Hello experts!
I'm new here, just recently bought Canon Vixia HG20 . Well so far recording and transfering the clips wasn't very difficult, the problem started when I attempt to edit them using Pixela. When I used Pixela player I was able to watch all the clips, playback was smooth but when I tried to edit them the playback of the highest res clips looked like a bunch of still pictures... it took me a while to trim those few clips, but the real problem came out when I wanted to save them. I have an external 1 tb hard drive bought for a sole purpose to save the movies in an original resolution and I wanted to make another copy on a main hard drive so I can mess with them- convert to mpeg etc. But I couldn't save them- when I clicked "save" button it shows quick progress to 10% then it took 2 hrs to 16% and that's it. I tried twice, first time I was able to cancel the saving, second time my computer froze, I had to reset it. Now the question is, is this a Pixela problem- I read few opinions and none of them was favorable for this software- or is there a problem with my computer. Few months ago, before I bought Vixia, I was editing movie from my old Panasonic mini DV camera. It was low resolution movie, I used Ulead software for editing and it took 15 hrs to save it to a DVD. I think that process is called transcoding, right? That part took so long, actual burning took only few minutes.
I'm planning to download one of the trial versions of AVCHD editing software and see If I have the same problem (title recommendation please:)) I don't really have time to do any heavy editing, my main goal is to trim the clips, add some transition and title. Our family is in Poland and they would like to see home movies starring granddaughter as often as possible.
I think my computer is fast enough, its an AMD phenom triple core 8400, 4 gb ddr2 ram, Nvidia graphic card, 320 gb hard disc + 1tb external I mentioned above, Vista 64( I'm really tempted to get W7...)
So there is the summary:1. why Pixela doesn't want to play clips smoothly while editing since playback using Pixela player is flawless 2. extremely long saving time.
Any help greatly appreciated, thanks
Peter

you need to spend some money to buy new editing software to do any kind edit. The pixela is garbage, your computer will freeze if you try to do any kind edit.. The easiest simple software to learn and can do quick edit is the Corel videostudio pro x2 or x3. Give that a try see, you like it. They have trial version.

You might also try Cyberlink Power Director 8 Ultimate version. It handles AVCHD very well. The trial should give you a good idea of how well it suits your needs.

Larry

Thanks for advice!
Actually, I got myself Pinnacle 14 ultimate trial and it solved my problems. I'm quite impressed with this software but I don't think I need "ultimate " version for what I need to do. Anyway, the preview is smooth and no problem saving. So from now on I'm joining the "Pixela hate group"...:)) But I got other questions now: How to save my movies on my extra hard drive in original form? I want to keep them on the hard disk so when the Blue Ray will become a standard ( what I mean cheaper) I will be able to record those movies in a highest resolution possible. Pinnacle gives me a lot of options and I don't know which one to use it... And which Pinnacle version would be enough for me? i don't really want to pay for a stuff that I will not use.
Thanks, Peter

You can use Pixela to transfer your video to your portable hard drive for archives or what ever you want to do with it. Canon bundle softwares are no good for editing, it only good to transfer video file.

The original video content can be transferred directly off the camcorder memory card using a card reader attached to your computer. The video is stored in a folder called STREAM which lies within the BDMV folder which lies within the AVCHD folder which lies within the PRIVATE folder in the root directory.

The individual clips are numbered 001.mts, 002.mts, 003.mts, etc. They can be retained for future BluRay authored on a hard disk or stored on blank DVDs if you prefer.