Importing from HandyCam

ajer12 wrote on 11/20/2012, 7:00 PM

Do Magix list the HandyCams, CamCorders etc. supported? The only reason I ask is I have a Sony DCR-SR52 not the newest of camera's but not that old either and quite a sophisitcated bit of kit for its day. It has surprised me that 'Magix Movie Edit Pro 2013' does not recognise it for import purposes, bar treating it as a hard drive and only allowing transferring over manually.

As an aside. The reproduction with 'Magix Movie Edit Pro 2013' is absolutely superior to what I was getting with the PMB software supplied with the Sony camera and in fact the standard of PMB had dropped since their latest update. I found it causing dropped frames and jumping, glad to say after doing a test Magic showed no dropped frames or jumping from the same film transfered via Magix.

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 11/21/2012, 1:26 AM

There is nothing wrong with the camera or MEP - the reason it is not recognised by MEP is because, like my camera, yours records to an internal hard drive and not to DV tape.

You should never work directly from the cameras hard drive with MEP, but transfer the video/images from the camera to your computer using either Picture Motion Browser, or Windows Explorer.

I use Windows Explorer, PMB is not necessary when using MEP.

Just for comparison the speed of transfer is much much faster with a hard drive camera compared to a DV camera - capture would be in real time from tape.

There is also a discussion in this topic about file storage and methods used which may be of interest.- start halfway down the second page of the topic with my reply about second hard drive in computer

John

ajer12 wrote on 11/21/2012, 3:01 PM

Thank you for coming back to me. I would never work directly from the camera, I've always used PMB to transfer then import into my old version of Magix Movies on DVD 7 to edit. Maybe I misunderstood which cameras one could use to import directly using Magix own inbuilt software but its not a problem. Sadly though seems I spoke too soon about the juddering, jumping and lost frames, Magix is doing the same tonight when I move the Timeline marker to the point where I want to edit, press play and it sticks at the edit point and just judders. Starting to lose faith in any of these Video Edit programs, I wonder if they write the software to the highest hardware specification which to be honest I doubt most people have. My kits not puny though, Quad processors, high spec graphics, motherboard, ram and hard drives but still seems not good enough. Feel like slinging the HandyCam away and sticking to a stills camera, can't be bothered with all this messing about.

johnebaker wrote on 11/21/2012, 3:55 PM

If you use the search box on the right and search for 'jerky playback' you will find many questions about this topic of 'juddering' playback.

The problem is particularly acute with HD, however your camera is not HD so the problems should be less for you.

There are several things which can significantly affect video editting performance:-

1. Your computer specification - more specific information on your system spec would be useful

2. What other programs are running at the same time as you are editing?

3. The anrtivirus program can affect the computer speed - which AV software do you have?

4. Available free disk space.

5. Spyware - do you have any anti spyware software installed?

John

ajer12 wrote on 12/2/2012, 7:39 AM

Thank you John, but I've now found Movie Edit Pro crashing out when saving files and the sound quality, no matter what adjustments I make, far inferior to my old copy of Magix Movies on DVD. So sadly I'm ditching the software and will continue with my existing until I find something better. Thanks again for taking the time to try and help.