Newbie DESPERATE for help with editing/preserving!!

[Sharan1]

Dear VideoHelp members,


I'm certain you will find my question(s) to follow also trivial for many of yours expertise, however after a year of spending countless hours trying to learn and understand video and my predicament and having posted to various assistance sites without the required help arriving, I find myself at your door and hopeful!


Please note, I am a complete newbie to video, and though my research has familiarized me with some terminology, I am green to all this and apologize for requiring simplified language/tech in your reply (which I am praying to receive lol).


My problem and questions are as follows:


I have purchased a Panasonic TM900k camcorder almost two years ago, and have compiled many hours of video which I am trying to "burn" or save in some form for a lifetime. I understand that this camera records in several modes, but learned too late that its BEST mode (which is 60fps and I believe 1920x1080p) is very difficult to deal with and render to a regular consumer friendly end media. ALL my video work is simply family footage oriented, and I purchased the camera coinciding with the birth of my daughter, and I'd love to be able to share this "high level" best 60fps footage of her with family and view myself wherever I go. I have learned that this is an advanced "codec" and unhandled by modern blue-ray and definitely can't be burned to DVD as files are too large and detailed. I have also learned that at present, without a solution, I can only watch the 60fps recorded footage on TV through the camcorder itself with NO other solution for 60fps.


I have read on many sites that there are many aftermarket programs that will allow me to manipulate/edit 60fps video, but I still don't understand if the end "burned" product will be 60fps, and if so, WHICH type of disk will it be on?


To summarize, I don't know if:


a) I even need to stick with 60fps or if I should just give up and record on a lower setting on the camera to allow for easier burning to disk etc (and if so, which setting do you recommend?)


b) Is there a particular video editor program that will simplify my life in this regard and handle this rate of video that I should purchase/download and that you recommend? (Please note, $$ is really important and again, I would really be using the software solely to preserve the 60fps...not so much for other features)


c) Is there even a way to burn this rate of video and play it within today's tech? Ie. I have modern Samsung flatscreens and Blu-ray, but does that even matter in that this rate of video can't be "burned" to disk and played regardless, or other???


d) Should I abandon using "disks" (blu-ray or DVD) as a potential storage for my footage and handle all storage digitally (cloud server maybe? other?) and will that achieve preserving the 60fps better footage easier and make it easier to share?


Again, I apologize for my lack of sophistication in this realm and can't thank you enough in advance for ANY help you can provide!!! I'm nearing Xmas here and am going to need to film more and I'm running out of memory on my various drives for this material and hoping to be able to finally edit it, share it and save it!


Thank you!


(Windows 8, core i5, 8GB RAM, 750GB HD)

[aedipuss]

there are a couple free tools i'd try first. multiavchd and AVCHDCoder. see if they will accept your input and create blu-ray discs for you. i'm assuming you have a blu-ray burner and discs. anything on dvd will probably be to short but you could try avchd dvd discs if you wanted. blu-ray won't be 60p anymore as the players will need it re-encoded to 60i but the quality should be fine.

[pandy]

Also you should consider 1280x720p60 as alternative to 1920x1080i30 (or perhaps try both variants as subjective result can depend from content ). Processing chain is quite usual and aedipuss already provided some examples.

[racer-x]

Blu-Ray and AVCHD disks will only support 1280x720 @ 60p not 1920x1080 60p. If you output edited footage back to 1920x1080 60p, you're limited for playback support. It's still a good idea though, as you may have more options in the future.

I have a similar camera (Panasonic HC-V700) and I always shoot in 1920x1080/60p, it is the highest quality your camera will support. I can edit with ease in Vegas and usually output a high quality (custom preset) Mpeg-2 1920x1080 60p at 80mb/s, that I use for preservation and archival. From that file I'll convert for various outlets like Blu-Ray, youtube, etc..........

[Sharan1]

Thank you for the input all! I have several questions but before posing those, how about "Power Director 12 Ultimate" as a program to achieve the above output of video file?

Sorry but thought I'd quickly ask as I see it is $70 on lightning deal in Amazon right now and the reviews seem to indicate it's a decent editing program...or do I even need this??

[aedipuss]

for editing you need something like pd12. others that should work would be vegas movie studio hd or premiere elements. they all go onsale often. i've never used pd12 for editing but it might be fine. my personal editor of choice is normally vegas pro.

[_Al_]

for editing you need something like pd12. others that should work would be vegas movie studio hd or premiere elements. they all go onsale often. i've never used pd12 for editing but it might be fine. my personal editor of choice is normally vegas pro.

Wasn't there rendering settings advanced regardless that 60p export more friendly in Sony Vegas Platinum as oppose to Movie Studio version only? I do not remember exactly but there was some limitations. I think if Sony Vegas, then Platinum version is better choice, it costs not that much more.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope/compare

[Sharan1]

Folks, I am just trying to be diligent and read some of the other threads before I ask a BUNCH of questions that have arisen, so as to focus those questions a bit better perhaps, as I am TOTALLY NEW to all this.

My experience with movie editing is using Windows Movie Maker once on a university project in grad school, and I found that very simple. Just to be sure, Movie Maker had more than enough options for what I seek to do with my footage...will that NOT work in this situation with this camera? Or how about the enclosed Panasonic HD Writer AE 3.0?


I'm sorry, but I've installed that HD Writer 3.0, that comes with the video camera, but don't really know yet what it does other than provide a place for the files from the camera to go. I'm assuming it will allow burning to disk from there, but will it allow saving of the file in the 60fps as you guys recommend? Also, is saving in 60fps and the 1920x1080p as you all recommend only achievable as an end digital file on a hard drive or cloud storage somewhere for eternity (or until that quality can be burned and played on some disk in the future?)


I'll await your excellent replies and continue to read and learn in the meantime! I can't thank you guys enough...you have no idea how confusing this all is for a Mom and her daughter with obviously too much camera in their hands.

[racer-x]

In all honesty, your camera will save the recorded clips in "MTS" containers on your SD card. Go through each clip and save the best ones to a Hard Drive or burn them as data onto dvd/blu-ray disks for archival purposes. Nothing beats original sources quality wise. You may think..........I'll just edit those precious memories and save them that way. Then later on down the road you'll watch those edited videos and say, "what was I thinking" and wish you had the originals instead...........

You can still edit your clips, but I would archive the best in original format for future purposes. Better safe than sorry...........

[Nelson37]

Buy additional external hard drives. Save all content in original format. Storage space is now cheap, and current consumer playback devices are not yet good enough for what you have.

Edit absolutely nothing out. Nothing at all. You have no way of knowing what will be interesting or thought provoking 50 years from now.

I strongly dislike the trend of making family movies into simulated Hollywood productions. They are not, they are history.

Add notes, descriptions, and commentary. Who, what, where, When, and Why. Your grandchildren will not know who some of the people are and what they are doing.

[MaverickTse]

While I did not ever use Windows Movie Maker (I use this free one instead -> https://www.videohelp.com/tools/AviUtl), I want to comment on the archival process:

1> External HDD is the most economical one, but nowadays, many of such products will simply fail suddenly and everything can be lost. For really important video/files, make a secondary backup on DVD/Blu-ray. Check comments on Amazon/neweggs/ebay before purchase.

2> When backing up on to DVD/Blu-ray, you do not NEED to convert the video to a DVD-Video or Blu-ray Video format. Just burn the file as-is for archival purpose. If the file is too large to fit on a single disc, use a compression program, e.g. 7-zip, to make a multi-file archive(i.e. splitting the file into chunks)

3> The physical media used in (1) and (2) should be stored under shade and avoid moisture. Use silica gel if your environment demand so. Seal your HDD in waterproof box or zip-bags
(moisture and a bit oil from finger can cause mold to grow on your disc and ruin them. While HDD is sensitive to dust and water)

4> The files for daily use/viewing should be stored on a separate media of your choice. The format does not matter that much as long as you can play it. Use a HDD if you do not want to keep a bunch of discs.

5> 30 vs. 60 fps: Fast and complex motion (action scenes) will benefit from a higher fps (motion looks smoother). Otherwise, 30 or even 25 will be enough