I'm fairly new to video editing and just bough a high def inexpensive camera (Canon HV20) . I own a Panasonic 50 inch 720p Plasma and a Sony BDP-S300 Blue Ray Disc player.

I have taken about 120 minutes of HD video in New York City and want to edit the video on my PC with music added on. I was wondering if someone can help me figure out what software to purchase. My goal would be to edit the video and transfer it to a DVD where I could play it on the BD player. I'm very new to this. THANKS!!

Are you planning on using a laptop or desktop computer to do your editing on? I haven't done any HD editing yet myself, but reading posts from other forum users, the files are much larger than even uncompressed avi. So you'll need a fast computer with lots of storage space. You may need to look at that end of your setup first before thinking about software.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

Thanks for the reply. I use a PC with a 256mb video card, 1gb of memory, and a Pentium D 2.8GHz processor. I have about 40GB of free space on the hard drive.

Let me know what you think. Thanks

My First impression is.. you defiantly do not have enough storage space to suffice a High Definition capture, let-alone even an Edit!

Unfortunately, you may need to invest in a bigger, external hard disk

I'm new here and tearing my hair out for a solution linked to the OPs question:

I have a Sony HDV Handycam HDR-HC7E, PAL spec, 1080i @ 50 hz, compatible plasma and a BD player in a Playstation3 (UK spec).

I just want to move HDV off tape via the camcorder, capture on PC and burn a BD disc that will play in my player. At the moment I'm not looking to do anything fancy like full BD authoring and I don't want to downsample to author a dVd.

I'd be quite happy with just a dub from the tape which plays back at 1080i on my plasma, shot cuts and all!

Can anybody suggest a basic package they have tried that will do this? I thought Uleads Moviefactory could do this, but from what I've read they took out BD support.

Pinnacle Studio 11+ will author Blu-Ray disks and is totally HD compatible. If you go this route, download the 11.1.1 patch. Remember HDV is not HDMI.
I use a HV20 with Studio 11+.

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Thanks, just what I'm looking for. HDMI is only an interface format from a Blu-Ray player to a plasma right?

Therefore as long as the tape acquisition format 1080i/50 gets on the BD (does it stay the same or does it become 1080p?) doesn't that mean HD gets replayed off the BD disc via the HDMI interface in HD?

I never thought is would be so difficult to start with HD on HDV tape and move my own recorded content to other portable media (optical disc) without loss for backup and easier playback. I've also been trying to understand the 1080i/50 1080p and 60 Hz frame rate thing. I have this horrible feeling I could buy the software and find the output format options are for our American friends. HD compatibility seems to me to depend on where you are in the world.

It's funny, when manufacturers and software firms are specifying standards they seem fine on TV lines and progressive/sequential scan, but don't seem to say much about 50/60 frame rates. As I'm new there's probably an obvious explanation I've yet to learn.

If you're getting HDV pics from your Canon on BD's, then I should be able to do the same. You should be then watching them at the original res. via HDMI right? Do you see 1080i come up on your display after authoring to BD via Pinnacle?

I'm not intentionally hijacking the thread, but when the OP gets his PC/MAC hardware together, he'll appreciate your reply as he and others will be meeting the same problem.

First. You download (capture) HDV through the Firewire connector. HDV 1080i uses a resolution of 1440×1080 pixels not 1920 x 1080. So it is not the same as HDMI. It is a small loss.
The capture is in HDV so the output is at HDV level.

Once edited the output is burnt to DVD using the AVCHD Studio option.

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Many thanks, I should be up and running now!

Yes the pixel difference is as you say, but my plasma and most affordable others won't display 1920 pixels. For Handycams you can hold in one hand and pack in a rucksack when walking/trecking, I think they do a fair job. I'll have a look at the spec. for the Canon.

My main reason for going to the Sony was the 6Mpix (4.6Mpix 16X9) stills with flash, low current draw and low light sensitivity. They provide an external flash hot shoe, but I don't know what fits it. It has several gold plated pins visible as you slide the cover across.

The quality difference between BD movie playback and Handycam is still significant. Carrying a large flightcase for a pro 3 chip HDV camera with lower sensitivity wasn't practical.

Thanks again, I'm now off to replace my hard drive in anticipation of some results. Next time it will be a quad core cpu motherboard and RAID configured drives.

PS I saw a review on Pinnacle Studio that said it won't produce files that will play AVCHD on UK HD Dvd players but would on US spec players. I hope it will work on my Playstation3. Best price was Amazon at the mo. Probably because of the bad reviews prior to the update fixes which seem very important for stability.

AVCHD will only play on Blu-Ray type players. As far as I know HD DVD Players are not yet available in the UK but PS3 players are. Certainly the PAL versoin is up and running where HD DVD and AVCHD is concerned.

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