Living with the KDDI software

[David Kennett]

I just put together new computer - software is next!

For now though, I'm trying to make do with the bundled software. Hope this helps someone.

An error message shows up, preventing you from saving your work. This has been well documented, but I may be onto something. If I closed the summarizer (which I rarely use), I would most likely get the ?????message when trying to save. Or, if I opened a folder containing too many m2t files at one time the message was likely to appear. keeping the number of files to less than a hundred or so seems to work better.

Program crashes - the same thing seems to happen on my old (slow), and my new (fast) computer. When previewing, many clips in the timeline (maybe fifty or more) cause the preview window to pause before playing. This is likely to cause the program to crash. SAVE BEFORE PREVIEWING. I have better luck editing and rendering a long program in chunks - then putting them together. Large files seem OK - many files do not!

Anyone have experiences that add to (or refine) my observations I would like to hear about them - and I'm sure others would be too!

[Tom Roper]

David we should get a room because I'm probably one of very few not fortunate enough to afford Vegas, Adobe et all.

So I'm stuck with using the low end PC tools but glad I was able to get into the GR-HD1.

I'm not a professional, just a hobbyist shutterbug, but that doesn't mean I can't be a perfectionist. That's why we chose the JVC one trick pony over the 3 chip advice.

I've had the camera about a week, enough time to shoot less than one hour, but long enough to quickly run into problems on the PC that have consumed far more time than camcorder.

I've sorted through them...here are my observations:

1.) The capture utility has worked fine for me, bunch of files yes, but I've had no difficulty transporting TS bi-directionally.

2.) The KDDI editor does the basics, with respectable quality, but two exceptions: It puts a single black frame between TS-clips on the timeline, and when converting to DVD it fails to set the film flags for 2:2 cadence, to invoke NTSC 2-2 pulldown mode for 30 fps progressive. It's not as big a problem for PC software based DVD players as it is standalone DVD players. It causes moire in the picture.

3.) There is no included DV capture software, but there too, it's important for DV that the software set the interlace to field order A (lower field first), whereas NTSC video uses field order B (upper field first). Getting that right is the key to avoidance of ghosting during camera pans.

4.) The GR-HD1 and HD10 sibling are both slightly flawed when it comes to making DVDs. DV is closest to NTSC 480i, but doesn't use the full width of the CCD imager. HD does of course use the full width of the CCD imager, but the result of converting 30 FPS progressive for DVD playback is problematic, in that the KDDI software sets the interlace to field order B instead of to progressive frames.

5.) Expanding on 4.) above, even setting the flag to progressive frames will only work on about 30% of DVD players that will read it, or have deinterlacers that will recognize the 2:2 cadence, i.e. Faroudja, Sigma. The 30 fps progressive 720p is kind of a bummer in this regard. In other words, it's not impossible to find a standalone player for yourself that will give excellent, outstanding quality playback of GR-HD1/10 720p source downconverted DVDs, but if you are putting the footage on DVD for distribution to others, you don't have control over what DVD player it will be played on, and odds are good it won't look its best on the majority of players.

Secrets DVD Benchmark

On the brighter side, the raw m2t footage is stunning, and the DV mini-cassette a good media to archive with. And there is hope in the near future, (very near) that DVD players supporting WM9 are coming around that should allow the full 720p playback on 4.7gb DVD media.

[David Kennett]

Tom

I was having trouble with black frames too. It is very easy to leave a frame - or more - space between clips on the timeline. Just make sure you are in the ONE FRAME scale on the timeline when you drop in a clip - then you can see the hole. You can then use the two buttons above TRACK ONE on the right side to jump the yellow cursor from transition to transition. This is important because the zoom is centered on the present position of the yellow cursor.

Good luck!

[Tom Roper]

Thanks David, I'll try that!