HD cameras can be classified according to the media they use for storing the information. Traditional cameras use tape, which is still the most affordable solution. Small cameras usually use a compact memory card for recording and there are also solutions on the market that store the information on a small hard drive or even directly to a blu-ray disc.
Among the consumer friendly alternatives hdv, a format that records to tape, is what comes closest to what real professionals use, even if it is still not quite as good as the commercial grade hdcam, ds-hd, or dvcopro-hd formats are. However, for recording the important events in your life devices that record in dv-format or employ the avchd compression to record to a small memory card or hard drive are certainly good enough.
The biggest drawback of using the dv-tapes is that the material has to be transferred to your computer in real time, as if actually watching the tape. If you have shot three hours worth of footage, it will take three hours to transfer it to the computer for editing.
Cameras using the avchd format are much more convenient in this regard, as the video and audio material can be transferred quickly just like any other file from a USB memory stick. However, for the editing part of your movie project you need to make sure that your video editing software supports the avchd format. And you also need to pay attention to the formats you publish your finished movie in.
AVCHD What?!
Avchd is an effective method of video compression that is the result of collaboration between the companies Panasonic and Sony.
To be more precise, what this format does is record the video footage using the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video compression codec. The audio is stored in one of these two formats: Dolby AC-3, or uncompressed form (multichannel PCM). As the format has its roots in the blu-rat format it also includes the same kind of folder structure, including functions for improving things like menu navigation, slide shows and subtitles.
Although the format can be recorded onto DVD discs or onto a mass storage device like a hard drive. In order to play or edit the material you need to have an appropriate acvhd compatible codec installed on your computer. A compatible player is often included in the package with a new Avchd camera, and the files can also be played back as is on the Playstation 3 video game console. There are also free codecs available, but currently these are not as efficient and as reliable as their commercial counterparts. For editing in this format you also need an editing program compatible with avchd.
Finally one more thing - should you really buy a HD camera? The very short answer in my opinion is: yes absolutely!
In fact, it would be difficult to come up with any compelling reasons for buying a new SD camera any more, even if you have yet to update the rest of your home entertainment system to the HD era. The memories and events recorded in high definition today, will look even more stunning in the years to come - if they are recorded in HD as they happen.
Best Video Editing Software For Windows PCs
What is the best video editing software for Windows PCs, and should you even consider using such a computer for editing videos (many people still claim the Mac is the only way to go)?
To begin with answering the latter question - yes, nowadays you can definitely edit video quite reliably using a Windows (XP or Vista) as your platform. It may still hold true that Mac OS is a more stable environment over all, but I find it more important that the hardware of your chosen PC is reasonably up to date.
If you have a fairly new Windows PC with a large enough hard drive, the most natural choice is to get software that works on this system, instead of forking out a few thousand dollars on a brand new Mac just to edit videos on.
So what editing software should I buy?
I have tested many different video editing softwares on Windows, both free and commercial ones, and the one I have always come back to is Premiere Elements from Adobe. I have had this since version 4 and recently upgraded to the latest version 7 (the big jump in version was chiefly made in order to "have the same number" as the latest Photoshop).
Premiere Elements is the younger sibling of Premiere Pro, and the actual editing happens in very much the same way. Elements is more consumer friendly though, which is immediately apparent in the colorful main menus: Organize, Edit, Disc Menus and Share. Under Edit you will find options for getting media from the hard drive or from your camera, as well as icons for accessing effects, fades, titles and more. Everything is very well laid out and accessible.
The effects build on what one is used from seeing in Adobe Photoshop, and work very well indeed. There are also ready made themes to choose from. In version 4 these were quite unimpressive, but have now gotten better and, if you want, you can get even more of these themes by signing up for the (paid) Photoshop Plus service.
A feature I have liked since its introduction is the "Edit to the Beat" feature. Here the program automatically analyzes a music file on the time line in order to automatically put markers on every beat. This makes it a lot easier for the beginner to make a cool music video with cuts that actually happen in time with the music. This is more fun than it sounds, promise!
The newer "SmartSound" feature is an even easier way of automatically adjusting the music to perfectly match the length of your movie or for auto-synchronizing scenes to the beat of your soundtrack.
A couple of reservations
On the whole, I think Adobe Premiere Elements is as good or better than many of the competitors in the same price range. However, there are a couple of reservations that may prove to be real show stoppers for you. Namely:
1. You can't burn Avchd/Blu-ray to ordinary DVD discs.
This may perhaps not be a huge issue for many, but with some other HD video editing softwares you can actually burn the structure of a blu-ray disc onto an ordinary DVD disc, which then can be played in any blu-ray player. A standard DVD will hold about 20 - 40 minutes of high definition material, which may certainly be sufficient for many of the projects you wish to burn to a disc. As recordable DVDs are much cheaper than blank blu-ray discs, you could potentially save a lot of money with this feature.
I am not sure, but one would think that this issue would be possible to solve with a future patch/update of the software? It took a while for the people at adobe to implement AVCHD in the first place as well, but that now works flawlessly.
2. Premiere Elements Require SSE2 support from your processor.
If the processor in your computer does not support this architecture, Premiere Elements won't even install on your computer. In practise, this means that any AMD Athlon processor prior to the Athlon 64, including ALL Socket A-based CPUs, are NOT compatible with Premiere Elements. This is a pity, as I imagine the faster models of these CPUs would be quite able to run the software.
You can find a complete list of compatible CPUs here, and the Premiere Elements is also available for trial download from Adobe's website, so you can test compatibility before making up your mind.
Conclusion
All in all, for most owners of a Windows PC, I am happy to recommend Adobe Premiere Elements as the overall best choice of video editing software. It is affordable, easy to use and allows you to pull of some pretty spectacular stuff - it is almost perfect. If you use Photoshop or other Adobe programs (After Effects is really cool!) it naturally also integrates very well with these.
If one or both of the reservations I mentioned above applies to you, my second choice would probably be Corel VideoStudio Pro X2. That is also an editor that is intuitive to use and that support both older CPUs and burning blu-ray material directly to standard DVDs.
To begin with answering the latter question - yes, nowadays you can definitely edit video quite reliably using a Windows (XP or Vista) as your platform. It may still hold true that Mac OS is a more stable environment over all, but I find it more important that the hardware of your chosen PC is reasonably up to date.
If you have a fairly new Windows PC with a large enough hard drive, the most natural choice is to get software that works on this system, instead of forking out a few thousand dollars on a brand new Mac just to edit videos on.
So what editing software should I buy?
I have tested many different video editing softwares on Windows, both free and commercial ones, and the one I have always come back to is Premiere Elements from Adobe. I have had this since version 4 and recently upgraded to the latest version 7 (the big jump in version was chiefly made in order to "have the same number" as the latest Photoshop).Premiere Elements is the younger sibling of Premiere Pro, and the actual editing happens in very much the same way. Elements is more consumer friendly though, which is immediately apparent in the colorful main menus: Organize, Edit, Disc Menus and Share. Under Edit you will find options for getting media from the hard drive or from your camera, as well as icons for accessing effects, fades, titles and more. Everything is very well laid out and accessible.
The effects build on what one is used from seeing in Adobe Photoshop, and work very well indeed. There are also ready made themes to choose from. In version 4 these were quite unimpressive, but have now gotten better and, if you want, you can get even more of these themes by signing up for the (paid) Photoshop Plus service.
A feature I have liked since its introduction is the "Edit to the Beat" feature. Here the program automatically analyzes a music file on the time line in order to automatically put markers on every beat. This makes it a lot easier for the beginner to make a cool music video with cuts that actually happen in time with the music. This is more fun than it sounds, promise!
The newer "SmartSound" feature is an even easier way of automatically adjusting the music to perfectly match the length of your movie or for auto-synchronizing scenes to the beat of your soundtrack.
A couple of reservations
On the whole, I think Adobe Premiere Elements is as good or better than many of the competitors in the same price range. However, there are a couple of reservations that may prove to be real show stoppers for you. Namely:
1. You can't burn Avchd/Blu-ray to ordinary DVD discs.
This may perhaps not be a huge issue for many, but with some other HD video editing softwares you can actually burn the structure of a blu-ray disc onto an ordinary DVD disc, which then can be played in any blu-ray player. A standard DVD will hold about 20 - 40 minutes of high definition material, which may certainly be sufficient for many of the projects you wish to burn to a disc. As recordable DVDs are much cheaper than blank blu-ray discs, you could potentially save a lot of money with this feature.
I am not sure, but one would think that this issue would be possible to solve with a future patch/update of the software? It took a while for the people at adobe to implement AVCHD in the first place as well, but that now works flawlessly.
2. Premiere Elements Require SSE2 support from your processor.
If the processor in your computer does not support this architecture, Premiere Elements won't even install on your computer. In practise, this means that any AMD Athlon processor prior to the Athlon 64, including ALL Socket A-based CPUs, are NOT compatible with Premiere Elements. This is a pity, as I imagine the faster models of these CPUs would be quite able to run the software.
You can find a complete list of compatible CPUs here, and the Premiere Elements is also available for trial download from Adobe's website, so you can test compatibility before making up your mind.
Conclusion
All in all, for most owners of a Windows PC, I am happy to recommend Adobe Premiere Elements as the overall best choice of video editing software. It is affordable, easy to use and allows you to pull of some pretty spectacular stuff - it is almost perfect. If you use Photoshop or other Adobe programs (After Effects is really cool!) it naturally also integrates very well with these.
If one or both of the reservations I mentioned above applies to you, my second choice would probably be Corel VideoStudio Pro X2. That is also an editor that is intuitive to use and that support both older CPUs and burning blu-ray material directly to standard DVDs.
The Joy Of Modern Video Equipment
The vacation to Hawaii 1997, your high school reunion 1990, the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, and so on...
All these milestone experiences in you life you have recorded on video and stored away safely on tapes. Although it is rarely anyone besides the photographer that actually view these tapes, they are occasionally dusted of for public display.
- Hey, fast forward to that really great episode - you know when...
The audience/guests have lost interest in the "show" long ago and are by now, out of pure courtesy, really struggling to look at least somewhat interested. And as there really is no logical way to follow the events being presented (without having experienced them yourself), this is hardly surprising.
Granted, the above scenario is somewhat exaggerated. But I sure know I have been in situations like this - both as the video enthusiast and in the audience - and I am sure you have too. Moving pictures intended for some kind of public display need to be edited in order to become coherent and appealing to an audience.
Thanks to the rapid development of the personal computer, every owner of a video camera can today have access to a video editing studio of very high quality. It is these, and related fantastic possibilities that I will write about on this blog.
From Tapes to Computers
We need to go back in time only about ten years, for a time when the video amateur's editing system of choice where basically a couple of VCR's with more advanced recording functions. For a reasonable investment you had the possibility of making color corrections, adding text and making various transitions. This kind of system works to this day of course, but there is absolutely no comparing it to the speed, flexibility and upgrade ability that an ordinary PC and the appropriate software can give you today - setting you back no more than what the "advanced" video editing systems of the past did.
I have been fiddling with video editing on the computer as long as it has been economically possible for me and I hope to share some of my experiences in future posts on this blog.
All these milestone experiences in you life you have recorded on video and stored away safely on tapes. Although it is rarely anyone besides the photographer that actually view these tapes, they are occasionally dusted of for public display.
- Hey, fast forward to that really great episode - you know when...
The audience/guests have lost interest in the "show" long ago and are by now, out of pure courtesy, really struggling to look at least somewhat interested. And as there really is no logical way to follow the events being presented (without having experienced them yourself), this is hardly surprising.
Granted, the above scenario is somewhat exaggerated. But I sure know I have been in situations like this - both as the video enthusiast and in the audience - and I am sure you have too. Moving pictures intended for some kind of public display need to be edited in order to become coherent and appealing to an audience.
Thanks to the rapid development of the personal computer, every owner of a video camera can today have access to a video editing studio of very high quality. It is these, and related fantastic possibilities that I will write about on this blog.
From Tapes to Computers
We need to go back in time only about ten years, for a time when the video amateur's editing system of choice where basically a couple of VCR's with more advanced recording functions. For a reasonable investment you had the possibility of making color corrections, adding text and making various transitions. This kind of system works to this day of course, but there is absolutely no comparing it to the speed, flexibility and upgrade ability that an ordinary PC and the appropriate software can give you today - setting you back no more than what the "advanced" video editing systems of the past did.
I have been fiddling with video editing on the computer as long as it has been economically possible for me and I hope to share some of my experiences in future posts on this blog.
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