New HV20 - lots of questions

[Gregg Kimball]

Well I finally bit the bullet and upgraded from my VHS-C camcorder and bought a Canon HV-20. I listened to all the comments on this forum and read the reviews and when the price got below $600 I jumped.
Now I have a bunch of questions and I plan to start out slow and learn the camera and settings that will work best for what I shoot. My wife is a travel agent and I will be using the camera for travel videos most of the time in normal 4:3 DV. I don’t have a HDTV yet and most of the people I will be creating DVD’s for probably don’t so I figured that would be the best format for now. I went with the HV-20 so I will have high def capability when the time comes.
My first challenge is how I get the video out of the camera and on the computer for editing. I currently have two systems I can use, my desktop which is running PE4 and a laptop with Studio 11. I was running Studio 11 on the desktop and have a capture board installed in that system but Studio didn’t play nice with PE4 when I installed the Adobe product. Actually Studio stopped working and I uninstalled it because I planned to use PE4 my problem is that PE4 doesn’t recognize the capture board that came with Pinnacle studio so I have been using my laptop with a Dazzle adapter and Studio 11 to import the video files and then transfer them to my desktop for editing. That works great when we are traveling but I would sure like to be able to import the video directly to my desktop. That’s the first question of many I’m sure, like which is best Auto or Program mode, but until I can get the video into the computer all else can wait.
Any help from all the HV-20 owners out there will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Gregg

[Chuck Engels]

If you don't have a Firewire card on your desktop then that will be your first step

[Gregg Kimball]

Chuck, I do have firewire input on the desktop but the camera doesn't have any cables that connect to firewire.

[Chuck Engels]

The HV20 only connects via Firewire I believe Gregg.
Here is a great article, it shows the connections and lots more
http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/showpos ... ostcount=1

If the camera didn't come with a Firewire cable you may need to buy one.
I find it hard to believe that it wouldn't come with one but if you got a really good deal maybe they left out the cables

[sidd finch]

Hi Gregg,

Also I think that Hi Def video is recorded in 16x9 so you might need to select the “interpret footage” after you import the video to convert it to 4 x 3

Sidd

[Chuck Engels]

You can record SD or HD, 4:3 or 16:9 I believe, with the HV20.
If you record HD then it will be 16:9 and you can downconvert in the camera to a SD Widescreen project.
I think working in Widescreen is great, true widescreen that is which the HV20 has.
The fake widescreen of most consumer camcorders is terrible at best.

Do you have a workflow figured out yet Gregg?

[Gregg Kimball]

Thanks for the replies, Chuck the cables that came with the camera are:
STV-250 N Stereo Video Cable (plugs into the AV port on camera)
IFC-300PCU USB Cable (for downloading stills into Canon software)
CTC-100 S Component Cable
And these are the cables that are shown on Canon’s site as what comes in the box.

I have set the camera to SD 4:3 but I may try the widescreen SD so I have more to play with when I edit as long as I remember to keep subject material toward the center. As far as workflow I don’t have a clue.

[Chuck Engels]

Gregg, Do use the Widescreen setting, you will love it when you see the finished work.
Even on a standard television I think it looks so much better and you really do get a lot more viewable area.

Looks like you will have to buy a firewire cable, that really seems odd. Maybe Ken Jarstad will let us know if he got a firewire cable with his HV20, or anyone else for that matter.

As far as workflow I was just talking about format, project settings, and stuff like that.
I recommend shooting in HDV Widescreen and downconverting to SD in the camera.
The quality will be noticeably better I guarantee you. Then you just capture normally into a SD Widescreen project.

Maybe you should try out some sample video, try the SD and the HD and see if you notice a difference.
One thing is for sure, you will need a firewire cable

[Gregg Kimball]

Chuck, I will change the setting to widescreen but I’m not sure what you mean by shooting in HDV and then down converting in the camera. I’m working my way through the manual but it is vague in a lot of places. They just don’t write user manuals like they used to, I guess a lot gets lost in the translation from Chinese.

On the firewire issue I haven’t found anything that even talks about it so I hope someone that has a HV20 can help with that issue, I used the component cable and transferred some test video into Studio 11 on my laptop with no problems so I can copy the AVI file over to the desktop and bring it into PE4.

[Gregg Kimball]

I found the reference in the manual for the cable that uses the HDV/DV port on the camera and connects to an IEEE1394 (Firewire) port on the computer and it says “commercially available” so I guess I need to start searching. When I get the cable and connect the camera will PE4 recognize it and allow me to import video?

[Gregg Kimball]

Hi Chuck,
After a couple of calls and a trip to my local Radio Shack I am now the proud owner of a “commercially available” DV firewire cable. I plugged the camera into the computer and it found the device and prompted me to open in PE4 which worked fine and I was able to capture the file, no problems. My first hurdle is over and it took less than a day, this is going great. Now back to the Chinese manual.
Thanks,
Gregg

[jackfalbey]

Hi Gregg,

I've only been playing with my HV20 for a little while, but I can offer some suggestions to get you started...

1) Set the power switch to CAMERA, press the FUNC button to bring upthe options. At the top left, there's an icon that lets you select various shooting profiles. There's one called CINE MODE that gives very nice image results out of the box. It takes care of many of the manually-adjustable settings for you, and looks prettty good too. I recommend shooting in CINE MODE at first.

2) Use the joystick to move down the left column to the MENU icon, then press the joystick in. This gives you options to set most of the camera's features. Move down 1 icon to the REC/IN SETUP, move right and set HD STANDARD to HDV (not HDV PF24). This will record the highest-quality HD video that the camera is capable of.

3) Switch the camera to PLAY. Press the FUNC button and move down to the MENU icon and press the joystick in. Move down 2 icons to PLAY/OUT SETUP2 and set DV OUTPUT to DV LOCKED. This will downconvert the HDV to standard DV right in the camera when capturing in PE4.

You will now be recording beautiful HDV 1440x1080i video and capturing in SD 720x480 NTSC. The advantage here is that HDV downconverted looks way better than recording in regular DV, and the tapes will still have the full HDV video on them if you want to use it in an HD project the future!

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Late to the fray here (broadband connection problems ).

I do not understand why it should be so but a lot of camera manufacturers provide a selection of connection cables EXCEPT the one you will most likely need first - the firewire wire!

[Gregg Kimball]

Jack, thanks for the settings, I was waiting for an HV20 owner to chime in with what they have learned so far. I have made all the changes you recommended and I am off to shoot whatever pops up in front of me for some testing. John I know what you mean, it seem like they think all you are going to do with the camera is hook it up to a TV and watch your video or download stills to a computer.

[Ken Jarstad]

Hi Gregg,

My HV20 came with a Firewire cable. Jack has already given a great instruction, which is exactly what I have been doing. Someday we will pass around high-definition DVDs just like we do with the conventional ones today. Until then, these inexpensive high-definition camcorders give us standard-definition images that rival a pro camcorder just a couple of years ago. Enjoy!