Canon HD Vixia HF11 - problem burning to DVD [Solved]

[Jeremiah58]

A friend has this problem.
I don't know much about HD cameras, HD video transfer to PC and burning HD video to DVD-R.
I do have a DV camera, though, and have had no problem.

He has just bought Canon HD Vixia HF11. He connects the camera to PC (via USB) and uses the program which came on a CD with the camera. The program is Pixela.
The connection to PC works and he is able to watch the video, but he cannot burn the video to DVD-R.
The PC is a laptop Toshiba Qosmio. He tried to burn to DVD-R discs.

If anyone have this camera, please describe how do you burn a video to DVD discs.
Thank you.

PS. He called the Canon support, but they were not helpful.

[minidv2dvd]

well it records in hd not dvd spec mpeg-2. he needs to encode the avchd from the camera to mpeg-2 at dvd specs and then author the mpg to dvd.

[poisondeathray]

As mentioned by minidv2dvd, this camera produces AVCHD and you have to convert to MPEG2 and author a DVD if you want it playable in standard DVD players. Personally, I wouldn't convert to DVD because you lose a lot of quality and resolution. (1920x1080 => 720x480, converting from a more efficient codec to a less efficient one i.e. h264=>MPEG2, and converting to any lossy codec reduces quality)

You can use payware like ulead video studio, sony vegas, etc..but you can do it free as well

You can check out Soopafresh's guide, lots of info in there and automated .bat files, but I don't think he has one for DVD resolution
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic346331.html

Here is how I would do it manually for free:

1) Install avisynth, haali media splitter, ffdshow (enable h264 in the configuration to "libavcodec"). (If you already have CoreAVC Pro, use that instead of ffdshow to decode; ffdshow can produce the occasional bad frame on AVCHD sources)

2) DGAVCdec to index, this will also demux your AC3 audio file and create a .dga file (read the quickstart manual, it's <1 page easy to use)

3) Create an .avs script to frameserve into MPEG2 encoder using AVCSource() specifying the .dga file. (If you are in PAL land, resize to 720x576 instead of 720x480). Something like this:

Load_Stdcall_Plugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\yadif.dll")
LoadPlugin("PATH\DGAVCDecode.dll")

AVCSource("myfile.dga")
Yadif(order=1) #TFF
LanczosResize(720,480)

4) Use that .avs script to generate DVD compliant MPEG2 stream (i.e. .m2v) - HCenc is free produces good quality

5) Use your favorite DVD authoring application together with your .m2v and AC3 file. (e.g. DVDAuthorGUI, GUI for DVD Author -both free, or DVD Lab Pro (not free)

[Soopafresh]

ConvertXtoDVD will work on AVCHD sources. Not the best output, but might be acceptable.

[Jeremiah58]

Thank you for your replies.
That sounds mighty complicated for a consumer of that camera.

As mentioned by minidv2dvd, this camera produces AVCHD and you have to convert to MPEG2 and author a DVD if you want it playable in standard DVD players. Personally, I wouldn't convert to DVD because you lose a lot of quality and resolution.

What would you do, please?
I mean, what is required to burn to HD?
Or what is the simplest way for a consumer to burn and watch a video that he recorded with that camera?
Or what hardware he suppose to have for the job?
Thank you.

[Soopafresh]

Or what is the simplest way for a consumer to burn and watch a video that he recorded with that camera?

That's why you should try ConvertXtoDVD. There's nothing more simple.

[edDV]

Thank you for your replies.
That sounds mighty complicated for a consumer of that camera.

But your friend decided to buy a complicated consumer camera. Why was that? Lack of research?

[Jeremiah58]

That's why you should try ConvertXtoDVD. There's nothing more simple.

Thank you, I know what you mean and I know the program and what it does.
But my last question is about burning to HD using the recording straight from the camera, without converting to any other format.

[Soopafresh]

Then you're talking about BluRay disc creation. More difficult.

Maybe VideoStudioProX2

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1175714228541#versionTabview=tab0&tabview=tab2

[Jeremiah58]

But your friend decided to buy a complicated consumer camera. Why was that? Lack of research?

He just wanted to buy an HD camera. For family videos. He just went to Best Buy and asked for a recent model, I suppose.

edDV,
Please tell me what hardware he has to buy to burn the recorded video from that camera to a disc (using a PC), using the original video format AVCHD?

[poisondeathray]

Well it doesn't make sense to buy a HD camera and watch in SD...(just my opinion)

You can burn to AVCHD or blu-ray compatible format and burn onto a regular DVD5 or DVD9 (blu-ray discs are expensive still). Programs like ripbot264 can do this almost in 1 step. However, you still need a blu-ray player, or PS3.

Personally I would use an HTPC, or PC plugged into a HDTV

I'm pretty sure convertxtodvd doesn't work with these clips. I'll check again, and if it does I'll let you know.

[Soopafresh]

Yeah, amazingly the latest versions do.

[poisondeathray]

I have an older version V3, and V2 which I actually prefer (to be honest, I don't use DVD much anymore...

EDIT: I just tried convertxtodvd V2 and V3, neither work on HF11. I tried different decoders, ffdshow, coreavc pro- no go.

But it will accept an .avs script thru avisynth

@Soopa - is there something special/some setting you used to get it to work with convertxtodvd natively?

[Jeremiah58]

Well it doesn't make sense to buy a HD camera and watch in SD...

Definetely.

You can burn to AVCHD or blu-ray compatible format and burn onto a regular DVD5 or DVD9 (blu-ray discs are expensive still). Programs like ripbot264 can do this almost in 1 step. However, you still need a blu-ray player, or PS3.

I know that he has PS3.

Personally I would use an HTPC, or PC plugged into a HDTV

Fine, but he wants to share videos with family. On discs.

[Soopafresh]

@Soopa - is there something special/some setting you used to get it to work with convertxtodvd natively?

No, although it could be the specific camera's flavor of AVCHD which makes it work or doesn't. That's been a big problem with the scripts I put together. One brand of camera works great, another creates artifacts galore.

I'm talking about any version of 3 less than 6 weeks old.

[poisondeathray]

Well his choices for media are to A) use cheap DVD5 / DVD9 's which do not have as much capacity as a blu-ray or B) spend a small fortune on blu-ray discs (and blu-ray burners don't come cheap either)

If you shoot in MXP or FXP mode, that is ~24Mbps or ~17Mbps @ 1920x1080.

You could compromise and re-encode that to say 1280x720 - this way you still have good quality better than DVD, and can fit more footage than leaving it at the higher resolution. You could still leave it at the full resolution if you wanted but just have less footage per DVD

Ripbot264 (free) will do this all for you. It has a blu-ray compatible profile (which is playable on the PS3 and standalone blu-ray players). Just remember to burn with UDF 2.5 spec

He has to be setup to view HD properly as well - proper connections, proper HDTV, blu-ray / ps3 player , etc...

Also consider not everyone has a PS3 / blu-ray player, so if he is sending these to distant relatives, DVD using regular DVD-Video might be the best option for compatibility purposes...

EDIT: Soopa was right - I upgraded and the newest version of ConvertXtoDVD v3 can handle this conversion to DVD-Video (quality is OK considering it's DVD spec). It really is easy to use, it used to be my application of choice for quick DVD conversions.

[edDV]

But your friend decided to buy a complicated consumer camera. Why was that? Lack of research?

He just wanted to buy an HD camera. For family videos. He just went to Best Buy and asked for a recent model, I suppose.

edDV,
Please tell me what hardware he has to buy to burn the recorded video from that camera to a disc (using a PC), using the original video format AVCHD?

Can be done with a Blu-Ray Burner (in PC) plus software that isn't ready for a consumer yet. It will take your research (use search in this forum) to learn how to cut or process AVCHD and how to make it play on a PS3 or some Blu-Ray players.

Sony, Canon, Panasonic, et. al. will say very few buyers of AVCHD camcorders actually do anything but play files to their HDTV over composite, component or HDMI so they don't have to provide an editing/authoring solution. If customers intended to edit the video wouldn't they have read the reviews that clearly stated such tools were lacking? Hey, they did you a favor including software to off load SD flash cards or camcorder hard disks to a PC. Less than 5% even do that. Why should they offer more?

I give Canon some slack here because they offered the consumer the better thought out HDV alternative with the HV20/30 (as Sony did at Prosumer level) but the consumer wasn't interested in a solution so Canon switched to AVCHD with a half dozen new models giving the consumer what they wanted ... a non-solution.

[Jeremiah58]

Thank you all very much for your help.
I'll send him a link to this thread. I think he's gonna need a couple of Advils after reading.

One more question, please:
If this is not a consumer friendly camera, what should have he bought instead?
Or what would you buy for the price he paid?
I forgot to tell one thing: The camera suppose to record soccer games - his son is a soccer player.
Thank you.

[Soopafresh]

I give Canon some slack here because they offered the consumer the better thought out HDV alternative with the HV20/30 (as Sony did at Prosumer level) but the consumer wasn't interested in a solution so Canon switched to AVCHD with a half dozen new models giving the consumer what they wanted ... a non-solution.


Consumers figured the internal hard drive would be a faster way to transfer data to their systems, but were oblivious to the editing hassles they faced.

[edDV]

All is not lost. The typical consumer can play his files to his HDTV from the camcorder and can offload clips to a PC/Mac hard drive. Some software will downscale to a 720x480 DVD with good quality but HD authoring currently takes extra effort and money.

Just keep the AVCHD file on a hard drive and wait for software development and increased CPU power.

[Jeremiah58]

The problem has been solved. For the moment.
CovertXtoDVD works with satisfactory results. For average consumer that is. Thank you Soopafresh for the tip.
Thank you poisondeathray and edDV for your valuable contribution.
I've suggested to my friend to buy one of WD My Book ext. hard disc drives, to store those AVCHD videos from the camera, until simple and affordable solution is found to burn a true HD resolution video.
Cheers