[Gerry Lawson]

Apple has a free Prores codec (decode) for Windows. Perhaps the Prores codec will allow you to edit the Prores files in Moviemaker? It’s probably worth trying if the Prores files aren’t too large.

[Gerry Lawson]

Hi Bim,

It seems to me that all you would need are 3 BNC to RCA adapters.

The breakout cable from the Kona LHE has 3 BNC Male connectors for component output. Your monitor will have 3 RCA female connectors for the component input. The breakout cable may not be long enough to reach your monitor.

You probably need 3 BNC(Female) to RCA(Female) adapters. The link is just an example – I’ve never ordered from them.
https://www.pacificcable.com/Picture_Page.asp?DataName=RFA-8391

Then any component RCA patch cable to connect to your monitor.
https://www.pacificcable.com/Picture_Page.asp?DataName=254-506X

Good luck,
gerry

[Gerry Lawson]

I assume that you can edit the XDCAM directly without transcoding correct?

The XDCAM is recording at 35Mbs which you can edit and the AVCHD is recording at 25Mbs but needs to be transcoded to be edited. If you were to transcode your XDCAM to Prores it would take up just as much room as the AVCHD to Prores. If you were to transcode the AVCHD to XDCAM then it would be the same size as what you have coming out of the EX1. i doubt you would get the quality you want from a second generation XDCAM clip though – also Final Cut doesn’t transcode directly to anything other than Prores.

gerry

[Gerry Lawson]

Ah, *forehead slap*

In terms of dual recording and SD delivery the DVR makes perfect sense. I would experiment with recording in “squeezed” mode to preserve the max video data and try to change the aspect ratio flag afterward.

What format does the DVR record to?

[Gerry Lawson]

Hi Peggy,

in transcoding video I have gotten used to one application choking on a video file and having another application work fine. The video itself may not be corrupt. It could be that you shot in a new video mode that FCP doesn’t like.

Try copying the files back to another SD Card and seeing if they play properly in the camera.

If the video plays properly then I would say you just need to try transcoding apps until you find one that works for the video.

iMovie will take the camera archive and encode to AIF (not bad quality – definitely useable.)
Adobe Media Encoder will encode the MTS files into a variety of codecs that would be fine for editing.
Premiere CS4 will edit the MTS files natively (not always without choppy playback)
Voltaic will apparently transcode these files but I haven’t used it myself

On the Windows side
Canopus Edius and procoder will handle (edit/transcode) MTS files
Sony Vegas Video will handle (edit/transcode) MTS files

[Gerry Lawson]

Hi Douglas,

The typical way of backing up born digital media is to treat it like data. Just copy the entire card to an external hard disk and you have a 1st gen High Def backup of your video. FCP will treat this folder structure as if it were the camera in a “log & transfer” operation. iMovie will treat the backup as a “camera archive” and Premiere will just take the MTS files natively.

I completely understand the DVR solution for any SD footage. For flash based HD footage the DVR solution loses an extreme amount of video information when downrezzed and it happens at realtime (although copying data isn’t as fast as you would think.)

I would look into something like the Western Digital “My Book – studio edition.” I bring up this model because I just picked one up for a client for $290 Canadian. The version I bought is 2TB and can be configured in a mirrored RAID so you can have two copies of all of your backups. That way if one hard drive goes bad you won’t lose all of your video backups. The hard drives are user serviceable (you can change them yourself.) Many such RAIDs have to be sent to the company for a hard disk replacement. They gouge you severely on this service.

anyway, just food for thought.
gerry

[Gerry Lawson]

I’ve found that Canopus Edius Pro does a good (easy) job of transcoding MTS files on Windows machines. I think they an XDCAM droplet that allows you to just drop the MTS files onto the droplet icon and it automatically starts the transcodes. I’ve used this workflow to transcode to Canopus’ High Quality proprietary codec and it worked very well. I haven’t been editing very long but I love Edius for it’s ease of use.

One thing to note is that Canopus encoders may be the best at utilizing multicore CPUs.

Another thing to note is that I tried transcoding MTS files with Canopus’ Procoder app (which I love) and it had severe chroma problems in the encoded files. I don’t remember which version I was using though.

[Gerry Lawson]

I don’t know about toast but Adobe Media Encoder will process MTS files if you have access to a CS4 bundle. That should allow an easy transcode to MPEG-2 then DVDSP or whatever DVD authoring program you like.

[Gerry Lawson]

When you delete files from removable media (using a MAC) you need to empty the “trash bin” before that space is available for you to use.

Read/write life for newer flash media is in the thousands (from what I have read.) Also when formatting a flash card the controller doesn’t actually erase each byte location, it simply erases the pointers to blocks of data. For these reasons I wouldn’t worry too much about how often you format cards.

gerry

[Gerry Lawson]

I think you need to specify the root folder (not the STREAM folder) of your AVCHD card or harddisk for FCP to detect your video.

Some applications can read the MTS files directly and transcode them. Many programs (iMovie and FCP included) will read the file structure and use the index information for transferring. It seems a little inane to me but these apps won’t recognize the MTS files as video.