Jump to HD

RZ wrote on 5/27/2009, 12:09 PM
As a non professional user, I have been waiting to make the leap to the world of HD. I was hoping to buy a prosumer camcorder and Vegas 9 to finally make Blue Ray DVD's. So far I am not aware of a headache free workflow for this.

Does anyone have any suggestions (pro/con) at this point regarding HDV vs. AVCHD format and more importantly about troublefree workflow. Budget is flexible. Thanks.

Comments

dibbkd wrote on 5/27/2009, 12:15 PM
I don't do any Blu-Ray stuff, but VP9 and AVCHD from my Sony HDR-CX12 works fine. You need a pretty high-end PC though for smooth playback.
richard-courtney wrote on 5/28/2009, 6:47 AM
Can't say anything about AVCHD but using XDCAM F350 (cameras with proDisc)
has worked fine since Vegas 7.

Still want to try the Sony EX1/3 before using any tape based camera.
DRuether wrote on 5/28/2009, 8:34 AM
The most fun for the buck comes with HDV, I think. While transfer to the computer is real-time, unlike with the faster and more convenient AVCHD format (and tape does risk dropouts which cause a 1/2 second freeze with HDV - but one can often cut out a damaged frame while editing and reduce this effect), the computer hardware requirements are FAR more modest for smooth previewing and easy editing with HDV. One can also easily keep both tape and hard drive copies of the edited HDV video for archiving, but AVCHD is limited to hard drive copies (although both types can be written to disks). I like to convert edited HDV videos (using Vegas) to 16 Mbps AVCHD files for authoring HD disks on standard DVD blanks using a standard DVD writer, and these will play on most recent Blu-ray players (but they should not generally be considered archival). As for cameras, it appears that the cheap HDV Canon HV20/30/40 cameras outperform 17 Mbps AVCHD cameras - but with the higher 24 Mbps data rate cameras, things may be more equal in quality (except for the greater difficulties with editing this material). For more on this, I have articles, at - http://www.donferrario.com/ruether/Canon_HV20-HV30.htm, and at -
http://www.donferrario.com/ruether/hdv-editing.htm. BTW, it may be a good idea to try to find a copy of Vegas Pro 8 (and update it to 8C, if necessary), or better yet, get a copy of the inexpensive Sony Video Studio 9 Platinum Edition (which works very well with HDV) to avoid the "latest-software-headaches" that can result from using just-released software...