Video Capture from Sony HDR-CX110

FlashGordon wrote on 7/10/2011, 10:06 AM
How do you connect a Sony HDR-CX110 to Vegas? When I connect my TRV-118 and turn it on Vegas opens and I'm ready to capture. This HDR-CX110 only has a USB connect as opposed to firewire for the TRV but when I connect it only shows me the still photos on the camera. I want to capture the video and audio just like I get when I connect TRV-118. Please help.

Comments

Tom Pauncz wrote on 7/10/2011, 11:23 AM
Use the DEVICE EXPLORER - go to View -> Device Explorer. You can use a memory stick reader to do this.

Fire up Vegas once the memory stick has been connected. Wait patiently as it sometime takes a minute or so before the device explorer shows the drive letter of the video clips. Then import the clips to a folder you specify.

HTH,
Tom
johncmurphy wrote on 7/10/2011, 1:57 PM
OT: How do you like the Sony HDR-CX110?
I'm between that and a similarly-priced Canon camcorder.
PeterDuke wrote on 7/10/2011, 6:10 PM
You probably got PMB (picture motion browser) with your Sony. I use it for transfer even though it is slow because each clip is renamed according to shooting time and date, a feature very important to me. It also joins long clips that have been chopped into 2GB chunks or less back into a single clip again.
Tom Pauncz wrote on 7/10/2011, 6:15 PM
Device Explorer appears to do just that with >2GB clips. I use a SONY HVR-S270 which can record to CF cards. Device explorer import stitches those files.
Tom
PeterDuke wrote on 7/10/2011, 8:44 PM
Also note that Device Explorer is only present in Vegas 9 and later.
FlashGordon wrote on 7/17/2011, 12:17 PM
I ended up just taking the memory stick out of the camera and downloaded the files to my computer and then brought them into Vegas that way. It allowed me to easily put them into a new video / audio track in sequence they happened. Then I edited as usual. When I rendered the video it did seem to take a real long time. An hour and thirty eight minute video took about three hours to render. Whatever. I then rendered the audio and brought the file into DVD Architect and burnt the disc. I found it a little odd also that a one hour and thirty eight minute video had to be compressed but it did. It looks and sounds fine. For the record I'm still using Vegas 8. I bought the upgrade to Vegas 10 but didn't like it the first couple times I tried it so I used the old reliable Vegas 8. As far as the camera goes it seems to be fine except when my customer was zooming he had focus issues. I think it's a fine camera though I haven't actually used it, just the files from the memory stick. I guess that is a little better than my antique TRV-118 which has cassettes in the digital video which means I have to stream the video to capture it.
PeterDuke wrote on 7/17/2011, 6:50 PM
If you just drag the card files into Vegas directly (not via Device Explorer, PMB, etc.) you may get a glitch at each 2GB point on long clips. Remember that long clips would have been chopped into 2 GB or less chunks to suit the file system of the card. The chunks should be concatenated first into one file to avoid glitches. Clips shorter than 2 GB would be OK. however.

Yes, AVCHD has to be rendered, whether you think it should or not. (Vegas 9 to 9C were the only versions that smart rendered AVCHD under certain circumstances, as far as I know.)
Andy_L wrote on 7/17/2011, 7:07 PM
Beware The sony CX series camcorders!

Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic...but if you look at the specs, some of them claim full HD resolution but employ fewer than 1920x1080 pixels:

Video Actual (Pixel) : Approx. 1490K pixels (16:9)

I couldn't understand why the picture on my CX160 looked like garbage until I saw that detail in the specs -- the camera up-rezes to create an HD frame!