Regular readers of Canon Camera Buzz will know that we have a few knowledgable, opinionated bloggers and forum members from different communities on the net – camera buffs, video bloggers, even artists – trialing the HG10 for a month.
Trialist and moderator of Digital Director, Mark W, has posted a ‘camera porn’ photo showing the lineup of his favourite cameras over the years, including the HG10 – it’s fascinating to see how styles and sizes have evolved:
Senu, another trialist and moderator on AV Forums, has posted a great summary of his experiences with the HG10. He’s really put it through it’s paces, comparing it with the HC1, FX1 and HV20, and testing it indoors with low lighting thanks to the terrible weather. Although the low light footage isn’t ideal, and the battery life is ‘so-so’, Senu admits that it’s difficult to find things to complain about (although he’s tried!): ‘I like it and would recommend it to anyone looking to buy an HDD camcorder for Hi-def as it is reasonable cost, great build quality and does what it promises.’ Senu also offers to provide footage for anyone wanting to play with it themselves, so let him know if you’re interested.
And over in Simply DV Forums, in a useful thread about HD cameras for beginners, trialist Ben has emphasised the importance of handling the HG10 before you make up your mind: ‘Don’t forget getting your hands on one – the HG10 feels superb (having had one on a trial) and has a great interface.’
If you have any quesitons or comments about the HG10 or HD/HDD cameras in general, visit these trialists in their forums – they can all be relied on to give you an independent, honest and experienced opinion.
To say I’m frustrated is to put it mildly. I have a love-hate relationship with my HG10
First, let me say that I really like the HG10. A lot. It’s easy to use and makes beautiful videos. Connecting to my Sharp Aquos proves that the quality is superb for the price point. I’m very happy with that. That’s the love part.
That’s where it ends. Getting the videos to my PC is easy using the supplied software. But once on my PC the hate part of the relationship begins.
I have a Home Theater PC connected to that Aquos. I play all my commercial and hom movies on that HTPC. Hundreds of movies from Star Wars to Transformers. Hundreds of home movies that were on DVDs (converted on tape) also reside on that HTPC.
I play everything through Vista’s Media Center. This makes it easy for the wife and kids to watch them without having to use any outside application.
Alas, I haven’t found a way to play the M2TS files within media center. Sure I can close media center and play the clips, one at a time, via the supplied WinDVD SE but that presents 2 problems. 1) Traversing directories on my HTPC, something my wife will NEVER do. 2) I can’t play clips back to back and many of the clips belong together to tell a story.
Yeah, I know I can use the Ulead product or Studio 11 that I already use for other things but that means work. Lots of work. Human nature what it is that means it just won’t happen. It also means I’ll take fewer and fewer videos as time goes on because I want to avoid that work.
Isn’t there a product, or codec, that will allow me to dump the m2ts files for a single event into a folder and then let Media Center play them?
This seems to be the dirty little secret that no one mentions at Best Buy when you pick up the product.
If this annoyance were to go away then the HG10 would be the best.
Please help.
Chuck – I’ve flagged up your comment on today’s post so hopefully we’ll get some good tips coming in. I can’t help you off hand but I’m off hunting out some tips so I’ll let you know if I can help with a solution too
AVCHD was developed by Sony and Panasonic. Naturally, Sony Vegas natively supports AVCHD format. So far, I have not found any other programs that can read the “.mts” files without converting it.
I primarily use Mac, and it’s been quite a workout on my patience when it comes to importing AVCHD video files. I know that I need newer Mac, because the new 8-Core Mac Pro (Penryn-based) can handle the conversions like light-saber through butter.
Anyway, back on track. Try downloading Sony Vegas trial and see if that solves your problem.
v
37prime,
Thanks for your response. I DO have Pinnacle 11 which DOES support AVCHD. That’s not the issue.
The issue is that I want to copy my m2ts files to my hard drive and play them. IN VISTA MEDIA CENTER. And, I want all of the files in a single folder to play consecutively as if they were one file.
I can do that with the .mp4 files created on my Samsung HiDef camcorder, I was just looking for the same functionality from the HG10.
Chuck,
Unfortunately AVCHD is not currently supported in Vista Media Center.
The reason I recommend Sony Vegas is because it has a native AVCHD support (built-in codec) as opposed to any other programs out there.
If memory serves correctly, even Pinnacle 11 does not have the said AVCHD codec just like Sony Vegas. Vista media center does support MPEG4 file format. It’s up to Sony and Panasonic, or third party developer to provide the codec for Windows Media Framework.
For now, you have to convert the “.mts” files to some other format for Vista Media Center to recognize.
37prime
Thanks again for your response.
Pinnacle 11 does support AVCHD natively. I can just drag the m2ts files to the time line and they work fine. I can then produce any output that Pinnacle supports including SD or HD disks or files.
Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit of time to render these output files on my quad core system. I know that this will hinder my viewing as I’m basically lazy and just want to watch video.
Can you help me with this question? If I purchase a third party codec that supports AVCHD such as Core or the one offered by the makers of Nero will I then be able to play the m2ts files in media center?
Chuck,
In theory, yes. BUT would it be integrated in the Media Center? I can’t give you “the” answer as of right now.
Download Nero 8 Ultra Edition Trial, and see if you could play the AVCHD files in media center. I will try this too.
I am confident that someone or a company would make the codec for Media Center available as AVCHD format is becoming more popular. It’s still relatively a new format.
Remember, AVCHD is highly compressed. That’s being said, a lot of processing powers are needed. That could be the reason why Apple converts the the “.mts” files to an intermediate format. It’s easier to play a less compressed format than AVCHD.
Hi,
I have MCE for XP and CyberLink PowerDVD 7 (which support AVCHD DVDs) but still MCE want play them
(Can only play ANCHD DVDs in PowerDVD)
Hi 37prime,
To pick up the discussion on Vegas 8…I downloaded the trial, imported the .mts files from the HG10, but that is where I get stuck. I cannot figure out what exactly to render the files as – everything I try (with the exception of .wmv 1080 30p) either does not play back in WMP or ends up being larger than the original .mts file (which sort of defeats the purpose???).
I am the very definition of a beginner, and probably bought too much camera, but figured I’d try and figure it out anyway.
Thanks for any help
I have the same problem. I use the software that comes with my Canon HF10 which is called ImageMixer 3. With that I combine all the clips into one m2ts file which doesn’t take long even on my old (one core) PC. I don’t do any editing at all and the output resolution is the same as the input. Then I copy the file to my Vista media center pc and change the extension from m2ts to mpg. Then I can see and play the file from within the Vista Media Center application. Oh, by the way I bought and installed CoreAVC, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to play back any H.264 encoded video files.
But I’m still looking for the same solution as you, where I don’t have to do anything but copy the clips to a folder om my Media Center pc.
Just found part of the solution here: http://a8t8.spaces.live.com/?_c11_BlogPart_BlogPart=blogview&_c=BlogPart&partqs=cat%3DComputers%2Band%2BInternet
I talks about how to register the m2ts to be regocnized in Media Center.
Hey,
I have a come up with a workaround for playing canon HG10 m2ts files in windows media center.
1. Install The CoreCodec CoreAVC High Definition H.264 video codec http://www.coreavc.com/ (This is a recommendation from Microsoft)
2. Add the Mpeg extension to your M2TS files, “example.M2TS.Mpeg”
Videos now appear and play in Media center. If you don’t add the mpeg extension media center does not see the files.
I have the exact same problem as Chuck. Has there been a solution found to this problem? I can’t play the videos I record with my HG10 in Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center.