[Randy Champion]

Thanks John,
I’ve been racking my brain to see if anything has been different or what had been changed.I couldn’t play the footage files in either my Gom Player or Quicktime player as they said additional Codecs were needed to play the files. THAT was new, as I had no problems playing the clips earlier so I did some online research and all fingers pointed toward downloading the DivX codec pack. So I did and it appears that that is when the problem started. Why would my players say I needed new codecs when I hadn’t needed them previously? I removed all components of DivX and it started functioning normally until today. Now it loads to 14% and freezes(says Not Responding) so I shut it down and try again. Should I try a System Restore or just reload Vegas?

[Randy Champion]

Thanks Jeff!

Now to production. I use Sony Vegas to edit and can set the project settings to a number of different things. I usually either match media settings or just set it to 1920x1080x30fps. To help my slow computer I convert the AVCHD from the camera to AVI and I get smoother previews while editing, changing it back to AVCHD prior to rendering. Creative Cow has a a pretty active Sony Vegas forum and they have been helpful. Any suggestions for editing would be helpful.

So are we back to the first question of what should I set the HMC 150 at to get the best results?

[Randy Champion]

It appears that the delivery system will be the Western Digital media player you mentioned, or a device similar, and will be used to loop a 2-3 minute piece onto 2 47″ LG 1080p LCD monitors. It’s preferable to have them synched to play together. Can 1 WDTV device drive both monitors?

So now that we know what the delivery system will be, we can start moving backwards.

[Randy Champion]

Thanks Jeff,
The truth is the client knows even less than I do. This is their first venture into the trade show arena and they are looking to me to give them answers on which TV to buy and what should drive the videos. They will buy what I tell them to buy so I want to get the absolute best quality video that I can from this camera and then tell them what equipment they need to make it look good. They are talking about a USB connection from an iPad to the monitor.

So the camera arrived today. Right out of the box I did a test shot all on Auto at 1030p. Didn’t wow me. That’s why I need to know what the optimum settings need to be cuz in reality, my little Canon HF R20 for 300 bucks looks better.
Randy

[Randy Champion]

Jeff,
I appreciate your patience with me as I struggle to wrap my brain around all this. So actually the settings will be dictated by the resolution of the monitors used at the trade show, right? If they are 720p then should I shoot and edit 720p? Same for 1080i? What if the monitor is 1080p? Will my videos shot at 1080i or 720p look better or worse?

[Randy Champion]

So 1080/60p is the best then, right? But the HMC150 offers 60p only in 720, 1080 is 60i. From Panasonic:

Recording Video Format:
PH mode: 1080/60i, 1080/30p (over 60i), 1080/24p (native), 720/60p, 720/30p(over 60p) and 720/24p (native)
HA, HG and HE mode: 1080/60i only
Transmission Rate:
PH mode: approx. 21 Mbps (VBR, Max 24Mbps)
HA mode: approx. 17 Mbps (VBR),
HG mode: approx. 13 Mbps (VBR)
HE mode: approx. 6 Mbps (VBR)

I understand it all has to do with the amount of light coming through the lens, but all those parameters being equal – let’s say I’m shooting an interview outdoors on a sunny day – for the best quality on that large video screen at a trade show I would want to shoot it in PH mode (21 mbps) but what would be better – 1080/30p or 720/60p?

[Randy Champion]

Dang, I’ve got 4 or 5 of the big 5400mAh batteries. Nice paper weights I suppose. Thanks for your help. Should I use strictly Panasonic brand or are there other brands that are reputable and won’t void the camera’s warranty?

[Randy Champion]

Or do I just oversample?

[Randy Champion]

Aaaahhh, thanks! Got it!

[Randy Champion]

I must be missing something. So when I right click after highlighting the voice track do I click on ‘Audio Event FX…’? When I do click on that a box comes up, just like in Video, and it lists everything from ‘Amplitude Modulation’ to ‘Wave Hammer Surround’ but no ‘channels-left only’. I am in Movie Studio HD11.