PC SPEC for Canon HG10 using AVCHD

[Em Watson]

please be very patient with me an amateur. This is the problem : I took loads of lovely video using a Canon HG10 last year but have been unable to view it on a PC screen cos as you know AVCHD format is a resources hungry beast !

all i have at the moment is 4-yr old Pentium 4 with only 1.5 gb memory.

So guys what is the optimum PC spec to see and edit these AVCHD files ? in terms of memory, graphics card, processor, hard drive space etc,.. plus anything else?

And what is good software to edit the files ? is video studio 11.5 + by Corel good for this ?

I'm in the UK so might not be able to source the software u states guys do.

many many thanks!

[Oren Arieli]

Welcome to the forum. You would do well to search this topic, as it has been covered for some time now. Try this for a start http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/avchd-for...-new-news.html

[Em Watson]

thanks oren, but yipes...that is VERY tecchie chat and only understand bits of it ...please understand i'm a TOTAL camera newbie and this the first camcorder ...min spec for avchd files ?

thanks!

[Dave Blackhurst]

To summarize -

quad core highly recommended, although you can slug along on a fast dual core. BEST would be an i7 quad core.

2G RAM, 4-6 probably better.

7200 RPM Hard drives minimum, have a "system" and a "media" drive for better performance.

You want a fast system bus if possible (communication channel between CPU/RAM/HDD subsystem) - Hard disk space depends mainly on how much you need to store files while you work, but you need speed between components to handle the demands of all the decompression AVCHD requires without choking. Faster the better...

Video cards depend on which NLE (non linear editing) program you use - some don't care much about the video card... so choose the program first and meet the specs. I use Vegas, but I used VS in the past and liked it, there are forums here for most major NLE's, best to peruse them a bit, but Vegas studio is probably a fairly safe bet, and not terribley video card dependent.

That's a sort of laymans summary, might have some minor technical holes in it, but should provide you some "non-geek" guidance.

[Andy Tejral]

How much money do you have?

Send it in!

Get the fastest computer you can get.

No matter how fast the computer, don't edit avchd! Convert it to another format. AVCHD, like HDV, was designed as an aquisition format and never intended to be edited directly.

Software is a very personal choice. I use Grass Valley/Canopus Edius for most things and Sony Vegas for the occasional thing that Edius doesn't do particularly well. Pretty much every company has a free trial version.

[Em Watson]

thanks guys ! but excuse another daft question - in the meantime can I connect my HG10 to a digital TV - to view the videos ?

and Andy convert avchd to WHICH format for editing ? and during process of conversion is there any loss of picture quality ?

And PLEASE most important - for backing up the files I've just copied the whole kit-caboodle onto a usb stick - is that sufficient ? only I'm really stuck until I buy a new pc

cheers!

[Andy Tejral]

Originally Posted by Em Watson

and Andy convert avchd to WHICH format for editing ? and during process of conversion is there any loss of picture quality ?

From MTS-->AVI.

The biggest player is Cineform--lots of information here. I believe a small portion of the full package is built into Vegas.

I'm an Edius user. It comes with (no addtional cost) the Canopus HQ codec.

Either way, you are moving from an aquisition codec to a post-production codec. Specifically designed to retain all the quality of the original and also allow a good deal of manipulation.

[Nick Gordon]

You can connect direct to a TV; the HG10 comes with various leads. Which one is best depends on the TV. If you're struggling, it might be worth going into somewhere like Jessops and asking for help.

As to which format for editing - depends on the software.

If you go the Mac route, Macs come with iMovie which automatically uses an Apple codec.

If you the PC route, different software will offer different options, each of which has its fans. Many people swear by Sony Vegas as great beginners software, but which allows you to advance a lot - and cheap.

On hardware: you need as much memory as you can get (4GB is good). Fast processor are great, but 2-core will be fine for the time being. If you can afford quad-core or better, go for it, but it's not necessary. You need a decent graphics card in the PC.

[David Wayne Groves]

I would recommend nothing less than a quadcore, at best a i7Core for video rendering..
Either one will handle AVCHD footage...My i7 core setup handles AVCHD footage from my HG10 and HG21 with ease...editing is a breeze in Vegas without the need for cineform.....

[Em Watson]

thanks guys just come back to this site about this ongoing problem not yet tackled due to laziness ...please tell me whether this spec :

AMD Phenom™ X4 9650 Quad Core Processor

ATI Radeon™ HD4550 DirectX® 10.1 graphic card with 512 MB dedicated memory onboard and integrated HDMI-/DVI-interface

640 GB hard disk

4 GB 4096 MB DDR2 Dual Channel SDRAM with 800 MHz 64 Bit1

would be OK to deal with these home movie AVCHD files ?

Thanks so much,
Em

[Perrone Ford]

I would not recommend the AMD chips, I would most CERTAINLY recommend an NVidia graphics card over an ATI, and you're definitely going to want more than 1 drive in the machine.

[Em Watson]

Perrone Ford - thank you!

please explain why more than 1 drive ?

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Em Watson

Perrone Ford - thank you!

please explain why more than 1 drive ?

Because when you work with video, three things are going on.

1. Your operating system is generally accessing the paging file to make up for you not having enough RAM. (that means reads and writes to your hard drive)

2. You video program is trying to read the source video file.

3. Your video program is trying to write the rendered file.

Thus you have multiple reads and writes all competing for the same slow hard drive all the time. Dragging performance down a LOT. This is why it's generally recommended to keep your OS drive away from any videos, and why it's recommended to keep your project source files away from the drive where you render or capture. One drive is the worst of all scenarios.

[Em Watson]

Perrone - please give me the ideal spec for AVCHD edit and viewing home movies.

Its the summer ! - find myself with time to built a machine to suit the purpose...
thanks guys

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Em Watson

Perrone - please give me the ideal spec for AVCHD edit and viewing home movies.

Its the summer ! - find myself with time to built a machine to suit the purpose...
thanks guys

I can't give you an ideal machine, because it doesn't exist. The machine I might spec could be totally unsuitable to you. In general, you want 2-3 drives (the OS drive doesn't need to be that large), as much RAM as you can afford, an Intel i7 processor as fast as you can afford, and preferably two monitors. They don't need to be the latest and greatest, but once you edit with two monitors, you'll wonder how you ever got along without them.

If you can add BluRay to the machine, do that. If not for the movie capability, at least for the excellent storage for your projects. I utterly love having mine.

Best of luck!