Beginners Help with Sony HDV Video Editing
 

Hi,

Please help. I've got tapes of video of my children from birth to three years captured on a Sony HDR-HC3 video recorder HDV m2t.

It looks great when I plug in to my plasma but I want to edit it. This is when my trouble begins. I want to secure this video for the future and don't know what to do with it. I suppose ideally I would like to get it ready to burn to blu-ray eventually. This is what I have available to me.

1) Powerful Dual Core laptop running XP SP3
2) Adobe Premier Elements 3
3) Sony HDR - HC3
4) Stack of tapes.
5) Will buy a Blu-Ray recorder in the future.

1) I've tried editing the video in Adobe Premier 3, and can get m2t files but can't play them. Will these burn on to Blu-Ray when I get a recorder?


What is my best options?

1) Load tapes in to Premier, edit and transfer back out on to tape and use Sony HDR - HC3 as player for plasma.
2) Load tapes in to Premier, edit and transfer to WHAT FORMAT? MPEG, M2T (which I can't play) or WMW, and if so what settings?

I would really appreciate some good advice.

Thanks Nigel

While the computer's a little anemic for HDV, it's doable. Your configuration should work just fine. I have cut m2t files with CS3 on a laptop that's similar or slower than yours.

When you say you "can't play" m2t files, does that mean that you cannot even view them at all, is the playback jerky and erratic? If it's the former, check and make sure Premier has all updates. Do the same for your computer and search the Adobe knowledgebase for optimization tips. You should be able to make it all work.

You can make BDs from Premier (using Encore). Encore is a little counterintuitive compared to Premier because its innards weren't developed internally to the company, but once you get used to it Encore is a dawdle.

Your questions on "options" gets a little spikey because there are so many ways to get to different output formats. Workflows can get a little varied. If you're going to BD, you can go from Premier Pro to Encore and build your disk there. It's pretty automagic in the hand off if you have CS3PP and that's the simplest way to do it.

You don't actually need a BD burner now to do your projects. You can output from Encore to an "image" file and save it to hard disk for later burning. By the time you get done with three years of kid-growing-up video, the prices should have dropped a bit. (grin)

Once you get your system working, you might want to invest the US$25 for a 30 day subscription to the training on lynda.com. That might be the best shortcut to getting you where you want to go.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Tripp.

My problem with playing m2t files is that I can only view them with VLC player. I would rather have a more future proof solution, than be dependent on a not too well known player. I will check for updates.

If I buy Premier Pro (I've got Elements) using Encore, and a Blu-Ray burner will I be able to play my 1080i m2t on any domestic Blu-Ray player?

Nigel

[QUOTE=Nigel Leviss;1136259]My problem with playing m2t files is that I can only view them with VLC player. I would rather have a more future proof solution, than be dependent on a not too well known player. I will check for updates.[QUOTE]
Your comment implies that the format of your m2t files are somehow unique to you. They're not. It sounds like there's something amiss on your system.

There are many players that support m2t files so I don't think you'll be left high and dry any time soon.

Unless your m2t files are legal Blu-ray files, they will have to be transcoded before being written to the BD media. Once you have created a legal BD disk, that should be playable on any commercially available player or computer BD-ROM drive.

Thanks for your help.

If you want to be able to play M2T (transport stream) files real easily (on your computer), you can simply rewrap them as MPG (program stream) files. You can use VLC to do the rewrap, or there are a number of other utilities you can use, like MPEG Streamclip (also free).