Sony HDV Info 10/26/2004
The easiest way to capture via firewire from FX1 to PC seems to use CapDVHS. This freeware is available both in Japanese and in English at
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=532
Writing back of an eidted-encoded MPEG file to a D-VHS may be possible, while that to FX1 was impossible.
As Tom Wheeler wrote, editing a captured file with Vegas 5 was easy and comfortable. This editing tool can handle two-byte codes, such as Chinese and Japanese characters. By the way, I am a Japanese living in Yokohama, Japan.
Now, it seems that the edited file is best seen on a hi-vision (1280x720 or higher) TV connected via DVI to a PC. I was successful in applying this procedure last night.
First, I used a two-pass process to render the edited file to a 25-Mbps average mpeg file through MainConcept on Vegas 5. You can adjust many parameters like B, I, and maximum and minimum bit rates. I selected a max of 30 Mbps, a min of 192 kbps, and an audio rate of 224 kbps, preparing the following 31-second files via two pass encoding for 15 of I and 2 of B:
1. 1080-60i (taking 18 minutes and 22 seconds, 97 MB)
2. 1080-30p (taking 8 minutes and 34 seconds, 97 MB)
3. 720-60p (taking 9 minutes and 13 seconds, 77 MB)
Applying a one-pass process may shorten the rendering time to half.
Then, the rendered files were burnt on a DVD+RW disk and copied to an HDD on a PC that is connected via DVI to an Epson rear projection TV with a resolution of 1280x720. The PC screen on the TV is adjsusted at 1280x720 using a Matrox P750 video card. The mpeg files were shown on a maximized screen of WinDVD 5.
The orginal file on the tape in the FX1 was also seen on the TV that was connected to the camcorder via component video cable. Unfortunately, the TV has no i-link terminal, so I used the analog hi-vision video cable. To me, the original and edited mpeg files were nearly identically seen on the TV. It should be noted, however, that the 1920x1080 files were adjusted down to 1280x720 by the TV.
I tried to write back the rendered 1080-60i mpeg file via CapDVHS to FX1. It was not possible. Writing back to a D-VHS tape may be possible, but I did not make such a try. Since burning a DVD video file on a DVD-R disk is only possible with a 720x480 resolution, I decided to copy hi-vision mpeg files on a DVD+RW disk. An mpeg file of about 20 minutes at 25 Mbps can be recorded on such a disk. By taking a 1280x720 LCD projector having a DVI connector together with a PC, I can now comfortably show hi-vision video clips at any place having a large screen.
