I have an hdr-hc1 and a new computer. This may not be the place to post this question but here goes. I am having trouble finding a free trial version of ANY program that allows you to capture in HD. PP and Vegas don;t let me capture HD and that is really what I would like to try. Any one found a trial version that lets you capture HD?

Capture Tool CapDVHS v0.3.0.6 http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=CapDVHS is for free. this program capture your HDV nativ in the best quality ....... with http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC Mediaplayer can you good play hdv video....

Thanks Wolfgang... and yes, the stuff you pointed out did indeed allow me to capture HD with no problem. However let me back up a step. I'm not looking for freeware. I am looking for a editing program (that I will buy) that will edit and capture HD. But before I lay down the big $ I would like to actually capture some HD stuff using it's demo... you know, kind of like a test drive... to see how it looks and works. I know I can capture SD with the trial versions of PP and Vegas but what's the point? That's like test driving a honda so you can decide wheather or not to buy the corvette.
I would like to know if any of the big dogs have demo's that allow HD capture.
Thanks.

You can test drive Connect HD which will make your Vegas experience a good one. Trying to edit the captured HD M2t files in impossible. I tried with my Dual Core 3.2, 2.5 gigs of ram and it wasn't very fun. With Connect HD(free trial for 2 weeks) then it's 199.

Jon

I'm not sure, but you might be able to download Premiere 1.51 with HDV ungrade, and then get the Cineform Aspect trial version to test editing.

Vegas trial may work with Cineform HD Connect too.

Check out David Newman in the Cinneform threads. He will be able to tell you for sure.

But I agree with you about Premiere Pro. Why do they give us a trial download, without HDV capability?

Yes Jon. but the trial version of Vegas dosen't allow HD capture ,so the connect HD is useless until then. And Chris the HDV upgrade in 1.51 is not offered as a free demo to my knowledge.
I guess I was looking for one program that would do it all nice and simple...but I guess the software people haven't caught up with this fast little beauty? (the HC1). I'll check with David to see what he recommends. The first program to hit my desktop, that actually works, will probably get my money. I'm not tough to please.. just want to get this show on the road before I'm up to my "you know what" in minidv tapes.

Let us know what you find, Chaz... I'm wondering about the same issues, and am disappointed (and surprised) to find out that the free trials don't include HD-catpure ability.

Thanks,

Dave

Well, so far, I've downloaded both premier pro 2.0 and vegas 6c with cineform HD added just to see if it helped and still nothing. Oh yes it will capture and edit SD great but turn on the old HD and buckle your seat belts folks. In the case of PP my computer would freak it's beans when ever I just hovered my pointer close to the PP icon. (almost) But...if I was dumb enought to click on it ...yikes! the screen would go black in an instant ... the computer would shut down and come back saying" we have recovered from a serious error" or something ... Very bad attitude. Big stink.
Sony Vegas 6c works fine if you output SD but cannot capture if you output HD. It just sits on it's little computer hands and looks at you like "what?"
I'm sure someone will get on the stick and come up with a real demo sooner or later. Until then... the tapes are piling up.

Do you think you'll wait until the demo actually comes out? Does one or the other already seem easier to use? Are you able to see an improvement with the Cineform in just SD, or do you need to be in HD to see the benefits?

Also, what are the specs on your new computer? Or at least: what do you think is necessary to run these programs efficiently, with minimal "attitude?"

Thanks!

Hey Dave, all these programs seem complicated to me and there probably isn't any improvement with cineform in SD, SD works fine as it is.

My pc is about two weeks old. Its a HP media Center PC with a dual core 2.8mhz 920 intel chip; 2 gig ram, and a 300 gig hard , with a rippin' V. card. So the attiude part didn't come from having a slow computer. I think it freaked from trying to capture hd files when it wasen't set up to do so. Which is my whole point ... I would like to see how HD works before I sink the big spleef into a program. If it's still a hassle to work with the HD format...fine, I can get a SD program for much less and wait for the HD waters to calm. You know, wait until things work themselves out a little. (I really don't want to)

My biggest fear is that sometime in the near future someone will develop a must have ,simple, quick, effecient, HD edit program (which someone has to be working on as we speak) and I will have blown a wad on a recipe HD program I don't want anymore.

(recipe HD program: Ok.... start with this ,add two of that , fold in this addon to make that work better, beat until smooth, go to this web site and upgrade those, bake in the motherboard at 34C until firm and have everyone in the family cross their fingers and hope the cake dosen't fall.....)

Meanwhile , the tapes pile higher.

I think the Vegas demos have HDV disabled because the Mpeg codec needs 3rd party licensing.

My biggest fear is that sometime in the near future someone will develop a must have ,simple, quick, effecient, HD edit program (which someone has to be working on as we speak) and I will have blown a wad on a recipe HD program I don't want anymore.



there is a program like that.... its called iMovie HD for OS X ;)

For around about $100 Sony's Movie Studio + DVD Platinum will capture HDV, and perform most needed editing, in a limited version of Vegas, and it has a stripped down version of ACID, and DVD Architect.

Pinnacle Studio 10 Plus also has similar capability. In October, it was a new release with a lot of bugs, but a recent beta update seems to have resolved a lot of those. That program is also under $100, and has an easy to use interface. It is also is designed specifically to edit the .m2v video directly, and not in an intermediate form, and utilizes the Liquid editing engine. The pro boys in this forum don't want to acknowledge it, as it stems from a consumer editor, but it does do a good basic job..

If you have any version of Premiere from 6.x up, you can get the Premeire Pro upgrade of about $200.00. And it also edits directly in .m2t without intermediate capture if you want to go that route. Everyone seems to be still pushing the intermediate capture formats, ie., Cineform though, as being easier to edit in, and being easier on your processor, and providing some color correction enhancements. However, it requires 4x the space for capture as the .m2t hdv files that are captured with the direct capture programs.

Chris, have you used Studio 10 for HDV? I've not been able to, nor find anyone able to output and HDV project back to the HC1 cam with it. Lots more complaints about this on their German forums. Even with the latest beta patch, Studio is far from stable for many. It doesn't have the Cineform codec for rendering to intermediate files and editing m2v files directly makes my PC struggle

Chris, have you used Studio 10 for HDV? I've not been able to, nor find anyone able to output and HDV project back to the HC1 cam with it. Lots more complaints about this on their German forums. Even with the latest beta patch, Studio is far from stable for many. It doesn't have the Cineform codec for rendering to intermediate files and editing m2v files directly makes my PC struggle


Yeah i have been do so on just on a mess around basis. No real projects-- and how many people really do in HD. I just checked, and on February 9, 2006, a new Beta update was posted. Before I checked I learned I couldn't print my edited 1 minute, 40 second clip to my FX1, as you indicated. I had not tried that before. I went to the site, and the latest upgrade shows that it is repairing that issue. So I downloaded and reattempted, and my edited version tranferred to tape without a problem.

To be sure, there are glitches still being worked out. I took the same project and tried to create a new hdv2 file on my system, and it did, but there were some artifacts.

My experience with Pinnacle over the last five years is that they will release things early, and work with Beta updates and eventaully smooth out their programs. Looks like this is going that way too.

As to Cineform, with a dual core processor, I am wondering if we need to really use the intermediate file. While I understand the claim that Cineform intermediate allow easier editing and can create some benefit in the color rendition and correction areas, I just wonder if we need all that for every project... That is why I trying Premiere Pro 2.0 in the native format editing too-- I'll be doing that when my trial of Aspect HD runs out.

Glad you got Pinnacle working. I'm using the latest beta and still can't write to tape in HDV. However, even if I could, my PC isn't up to editing .m2v on the timeline - it jerks and stutters (although it's not too bad if I use the m2t in Vegas Media Studio Pro). Maybe if I upgraded to a dual core Athlon, which is possible with my mobo, it would be better in this respect. Are you Intel or Athlon based?

If your PC is up to it, I can't see that using an intermediate like Cineform would be of any help if colour rendition wasn't an issue. Just carry on and edit natively.

By the way, doesn't Premiere Pro 2 come with the Cineform codec anyway? I was toying with the idea of getting it but won't if the codec isn't included as I would need to render to intermediate. Of course, it wouldn't be the real time encoding that Cineform Aspect would do though.

Glad you got Pinnacle working. I'm using the latest beta and still can't write to tape in HDV. However, even if I could, my PC isn't up to editing .m2v on the timeline - it jerks and stutters (although it's not too bad if I use the m2t in Vegas Media Studio Pro). Maybe if I upgraded to a dual core Athlon, which is possible with my mobo, it would be better in this respect. Are you Intel or Athlon based?

If your PC is up to it, I can't see that using an intermediate like Cineform would be of any help if colour rendition wasn't an issue. Just carry on and edit natively.

By the way, doesn't Premiere Pro 2 come with the Cineform codec anyway? I was toying with the idea of getting it but won't if the codec isn't included as I would need to render to intermediate. Of course, it wouldn't be the real time encoding that Cineform Aspect would do though.

I m running the 3800+ Dual Core AMD chip. I bought it on a combo deal at Fry's (big retailer here) for about $ 279.00. Had to revamp my who system because it had only PCI express, and needed DDR ram. I also added a $250 gig hard drive, and moved my 160 as my primary drive. With all that, big brother Microsoft said when I tried to reinstall the same XP program, that I had a new system, and needed new OS disk or serial number.

I am currently working with HD Aspect with my PP 2.0. Frankly, I am beginning to wonder what you pay $ 500 for. They say using their Transitions and video effects gives near real time editing capability, but that is only in the preview. You can actually see the effects of using the regular adobe effects and transitions by scrubbing anyway. And, when you have to actually render back to tape, or to mt2, or any other format, the render takes so long in the HDV mode. I see absolutely no benefit to Cineform in that respect.

Cineform Aspect also did not appear to have it own real time keying effect, so, unless I missed it, there seems to be now benefit there either.

Pinnacle Studio seems to render back to the tape and the .mt2 much faster, if you get it running right. I think this is because Pinnacle only actually rerenders the parts of the file that have been edited and some hou just appends the unedited portions. It also back round renders as you edit, which may create some problems with slower systems. I think this is part of the benefit of the Liquid engine it has. I rendered a 3 minute edit with 3 transitions for tape back to my FX1 and it took less than 10 minutes, including actual recording.

I tried a similar edit in PP 2.0 using both the m2t direct edit, and also using Cineform. The render for a 1 min 40 sec clip was over 25 minutes, as I recall. This surprised me quite a bit. I do have a 256 mgbyte PCI express video card, that PP 2.0 by some accounts is supposed to utilize, but that render seemed awful slow. One thing that is obvious is that it is rerendering the entire sequence.

By the way, the Cineform codec comes with PP 1.51, but not with 2.0. However, when my Aspect trial runs out, I have been led to believe that the codec will still be there, but I will lose all of the real time benefits of Aspect.

However, when my Aspect trial runs out, I have been led to believe that the codec will still be there, but I will lose all of the real time benefits of Aspect.

Interesting that. I've just copied the Cineform codec from my Vegas Media Studio director to the Premiere Pro 2 (demo version I downloaded last night) codec directory. Now, the codec comes up as an option on export. So it seems it's possible to have Premiere Pro 2 a la 1.5.1

The demo has very few presets for projects but I think this is because it has no HDV capture option. Can you assure me that the full version of Preimere Pro 2 has project presets for a 1080 50i project for frame size 1440x1080, or did you have to adust the project settings yourself.

Interesting that.

The demo has very few presets for projects but I think this is because it has no HDV capture option. Can you assure me that the full version of Preimere Pro 2 has project presets for 1080 50i project for frame size 1440x1080, or did you have to adust the project settings yourself.

Yes, under Adobe HDV preset options are HDV 1080I 25 (sONY 50),HDV 1080I 60 (sONY 60), AND HDV 720p 30

Hi Chaz

Have you thought of Edius from Canopus. I use this with my JVC HD 100 and it works great!

You can download a 30 day full feature trial here: http://www.canopus.com/canopus/press/whatshot.php

Hope this helps

Tony

when my Aspect trial runs out, I have been led to believe that the codec will still be there, but I will lose all of the real time benefits of Aspect.

If the codec will still be there when the trial runs out, does that mean the cineform project presets will remain in Premiere?

First the codec is still there. Second, if you open a previous CFHD project, a message will inform you that the project will open in VFW (video for windows) mode. If you try to render to CFHD (for HD export), the render will not proceed until you enter a key. Since I have v1.5 of PPro, I am still able to render to a "cineform avi" (assuming that it's the version that came bundled with PPro 1.5).

Not sure about 2.0. Also, I could not import/reuse any rendered CFHD media -the app locks up. I'm still evaluating this and have started a thread with an issue on the v4 codec in the cineform forum (probably where this thread should be heading -so I'll end here).

If the codec will still be there when the trial runs out, does that mean the cineform project presets will remain in Premiere?

Graham:

Because I only had one day left, I uninsalled Aspect 4.0. It looks like the codec will remain for players. Also, if you have Premeire Pro 1.51 on system already, the codec is part of that capture system. But it does not remain as preset on 2.0. so it looks like I SHOULD BE ABLE TO CAPTURE IN 1.51 AND EDIT IT ON 2.0.

I will check it out further.

Graham:

Because I only had one day left, I uninsalled Aspect 4.0. It looks like the codec will remain for players. Also, if you have Premeire Pro 1.51 on system already, the codec is part of that capture system. But it does not remain as preset on 2.0. so it looks like I SHOULD BE ABLE TO CAPTURE IN 1.51 AND EDIT IT ON 2.0.

I will check it out further.


Follow up. I was able to capture in cineform format with PP 1.51. I imported captured files to 2.0 . And I was even able to render those file with transitions to a Cineform encoded file. (under export to movie, I was able to select the Cineform Codec)

Follow up. I was able to capture in cineform format with PP 1.51. I imported captured files to 2.0 . And I was even able to render those file with transitions to a Cineform encoded file. (under export to movie, I was able to select the Cineform Codec)


Further comment: It looks like some audio problems are popping up with using the Cineform cdec to render. I had sound off, so I didn't notice this at first.

I have an hdr-hc1 and a new computer. This may not be the place to post this question but here goes. I am having trouble finding a free trial version of ANY program that allows you to capture in HD. PP and Vegas don;t let me capture HD and that is really what I would like to try. Any one found a trial version that lets you capture HD?

Chaz

Is my reply invisible!?

I think it is realy uncool when someone tries to help with a request and gets completely ignored. Especially when the reply seems to answer the question.

A simple "Tried it, didn't like it. Or don't like Canopus..anything!" would have been fine and how much of your time would it have taken?

Cheers


Tony

Hello Tony.
I haven't followed this thread for a while (Been shooting alot and haven't tried much editing yet) so I will try your sugesstion and get back to you Thanks!

Chaz,

I wasn't sure from your previous posts. Did you actually try capturing with Connect HD's capture utility which is totally separate from Vegas? The output from the Connect HD process is an AVI which can be processed in Vegas and rendered as AVI without an MPEG dependency. Does the Vegas demo not even allow you to import HD content in AVI form?

I couldn't get it to work... but then again it very well could be me, not the program constraints.