Canon Legria HV40 and Pinnacle Ultimate Version 12

[avz10]

This is a long post, but the essence is as follows- do I need to use Pinnacle for all the functions- capturing, editing, etc) or should I include other programmes in the process.

I bought a Canon Legria HV40 (HD and uses tape) as well as Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate Edition, but there is a lot of learning required. My first DVD, all made on Pinnacle looked fine, but I will study it again. (I have also started Photoshop for editing my pictures, so lots of reading and practicing.

I have read the following:

The basic steps of the workflow involve:

* Exporting your Video out of Premiere
* Downscaling and applying other filters to enhance the image
* Encoding to mpeg2


Exporting out of Premiere:

The ideal way would be to have Premiere deliver it’s frames directly to a second application without compressing, altering it, or exporting a huge file. This was easily done in Premiere CS3 using the Debugmode Frameserver plugin. Unfortunately since Adobe has shifted all the exporting to the Adobe Media Encoder in CS4, frameserving is not currently possible. So we must export in a format that is near lossless, renders quickly, and doesn’t take up too much space. There is one format that pretty much meets all those requirements, and that is MPEG2 I-frame. If you have a Matrox editing card, go ahead and export using the Matrox MPEG2 I-frame codec at 100 Mbits/sec. If you don’t have the Matrox codec, you can still configure the Adobe Media Encoder to export to MPEG2 I-frame.

The output settings for MPEG2 can be overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with all it’s terms. I highly recommend you download these:

Adobe Media Encoder CS4 presets for 100Mbps MPEG-2 I-frame 4:2:2

Once you download and extract them to any folder, simply select MPEG2 as the output format in AME, click the icon to import a preset, then select the downloaded preset which matches your source footage.

Downscaling & Processing:

Once you have exported your HD master out of Premiere, its now time to apply advanced algorithms to the footage which will scale it down and do all kinds of optimizations for dvd playback. The free program you must download to do this is:

AviSynth

The program basically works like this; you create a script (commands in a text document) in the same location as your HD master export, which tells AVISynth what file to load and what effects/filters you want applied to it. AVISynth does not actually export your file, but rather does all the processing of the effects and filters, and delivers those processed frames to another application. Unfortunately Encore is not capable of importing the .avs file that the program generates, however many other programs and mpeg encoders are, such as Procoder, HC Encoder, and Virtual Dub among many others.

Dan Isaacs has provided a plugin/preset he created for AVISynth that does just about everything for you. Download it here:

hd2sd() conversion package for AviSynth

Instructions for how to use his conversion package are included in the zip file. No additional plugins for AVISynth are required, since Dan has provided all of them for you in the zip file. Please take the time to read through his documentation. It explains all the different settings and how to tweak them, in addition to how to configure it for different footage types such as 24p, 30p, PAL, NTSC, 4×3, 16×9, etc.

If you think all of this is starting to go over your head, its really not that difficult, especially if you have HD 60i source footage, your script will probably consist of just this:

hd2sd(”HD_Master.m2v”)

That’s it.

Now that your script is done, it might be ready to import into your mpeg encoder. If you will be using Encore to encode your mpeg2 file, you must create an AVI file that can be imported into the program. Having encore encode the mpeg2 file won’t look that bad since the quality issues mainly came from the downscaling which has already been done. The program you will need to install in order to open the AVISynth script and save as an AVI is called:

VirtualDub

By default Virtual Dub will export an uncompressed AVI file, which takes up huge amounts of space. I highly recommend downloading and installing the free:

Lagarith lossless codec

Once you install the codec and Virtual Dub, follow these instructions:

1. Run VirtualDub
2. Open your .avs script file in VirtualDub
3. In VirtualDub, go to Video : Compression and select the Lagarith lossless codec
4. Also set VirtualDub to use Video : Fast recompress mode
5. Save your output to lagarith.avi
6. Import lagarith.avi into Encore for transcoding and authoring

Encoding to MPEG2:

If you will be using Encore to encode, you should know where to go from here. I would suggest VBR 2-Pass encoding for best results, with a max bitrate of 8 Mbits, target of 7 Mbits, and minimum of 2 Mbits. You may need to adjust the target bitrate depending on how much content you need to fit on the disc.

If you want near studio quality mpeg encoding using a free program, I recommend downloading and installing HC Encoder which delivers extremely high quality results. A high quality mpeg encoder will produce slightly better looking video at greatly reduced bitrates, causing the file sizes to be much lower (did you ever wonder how hollywood movies are able to fit so much high quality video content on a single dvd? Its from using a good encoder).

What do you think about the quote above?

Please comment on my settings for capturing:









I use PAL standard



There are also other options




As well as options like are available:

HD 1280 by 720/25 or 50p
HD 1440 by 1080/ 50i or 60i
HD 1920 by 1080/ 50i or 60i

1. What setting would people advise (South Africa-PAL) using Pinnacle
2. Or should I first compress with another programme (as suggested above) and do the editing and authoring with Pinnacle?




Thanks
Albie

[aedipuss]

the HDV should be captured from the cam in it's native format. 1440x1080 .m2t files. you can use hdvsplit to do that, it's free and easy to use. once you have the source files you can then import them into any editor you want.

[avz10]

Thanks for that.

Will I then import it into Pinnacle and continue? sounds like it

[aedipuss]

sure. that way you have the original hdv files if something goes wrong and you have to start over.

[avz10]

I experienced a few hiccups. I installed hdvsplit and had to install ffdshow. Connected my camcorder via the firewire and could record.
Problem 1- It creates heaps of scenes and I might like to bypass that
Problem 2- I struggle to use it in Pinnacle:

Capturing- no problem



Cannot find the file in Pinnacle under "all supported files", only under "all files"



Dragging it into the storyboard: Does not play- only shows the first image:





Any thoughts on this?

Thanks
Albie

[fjmr]

avz 10
Use only Studio 12 ultimate!!!

It can do all in a very good way and easily. That is capture edit and make movie.

You have done all right I mean in Studio configuration except in project preferences You should choose HD 1920x1080/50i or 60i as your camcorder is a High definition one and I suppose You intend to preserve the High definition format!!!!

So use only Pinnacle studio that is a very nice and complete software mainly for capturing and with this way You can go directely from capture to edit using Pinnacle!!!

Good Luck!!! 8)

[avz10]

Well this sounds easier! That is why I got pinnacle.

Will the rest of the process then remain the same, especially writing it to a DVD?

Thanks
Albie

[fjmr]

Yes the rest remains the same Pinnacle is a complete suite!!

From camcorder to DVD or AVCHD or BluRay and so on!!

You have a HD camcorder so it is High Definition so in order to get the highest quality You should burn or make movie in AVCHD format using a DVD -+ R or DL.

SO GO ON and GOOD LUCK!!!!

8) 8)

[avz10]

Thanks!

[avz10]

I post my settings- any suggestions?

Would it be possible to set the recording that a new clip starts on another date (not time)





What does this "automatically save and load my projects " mean?





Thanks
Albie

[fjmr]

YOU should tick !!!

Automatic based on shooting time and date!

8)

[avz10]

Will do!

[aedipuss]

you might look into upgrading to pinnacle 14. it supports HDV files in their native format. .m2t

[acalogero]

hi, i don't really like piggybacking onto a thread but this is the only one i found that's near what i'm trying to find out. my freind has one of these and she wants to copy contents from a tape that is in the camcorder, i installed the software from supplied cd and tried insertng and usb cable from the camera (behind the lcd screen) into the pc but the pc does not recognise it.

my question is what is the easiest way to copy content from the camcorder to the pc?

thanks in advance

ps apologies for jumping on this thread - hope it doesn't upset anyone.