HG20 - some questions

[Brian Huether]

I have been getting quite confused lately over the HG20 vs HV30 differences. I will mainly be shooting indoors. I bought the camera to make a guitar instructional video. I have been reading that editing with the HG20 is a pain. I will definitely need to do considerable editing to include mixing with audio that I am recording through separate mic. Also, I read people saying that the HG20 is bad with motion. Since my hands tend to move pretty damn fast when I play guitar, this has me worried.

What are some good editing solutions?

Anyway, just want to make sure I really did buy the appropriate camera.

thanks,

brian

[Brian Huether]

I need some fairly capable software that can handle video and audio (I am recording audio with sepaate MIC and preamp that is going direct to the computer). Going on google hasn't pointed me to much info.

thanks,

brian

[Chris Soucy]

Close, but no cupie doll.

Try the AVCHD forum up the page a tad.


CS

[Brian Huether]

Sorry to keep making so many posts on different subjects... I am new to DV...

Here is my question: Is there any benefit to recording video on my computer in real time or should I just transfer after the fact? I iamgine real time recording to the computer puts extra strain on the camcorder. The reason I ask is I downloaded the Vegas Pro demo and am going through the process of setting up a project. I am wondering if I should just record my audio or if I should have video and audio streams going in at same time. The only benefit I can see to recording through Vegas is that I imagine it would sync the audio and video as opposed to me importing the video after and aligning. What do you think?

thanks,

brian

[Brian Huether]

This is unrelated to my myriad of other posts...

I just bought a Canon HG20. My main purpose is to record guitar instructional videos indoors. I did some tests today and the video seems fairly noisy (i.e. similar to the artifacts you see in photos shot with low light and long shutter speed). Also, the large number of pixels on a small sensor I suppose implies noise as well. I am just wondering if I jumped into HD too quick. Would lower resolution camcorders with larger sensors produce less noise? Also, would a slower frame rate reduce the noise?

Granted, my lighting wasn't ideal today. The room was lit by two overhead 75 watt soft white lights. The room is only 12x12x9. Should I expect vast reduction in noise once I get proper lighting (i.e. 3 point lighting)?

thanks,

brian

[Brian Huether]

On page 95 of the manual it shows details for the Playback Setup menu items. The thing is, that menu is not appearing on my camera. When I go into menu mode, the menu tabs I see at the top of the screen are Camera Setup1, Camera Setup2, System Setup1, System Setup2, Date/Time Setup and Information Screens.

The Playback Setup tab is supposed to appear between Camera Setup2 and System Setup1 but it is not there. I don't see any indication from searching that anyone else has experienced this oddity.

Thoughts?

thanks,

brian

nevermind - figured it out...

[Brian Boyko]

Originally Posted by Brian Huether

I have been getting quite confused lately over the HG20 vs HV30 differences. I will mainly be shooting indoors. I bought the camera to make a guitar instructional video. I have been reading that editing with the HG20 is a pain. I will definitely need to do considerable editing to include mixing with audio that I am recording through separate mic. Also, I read people saying that the HG20 is bad with motion. Since my hands tend to move pretty damn fast when I play guitar, this has me worried.

What are some good editing solutions?

Anyway, just want to make sure I really did buy the appropriate camera.

thanks,

brian

When they say that the HG series editing is a pain, that's mostly because the HV30 records onto tape in HDV format, which is a type of MPEG-2 which has been standard for a while.

MPEG-2 compression is smaller than the raw video files but it's only about as tough for a computer processor to handle as playing a DVD.

The hard drive based camcorders are using AVCHD, which is a type of H.264. This means that you can have higher video quality in less space, but it also means that in order to edit those raw files your computer needs to be powerful enough to edit in the highly compressed format.

Additionally, your software may need to be upgraded - or you may need to convert from AVCHD to a different format to edit in.

As for flying fingers, there's no real difference between HDV and AVCHD even at AVCHD's "lowest" setting - I use an HG10 at work - and the key here is framerate. You do NOT want to film in 24p mode. That's 24 full-frames per second. You want either 30p mode (thirty full frames a second) or if that's not responsive enough, 60i, which is sixty interlaced frames per second.

[Brian Boyko]

Originally Posted by Brian Huether

Sorry to keep making so many posts on different subjects... I am new to DV...

Here is my question: Is there any benefit to recording video on my computer in real time or should I just transfer after the fact? I iamgine real time recording to the computer puts extra strain on the camcorder. The reason I ask is I downloaded the Vegas Pro demo and am going through the process of setting up a project. I am wondering if I should just record my audio or if I should have video and audio streams going in at same time. The only benefit I can see to recording through Vegas is that I imagine it would sync the audio and video as opposed to me importing the video after and aligning. What do you think?

thanks,

brian

There's no "strain" on the camcorder from doing this. Many choose to record to a computer (specifically a laptop) so that it can act as a monitor while filming.

I'm not sure what your setup is, recording audio and video seperately. If you want to sync in post, that's fine. Keep in mind though, that anything going into the computer is going to be going in through a mini jack, the same kind of mini mic jack as is on the HG20 already. Why not just connect the mics through the camera?

If you're talking about adding additional audio after the fact, then you're going to get the same exact thing with the HG20 if you record live or if you transfer after the fact.

[Brian Huether]

I record the audio with external mics that go into external preamps which then go into a high quality sound card. I would like to have the video captured on the computer at least so I can see what the shot looks like. Just not sure how to get realtime video from my HG20 into the computer. My video card is NVidia GeForce 7300 GT. It only has outputs. Prices on cards with Component and/or HDMI seem quite high. I suppose there must be cheaper cards with analog video input. If I was capturing HDMI in realtime, I am afraid that would tax the computer too much since it is also capturing audio. And since I just want to do the realtime capture for monitoring purposes, I suppose I don't have the need for HDMI input but it would be nice in case I want to record the high res video without worrying about importing the AVCHD files later. Would make the video-audio workflow smoother...

thanks,

brian

[Dave Blackhurst]

Lighting properly is about 90% of getting good results in the sort of setting you're looking at. The camera isn't going to be able to shoot what isn't there light wise, and HD cameras need a better lit "stage" for best results.

There's an entire forum section dedicated to lighting on DVinfo... start there, and that will help you with resources to set up a properly lit stage.

[Brian Huether]

Yeah my brain is fried from trying to learn so much about DV (including lighting) in such a short period of time. I finally have enough of an idea to know what to buy for lighting thanks to all these great forums. I will post some videos once I have something that I think loks decent!

thanks,

brian

[Brian Boyko]

Originally Posted by Brian Huether

I record the audio with external mics that go into external preamps which then go into a high quality sound card. I would like to have the video captured on the computer at least so I can see what the shot looks like. Just not sure how to get realtime video from my HG20 into the computer. My video card is NVidia GeForce 7300 GT. It only has outputs. Prices on cards with Component and/or HDMI seem quite high. I suppose there must be cheaper cards with analog video input. If I was capturing HDMI in realtime, I am afraid that would tax the computer too much since it is also capturing audio. And since I just want to do the realtime capture for monitoring purposes, I suppose I don't have the need for HDMI input but it would be nice in case I want to record the high res video without worrying about importing the AVCHD files later. Would make the video-audio workflow smoother...

thanks,

brian

Well, on the HV20 series, I'd just connect via firewire. You may have to try connecting via USB.

[Brian Huether]

THe more I read about the HG20, I don't think its HDMI provides realtime output - only on playback. THe USB only provides file transfer, I don't think it support streaming. I think the only bet on this camnera is the composite video output.

thanks,

brian

[Jonathan Beacher]

Canon HG20 and HG21 cameras do output live video from the HDMI connector while recording on the internal camera hard drive is in progress.