Samsung F50BN camcorder

[AVITRY]

Hi everyone. A friend of mine just purchased an inexpensive camcorder, a Samsung F50BN. He asked me about video editing and I explained to him I'm still in the dark ages working with mini-dv and mostly dv-avi conversions from my Canopus 300.

I told him I knew nothing of the mpeg 4 H.264 format regarding editing or computer requirements for native editing of this format as I am still using my old P4 on dv-avi files.

I told him I'd try to find out what the recommended software and minimum PC requirements would be for editing this format without a ton of issues. The instructions did say P4 3ghz minimum, but I wondered if that was slow as could be with H.264. It is fine on my PC with the dv-avi but I'm sure mp4 is a different animal all together.

Thanks in advance for anything I can pass on to him. BTW, on an aside, back when I got into all this, the mini-dv camcorder was the best way to go, what is the camcorder format of choice these days. I'm curious myself just in case I ever get a high def TV.

thanks,
joe

[RJ Johnston]

I have a Pentium 4, 3 GHz with hyperthreading, 2 GB Ram, NVIDIA Geforce 9400 GT with 1 GB RAM. It's very difficult editing 1440x1080 and 1920x1080 h.264. I cannot preview in any NLE without a lot of issues. And it takes a long time to render anything to hi-def format. Of the consumer NLEs I have, PowerDirector 9 renders the fastest to h.264, mainly because of the capabilities of my graphcs card. On the other hand, I can play back Blu-ray movies using Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 or PowerDVD 11 without any problems.

Cyberlink has a utility that will tell you if your computer is Blu-ray ready, and what you need to make it ready. That might be a good place to start. Just keep in mind that editing hi-def h.264 needs even more power than what you need to play a hi-def Blu-ray movie with PowerDVD. http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/bd-support/diagnosis.do

Since I don't have a super computer, just my P4, I can't tell you how well editing would go on such a machine.

Joe, good luck to your friend.

[Steve Grisetti]

I'm really surprised that you're running such a low-end computer, Robert! You've always been our tech guru!

Oh well, I guess it's proof once again that it's the chef, not the ingredients, that makes for a great sauce!

As for your question, Joe, I'd say that a Pentium 4 is WAY underpowered for most of today's NLEs -- particularly if you plan to edit MP4s. But let me qualify my recommendations by asking what your friend means by an "MP4". Is he talking about traditional camcorder, like AVCHD video from a Canon or Sony camcorder, or is he talking about video from a low-end Flip or pocket cam -- or is he talking about video from a non-camcorder source, such as a YouTube file rip? It makes a big difference!

That said, a good i7 processor always a good starting point for basic, relatively state-of-the-art computer. That and 4 gigs of RAM. We can get more specific when we know more specifically what type of video we're dealing with. But regardless, he should be able to get a very nice desktop with adequate power for under $800.

[AVITRY]

Thanks for the responses. I looked up this camcorder at the Samsung site after I wrote my post. I'm really not up on all the various resolutions available using the mp4 or H.264 codec ( which I thought were the same thing).

But after looking at the specs on this thing, it can only record in standard definition.


I'm honestly really at a loss to explain anything about this to him. He is a pool player who knows me as the guy who converts old VHS matches to DVD. So, he asked about how he can edit his recording of his practice sessions. LOL, I can only tell him that if I tried an mp4 in PE2 I didn't think it would even open.

His edits are very limited I believe to trimming and perhaps eliminating segments in the middle of the file. I'm not even sure what kind of computer he has to be honest. I'm so in the dark about all the newer codecs, hard drive and memory stick camcorders that I didn't even want to venture a suggestion.

thanks guy for the input,
joe

[Steve Grisetti]

This could be an iffy format to edit in Premiere Elements, Joe. It might work -- or it might be nothing but problems.

Does the camcorder come with any editing software? If so, that would be the recommended way to edit this type of video.

[Chuck Engels]

For the limited editing requirements I would recommend giving Movie Maker a try, maybe Quicktime Pro.
The camera probably did come with some software, that would probably be the best bet.

I'm sure that Premiere Elements 10 would handle the video great but probably overkill for his needs.