows 7.

I did get Splash to play it on my XP machine, but only one time and with one pause. 2nd attempt paused a lot. 3rd straight attempt basically locked up Splash and my CPU started spinning like crazy.

On the conversion side of things -- I tried using Sony Vegas (to make a movie...only for converting AVCHD), Hand Brake, Super, and AVS. Nothing converts video into a usable HD format; I did get one SD format to convert and play, but it stinks in quality. Also, converting AVCHD into quality formats will result in massive files -- I'm talking 20gb to 30gb for a 4 or 5 minute video. Yes, I wrote 20gb to 30gb.

dearcatastrophe -- I would like to know your secret; I'm open to purchasing a Mac. I want my HG20 to work, but I'm about 2 inches away from returning so I can go back to the old tape HDV format cameras simply because the resulting formats actually work without a Ph.D. in video rendering and conversion!

[Bif]

Falcon,

What are the specs on the computer you are trying to use with AVCHD?

Pinnacle Studio 11 and 12 both work with HDV and AVCHD if your computer has enough "horsepower".

If you're trying to work with 1920x1080 video Pinnacle states a quad core processor running at a minimum clock speed of 2.66Ghz is the bare minimum. I've found you are also much better off with a graphics card that has at least 512MB on board.

2GB RAM will be the minimum and 4-6GB will be MUCH better. VLC plays the AVCHD files on my quad core desktops but the most reliable player is the Pixela player that came with my HF100's.

[greatwhitenorth]

Falcon,

What are the specs on the computer you are trying to use with AVCHD?

Pinnacle Studio 11 and 12 both work with HDV and AVCHD if your computer has enough "horsepower".

If you're trying to work with 1920x1080 video Pinnacle states a quad core processor running at a minimum clock speed of 2.66Ghz is the bare minimum. I've found you are also much better off with a graphics card that has at least 512MB on board.

2GB RAM will be the minimum and 4-6GB will be MUCH better. VLC plays the AVCHD files on my quad core desktops but the most reliable player is the Pixela player that came with my HF100's.

You can download the DIVX player for free. I tried it with my HFS100 and the raw avchd plays fine.

http://www.divx.com/en/win