Newbie with HV20: m2t or mpeg capture?

[jmorton]

Newbie with HV20: m2t or mpeg capture? I'm shooting HDV 1080 60i.

I'm using Premiere Pro CS3. And I'm new to it.

I've fiddled with the presets. When I capture I get .mpeg files: not .m2t (or .m2ts?) files as many of you. They still look pretty good if your player is color adjusted properly: just like the ones many of you have posted in the HV20 forum.

(A note for all of you who want to optimze your HV20 clip viewing: make sure whatever player you're viewing them on is properly color adjusted. Seems like whether I use VLC or Windows Media Player or Nero, etc. each one looks more or less different.)

Am I losing anything by capturing in .mpeg?

Also all of the different files I've tried to output look like crap. I'm guessing that for some reason they're all being output as DV.

Because I'm new to Premiere Pro CS3 I must have started my project with the wrong presets and they are carrying over giving me the crummy output.

Any advice?

Thanks.

[jmorton]

I'm posting in reply to my own post since I have answered it and will share with all of you what I've since learned.

Apparently, an mpeg file is the same as an m2t or m2ts file. I think that m2t stands for mpeg-2 transport and m2ts stands for mpeg-2 transport stream.

I can now recommend Premiere Pro CS3 as your one-stop Plug-n-play NLE for the Canon HV20. So far I've only shot in HDV standard: 1080 60i.

I just had to read a few pages out of the PP3 Help files to get going.

Windows XP SP2 32-bit OS recognizes the Canon HV20 as soon as you connect it to the firewire port and it installs the "new hardware found."

Once installed, start PP3. Start a new project. And set all the preferences and options for HDV. You'll have to work on getting these straight but you'll get there. Everything is pretty much intuitive.

Click File -> Capture. Use the controls in the Capture window and you will control the HV20 via the firewire connection. Set your in and out points. Click Capture In/Out and the rest is automatic.

I keep the HV20 LCD screen open during capture. In the PP3 Capture window it only says that the preview is being displayed on the camera. Perhaps I should either close the LCD or change a setting and the capture video will be seen in the Capture window. I'll figure it out.

But in any event when the capture ends you'll get an .mpeg file.

When you export chose Windows Encoder and chose MPEG2.

I select either 1080p 30 or 720p 30. It automatically deinterlaces your video.

And I get a nice output that rivals most that have been posted on this forum.

I can clearly see and believe that I WILL soon be able to achieve excellent results rivaling the best that have been posted here with some study and practice.

Cheers!

[Raylaw]

I am new to this forum and new to HV20. In fact, outside of a few shots, today will be a test recording of football footage to see how the HV20 works and looks.

I have used Premiere 6, Premiere 6.5, Premiere 7 and Premiere Pro. What you are describing jmorton sounds very similar, except that the capture files are mpg2. I have always got avi files when capturing. Is this because CS3 has changed, or that it is working with HDV?

I haven't purchased an editing program yet and was looking at Adobe Premiere and Encore CS3 because I know the preceeding generations and like Premiere and Encore. They have a learning curve, but I have liked the program over a few others I have tried. I was also looking at Vega, but know nothing about it. I was thinking of getting Vega 8 Platinum and seeing how it works before jumping to the pro version.

Am I wrong in my thinking. Is Premiere and Encore CS3 as good as their predecesors?

[SenorKaffee]

You get AVI files with DV cams, or when the HV20 is DV-locked.
HDV-capturing produces MPEG2 transport streams.