Sony HDR CX560V camcorder VS galaxy S8 Smarphone

[zoodude]

I have this video camera and I have the galaxy s8 phone.

Which should I use for shooting videos. Mostly performing with a guitar but other things indoor with a tripod.

I know that video camera shoots HD in a strange format for using in Sony Vegas. I can convert it. Would using the phone camera be better for HD videos? Some of these videos might go right to youtube without editing.

So which is better in your opinion?

Thanks so much!

[smrpix]

There's nothing strange about the format of the 560. It's very standard AVC in a regular AVCHD structure.

The Galaxy 8 gets great pictures, but it is variable frame rate which can cause problems. You can use an external microphone on either one.

My rule of thumb philosophy is to use video cameras to record video.

[zoodude]

Thanks a lot

I don't know that much about video so.... I remember trying to edit video I shot with that camera using Vegas 10 pro
and it had issues with the AVCHD format. Is that because Vegas 10 is before the AVCHD was used and cannot handle it.
I always had to convert it to MP4 or AVI mostly AVI

There is one issue shooting with the phone. If you are shooting vertical you will have the sides cut off when watching back on youtube. I believe this is not the case with the sony camera.

Would shooting regular DV with the camera be close the phones HD or should I shoot in AVCHD and use a video splitter and not edit the video at all. I don't really want to do that much editing anyway. But I'd like to if I want more editing on a video.

Anyway. I thought they came up with AVCHD but abandoned it shortly after developing better formats??????

[smrpix]

I remember trying to edit video I shot with that camera using Vegas 10 pro
and it had issues with the AVCHD format. Is that because Vegas 10 is before the AVCHD was used and cannot handle it.
I always had to convert it to MP4 or AVI mostly AVI

All you should have to do is pull the whole folder structure from "PRIVATE" on down into Vegas. It will recognize the files. If it doesn't play smoothly, you may want to try a proxy workflow. Depends on your system.

Not sure when Vegas started handling it, but it was quite a while ago now.

There is one issue shooting with the phone. If you are shooting vertical you will have the sides cut off when watching back on youtube. I believe this is not the case with the sony camera.

Don't shoot vertical.

Anyway. I thought they came up with AVCHD but abandoned it shortly after developing better formats??????

Still widely used and still works fine. It's being replaced by a hodgepodge of formats to get 4K and up.

[johnmeyer]

Don't shoot vertical.

Amen!!

[zoodude]

I have read that AVCHD is problematic playing back on a variety of devices. I understand that an editing program should be able to work with it. However I do think that Vegas 10 was not able to handle the playback well enough. Maybe a year or two later the program was upgraded to handle it. I'm kinda stuck unless I get some new, inexpensive editing program...or upgrade vegas. Even though Sony vegas is pretty simple to use I'd rather have something even easier. I don't need all the things that vegas can do....just simple editing. Any suggestions?

[johnmeyer]

I have read that AVCHD is problematic playing back on a variety of devices. I understand that an editing program should be able to work with it. However I do think that Vegas 10 was not able to handle the playback well enough. Maybe a year or two later the program was upgraded to handle it. I'm kinda stuck unless I get some new, inexpensive editing program...or upgrade vegas. Even though Sony vegas is pretty simple to use I'd rather have something even easier. I don't need all the things that vegas can do....just simple editing. Any suggestions?

That was true ten years ago, but hasn't been for a long time.

I have used every version of Vegas from version 4 through 13 (I didn't upgrade after Magix took over). Vegas 10 can definitely handle AVCHD. Have you actually tried it? What are the exact specifications of the AVCHD video you are trying to edit? I think Vegas 10 might choke on 4K AVCHD.

[Cornucopia]

AVCHD is much easier to edit than smartphone material, not least of which is that smartphones are almost always VFR. To edit beyond basic trimming, smartphone clips would need to be converted to CFR, likely losing quality.


Scott

[zoodude]

Yes..... I did try editing with AVCHD in my vegas 10.....I don't have the specs on the footage but I know it was that format shot with my Sony HDR CX560V camera. Upon playback during editing I believe it skipped frames here and there and would freeze. I remember reading about those issues early on. Obviously they have been solved or I was doing something wrong. Perhaps a setting on the camera...but I doubt that. You never know.
THANKS

Apparently sony vegas 10 won't even run on windows 10. I used it with 8.1 So if I edit on this laptop with windows 10 I need a program that works. I was thinking of Movive anyone try that?

THANKS

[smrpix]

There's noting wrong with continuing to use Vegas (now on version 17), even though it's no longer owned by Sony. Indeed, the Movie Studio version is what I still recommend for beginners because you can scale up to Pro if you need the features without having to relearn from scratch. I've always been impressed by the capabilities to price ratio.

Full disclosure, I no longer use it, not because I don't like it but because I use Adobe CC, Resolve and Avid, and for me Vegas is redundant. (Resolve is free, but it has had problems recognizing spanned AVCHD clips, standalone clips are fine. -- I think they've got it fixed, but I'm not completely comfortable with that yet.)

When you say Movive, do you mean Movavi? Haven't heard of the first and never needed to try the second.

[johnmeyer]

Yes..... I did try editing with AVCHD in my vegas 10.....I don't have the specs on the footage but I know it was that format shot with my Sony HDR CX560V camera. Upon playback during editing I believe it skipped frames here and there and would freeze. I remember reading about those issues early on. Obviously they have been solved or I was doing something wrong. Perhaps a setting on the camera...but I doubt that. You never know.
THANKS

You didn't answer the question about the specs of your AVCHD footage. I looked up the camera and it looks like the max resolution is 1920x1080 and that, like my Sony CX700, it takes video at up to 60 fps. I edited the footage I took at the January 2012 Olympic Marathon time trials using Sony Vegas 10, which was the last version that would run on Windows XP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG-sGFupd2E

I'm sure that I had to use a few tricks, like using Preview rather than best for the playback resolution (you do know about that, right?), but I don't remember having any major issues.

However, if you want to ditch Movie Studio, I'm sure you'll find something that you'll like better.

There's noting wrong with continuing to use Vegas (now on version 17), even though it's no longer owned by Sony. Indeed, the Movie Studio version is what I still recommend for beginners because you can scale up to Pro if you need the features without having to relearn from scratch. I've always been impressed by the capabilities to price ratio.

I think you were responding the OP, but in case it was me, the reason I quit upgrading after Vegas 13 was indeed, initially, because I didn't trust that Magix would do anything useful to it, but also because ever since the sale from the original Sonic Foundry team to Sony, the development team kept adding more and more bugs, especially with the GPU, and failed to add productivity features that would let me edit faster. Most of the "new features" were simply adding plugins for compatibility with newer video formats, etc. Necessary additions, to be sure, but nothing that would help me much.

I should probably look at the latest version of Magix Vegas and see if I would like it.