Home Video Help

[PK2011]

Hi Folks,

I'm new to video capturing/editing and would appreciate a little guidance. I have a Panasonic SD60 digital camcorder that can record in the following modes: (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (AVCHD standard compliant)

HA (17Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080)
HG (13Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080)
HX (9Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080)
HE (5Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080)

I would like to record some home video to edit and play back on my TV in such a way that the final video files are below about 1Gb per hour in 16:9 format, SD.

I have tried this with some sample video but the results vary. The original video plays OK but on the output video (various formats) I keep getting interference - mostly when the video contains horizontal lines such as doors and windows etc. - instead of being nice straight lines, they are broken and kind of pixelated. Aslo, when the video pans, it gets a little bit jumpy after the conversion.

Can anyone tell me which of the above recording formats would allow me to convert to a smaller video file while preserving the quality as much as possible. I don't necessarily want to have HD output as these are just general home videos. The software packages that I have are Pinnacle 14 and Nero Multimedia Suite 10.

Any help or guidance would be great.

[edDV]

Hi Folks,

I'm new to video capturing/editing and would appreciate a little guidance. I have a Panasonic SD60 digital camcorder that can record in the following modes: (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (AVCHD standard compliant)

HA (17Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080)
HG (13Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080)
HX (9Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080)
HE (5Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080)

I would like to record some home video to edit and play back on my TV in such a way that the final video files are below about 1Gb per hour in 16:9 format, SD.

I have tried this with some sample video but the results vary. The original video plays OK but on the output video (various formats) I keep getting interference - mostly when the video contains horizontal lines such as doors and windows etc. - instead of being nice straight lines, they are broken and kind of pixelated. Aslo, when the video pans, it gets a little bit jumpy after the conversion.

Can anyone tell me which of the above recording formats would allow me to convert to a smaller video file while preserving the quality as much as possible. I don't necessarily want to have HD output as these are just general home videos. The software packages that I have are Pinnacle 14 and Nero Multimedia Suite 10.

Any help or guidance would be great.

The software that you are using and your choice of 1 GB/hr leaves little option.

As a general rule quality into an encoder determines quality out so use the HA camera setting.

Choice of output codec isn't stated. With those programs choices might be h.264, Divx or Xvid. All will require deinterlace that generates the types of artifacts you describe.

[jagabo]

The horizontal lines you are seeing are a result of interlaced video being downscaled incorrectly. Deinterlace before downscaling. Deinterlacing quality varies from program to program.

[PK2011]

Hi folks,

I played around with some of the settings in Pinnacle and found that my 'project' was set to progressive rather than interlaced. Once I changes this setting and re-exported the movie, the quality was great and the jagged lines are gone.

Problem fixed, lots learned. Thanks for the help.