Canon Vixia HF20 Capturing.

[zapper]

Have The Canon HF20 a Flash Drive and having a hard time importing it to my software, Pinnacle Studio 12. Does any one has a flash drive and what Video editing software do you have?

Thanks in advance

[net]

You need to transfer the files from HF20 to your pc's hard drive, not from the HF20 right into the editor. I'm not sure if you were saying you were trying to capture the video as if it were miniDv; but with the flash camcorders -there is no capture, just transfer of files.

What you do is install the Pixela software that came with the HF20 - type the serial number located in camera battery compartment on the HF20 during the install process/while connected to the internet.

After it's installed, what you do from here on is:
--connect the HF20 to your the HF20's power adapter
--connect the HF20 to the mini USB cable that came with it (careful, not the component cable) -- the mini USB will have regular USB on the other end..you can leave this in pc if you want all the time
--when the HF20 connects to the pc, it will ask on the HF20 LCD screen 'pc connect' or 'dvd burner'...choose pc connect..
--a pop up window on the pc monitor will ask you to confirm the transfer of files, click that and wait for all the files to fill up in the Pixela library; this may take awhile depending on how fast/slow your pc is (also wait for the activity light on the HF20 to completely stop).

--Now you have the files on your pc hard drive.
--you then use "safely remove hardware' on your pc windows function (green arrow/bottom, right of system tray, drag to desktop choose canon drive)
--once it says it's okay to disconnect the drive, unplug the mini USB end from the HF20
--wait for activity light to stop, turn it off and you're done with the camcorder.

Close Pixela software (take note where, what folder(s) the .mts files are stored/where Pixela has stored them in the pc file structure.)

NOW--you open your Pinnacle editor and choose import, go to the folder where Pixela has stored the .mts video files and import the mts video files into Pinnacle. Remember to not use the "capture" function -- that is for HDV/miniDV camcorders.

After editing the mts files on the timeline in Pinnacle, (save project files along the way in Pinnacle) ..you then finally render/output to a final file in another, compressed format like .wmv, .mpg, etc.

[zapper]

Thanks, net for the information especially on how to removed the cam from the pc, with out stopping it that had me stumped, at the present time Pinnacle is unable to open up the Image mixer file have to work on that one.

[net]

the present time Pinnacle is unable to open up the Image mixer file have to work on that one.

Let me clarify the process a little more...

It's not an "Image Mixer" file you need to import into Pinnacle; you need to import the .mts video files. From within Pinnacle, you need to navigate to the Pixela folder structure (not when Pixela is open, but in the folder structure by going to Program Files>Pixela>folders where .mts files are stored after import from HF20 to pc).

I don't have Pixela on my machine anymore, so I don't know the location. I use a card reader.

You could do what I do with the cards or with USB connect to HF20 drive:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Alternative method than using Pixela library import):
While HF20 is connected to the pc and when Pixela comes up, cancel out the pop-up window and go to the Stream folder on the HF20 built-in drive (or card in reader) and copy/paste the mts files to a folder (you create and name) somewhere on your hard drive (don't cut; always right-click, copy/paste).
(Note: I think you would still need Pixela installed, just to have the pc recognize the HF20, even if you cancel out that window.)

You would then navigate to the folder you created/pasted the mts files to import into Pinnacle...


The mts video files are located (at least on the card structure,) as:

(drive letter): PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM

That last folder STREAM is where the mts videos files are when reading from the card reader (to copy/paste to pc hard drive)..I assume the HF20 would have the same structure, but check it out.

That second method, (from the dotted line and below), is different from what I originally showed you. I apologize if I confused you, feel free to ask questions if needed.

[zapper]

Thanks again, not takings movies in HD at the present do not have a BL burner as of now. :hv20-smilie03:

Forgot to ask how does any one edit or clip the video files to edit the movie that was taken with a flash cam? what software do you use on your Cam, is the learning curve steep, or somewhat.

Thanks

Ralph

[net]

Forgot to ask how does any one edit or clip the video files to edit the movie that was taken with a flash cam? what software do you use on your Cam, is the learning curve steep, or somewhat.

Does your version of Pinnacle say it can handle "AVCHD"? That's what it needs to work with the mts files...

I've never used Pinnacle, I use Sony Vegas. I find it easy to use, it may depend on how easy/difficult you find using pc programs in general...

In Vegas, after I import, I put a file onto the time line and then can clip unwanted parts by simply dragging it left or right to shorten a scene.

The Pixela software has an editing feature where you import a clip and then drag a bar on the time line over the parts you want to keep. It has a simple help section to explain this. It's easy to use - was a little slow, though, when I tried it.


Go through your help section in your Pinnacle software and check out the Pinnacle site for the knowledge base:
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/?viewRN=rnanswer

and forums:
http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/default.aspx

[Bif]

Zapper,

If I remember correctly, you need the "plus" or "Ultimate" version of Pinnacle Studio 12 in order to edit AVCHD.

If you have the basic version you will need to upgrade. The difference between the plus and ultimate is extra stuff that comes with the ultimate (and although I ordered both 11 and 12 as ultimate I never installed or used the ultimate extras). Their website should have info on upgrade (www.pinnaclesys.com).

If you have Studio 12 plus or ultimate, editing is as simple as "drag 'n drop" to the timeline from the "album" once you have pointed the "album" to the folder the .MTS files are in. Trim each clip by either dragging ends or double click on it on the timeline to get the "trimmer" and mark your "in" and "out" points.

Add transitions, a menu (from the supplied menu templates) if desired for disk, and then go to "Make Movie" to render to finished format.

Really simple once you dig into it.

[butter1093]

As far as I knew pinnacle 12 could read AVCHD files straight from the camera, but for some reason it won't even see the camera as a capture device. It seems that many people are having the same problem. And i searched on google, many people suggested to convert avchd to wmv for pinnacle studio 12, many tools can convert them and only Final Mate can capture AVCHD from camcorder directly.

[umbilicalbungee]

net, I'm wondering if you've noticed the dropped frames problem when copying the files directly off the camera, if the shot was larger than 2gb and split into multiple files? More on that below.

I'm using PIXELA with a canon s200 on a windows7 64bit machine and it doesn't work well at all. If freezes when importing footage especially when stitching together clips larger than 2gb .You have to go to the library edit program to do this, and the new larger files do not replace the smaller ones, but are placed in a different directory (which you cannot customize). In case you're wondering why the need to stitch these shorter clips together, if you don't and just use the smaller ones, it drops frames when transitioning from one clip to another. PiXELA seems to work a little better in win xp 32 bit, but I still have problems with it not creating the larger clips. This software is aweful, and canon does not suport it, and neither does the company that makes it as far as I can tell.

I've been looking for an alternative, and so far have only found Corel Digital Studio 2010, which seems to work ok, but is a huge piece of bloatware and they want $40 for it. Amazon has it for sale for $6 and says there is a newer version out for $30, so I'm not sure what the version difference is, cause I downloaded the free 2010 trial from Corel, and it seems like that would be the latest. I may try to buy the $6 version and see if it will let me register the downloaded copy with that serial number.

Meanwhile I'm still looking for something better if anyone has suggestions. I'd especially like to find something that would do native splitting and trimming of AVCHD files. Then I plan to use Vegas Pro for the real editing and rendering.