I just got my HV20 a couple weeks ago, and love it. I also got all the parts and stuff that I need to get everything onto my PC. I use Vegas Studio 5.0, and for my first couple attempts, have opened the m2t files and simply made a movie in Windows Media Video V9 format. Comparing these videos to what I get directly from the camera to my 40" Samsung HDTV (even just using the DVi cable, not HDMI), there seems to be some quality loss.

I am very new to all of this.....I'm not looking to become a professional, but I want these looking as good as possible. Does anyone have a step-by-step process by which I can take raw m2t files and end up with a near-perfect duplicate on my computer post-editing?

I use HDVSplit to capture video from the camcorder. I have MPEG Streamclip, but haven't gotten anything successful out of that. Any ideas are appreciated!

I use Adobe Premiere to edit the m2t file and export back to m2t. So it's near the original input file with no noticeably quality loss (although I know there is a generation loss as Premere render every frame). Still the final video is still very good.

I also render another version of WMV to 1280x720p (with deinterlace set to on) with datarate 3 or 5mbps. That's mostly for sending video out using FTP.

Here's one I created. You will have to right click and download the file.

http://www.hv20.info/yopu/JessieFelix.wmv

Then I also render a 640x360 in 1mbps for web streaming. 1mbps is quite pushing the limit but I want to keep the good quality. :)

http://lacolor.com/video/hd/?id=Jessie-Felix_PhotoSession

Another way will cost you $500 to buy Cineform AspectHD. It comes with their HD codec that looks pretty good.

Thanks for the quick reply and the links. They both look great. I'll try those settings and see if I end up with something better than what I'm getting. I guess another question I have is, what should I set my default proect properties to, as far as width, height, pixel aspect ratio, etc? Do those matter very much?

Also, when you say you export back to m2t, how exactly do you view those files outside of an editor?

What software you use to edit?

For Premiere, there are some standard presets (Sony HDV 1080i) and you can also download Canon HDV 24p Preset from Adobe's site. That saves you time in determining what you need to specifiy in your project properties.

m2t is just MPEG file. You can rename .m2t to .mpg. For Windows, you can just double click the m2t file. Specify your player when asked.

I'm using Vegas Movie Studio 5.0. Would the preset you spoke of work with that?

I did simply rename the .m2t files to .mpg, it's nice to know I can do that.

I don't know about Vegas. I'm sure it has presets do the same.

I use Adobe Premiere to edit the m2t file and export back to m2t. So it's near the original input file with no noticeably quality loss (although I know there is a generation loss as Premere render every frame). Still the final video is still very good.

I also render another version of WMV to 1280x720p (with deinterlace set to on) with datarate 3 or 5mbps. That's mostly for sending video out using FTP.

Here's one I created. You will have to right click and download the file.

http://www.hv20.info/yopu/JessieFelix.wmv

Then I also render a 640x360 in 1mbps for web streaming. 1mbps is quite pushing the limit but I want to keep the good quality. :)

http://lacolor.com/video/hd/?id=Jessie-Felix_PhotoSession

Another way will cost you $500 to buy Cineform AspectHD. It comes with their HD codec that looks pretty good.Taky that was a real nice vid. Very crisp and sharp looking. Was this shot in 24P? If so what did you use to remove pulldown? I ask because from what i always understood Adobe 2 does not remove pulldown from HV20.

I have recently been using Vegas to render out to MainConcept MPEG2 (M2T) file. From there I use the HV20Pulldown.exe file by Steve Szudzik and it seems to work fine.

Thanks! the video is shot in 24p but I didn't do the pulldown removal. It still nice.

If you are gonna do the pulldown removal, you should do it in the source file but not the output file. The output file already have the pulldown information mess up so the removal will not be as accurate.

Now I'm really going to sound like a newb, but what exactly is a pulldown? I keep hearing about removing it, but is it something you get from a setting on the camcorder? Is it something you would ever want? What does it do?

There are tons of information online about the pulldown. Here's one

http://www.zerocut.com/tech/pulldown.html

Basically the pulldown is a method to playback 24 fps video (e.g. film) to a 30fps video (NTSC TV) by inserting additional frames to fill the missing frames.

HV20 can shot 24 fps progressive (24p) video but it was wrapped in a 30fps interlaced container (pulldown included). To remove the pulldown will extra the true 24 fps progressive frame out so the video is free of interlaced lines. The final fize size is also smaller because there are only 24 frames per second instead of 30.

Thanks! the video is shot in 24p but I didn't do the pulldown removal. It still nice.

If you are gonna do the pulldown removal, you should do it in the source file but not the output file. The output file already have the pulldown information mess up so the removal will not be as accurate.
You know Taky...that's what everyone keeps saying and i understand it but what I did was render out that MPEG (HDV) file as HDV 1080-60i, 29.97 fps 1440x1080, 16:9 Display, Interlaced Top field First, 25,000,000 Constant Bit rate to a standard M2T file. Went through the above mentioned software and saved it as Uncompressed. The video came out perfectly with no interlacing ghosting efect and at 24P. I did a comparison with the native file run through the .exe software and they semed identical. I did a walkthrouh frame by frame and where i once seen ghosting it was not there. I don't get it. it seems to work for me. I am still testing this out but if anyone wants to give this a try please do.

well, if I'm gonna do it, I'll just do it the right way.

I think the messing up of the pulldown sequence will occur when you apply transitions, filters, and trimming of clips. Maybe you can try apply some filters to the entire movie to see if the pulldown removal still do it right?

I ve just started working with it, but Neo HDV from Cineform ($249.00 at Cineform.com) converts HV20 24p at capture, on the fly, into a great intermediate editing file. Note: The file would run about 3 times the size of HDV or .m2t equivalent in an .avi format, but it is actually supposed to be easier on processing loads during edits.

Yeah, I'm tempted to get Cineform AspectHD for the realtime capability in Premiere.

Taky, how did you create the transistions in the vid... the footage looks
very nice..

Taky, thanks for the pulldown link. I guess this is something I am going to want to start doing if I want to help preserve quality. I'm going to try the <A HREF="http://www.szudzik.net/vegas/scripts/HV20Pulldown.html">HV20Pulldown stuff</A> and see what happens. If I use a program like this and end up with an .AVI, are there any considerations when using Vegas Movie Studio as far as making a final movie after editing?

That transition is created by applying a camera blur filter and the additive dissolve transition. It's like this,

[ camera blur][aadditive dissolve][camera blur ]

OK, Thanks... I assume you key the camera blur.....

That transition is created by applying a camera blur filter and the additive dissolve transition. It's like this,

[ camera blur][aadditive dissolve][camera blur ]

Taky - San Gabriel Mission? It looks like on some of the shots you slowed the footage down? Any special settings for that?

Yes, it is the Downtown Mission area of the City of San Gabriel.

I slow down some of the clips so to fit to the length of the song. I did it in Premiere by right clicking the clips and change the speed setting.