Whether you have Adobe Premiere Elements 4 or Premiere Pro CS3, if you shoot a HDVtape and load it on to either you get one BIG clip file. That's unlike loading DV with the split to clips requested. In the latter case, every time the camera stops and starts shooting a clip the software segregates the preceding as a separate clip file. There has to be a better way. And there is!
You can download a piece of software that is a free beta, HDSplit version 0.77. Download it from the following website, among others:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Encoders-Converter-DIVX-Re...
If you don't like that site, just Google HDSplit and you'll find several more. Virus check your download before you open the installation app.
So what do you get when you download and install HDSplit? You get a very fast tape load into separate .m2t clip files. Now you say, what is .m2t? Well I had to look it up but it is the mpeg-2 transport format. But will I be able to load .m2t files into Premiere? Absolutely! But will HDSplit degrade my clips more than Premiere would do on tape capture?
Well, I captured a short section of HDV tape into Premiere and also loaded the same HDSplit capture scene. I put them on separate tracks with an upper level mask in order to view them in sync. They are very similar, but I have to say I thought the HDSplit image was a tad better than that captured directly by Premiere.
And I didn't have to spend any time splitting the HDV clip into the separate clips I prefer to edit with. I recommend you try HDSplit and I don't know how long it will be a freedownload. I'm not aware of any use termination date, but hell, who reads the license. If I had to buy it and the price was reasonable I'd probably buy it.
The question is; If a small outfit can write prgraming to split HDV tapes into individual clips, why can't Adobe? We pay big bucks for Adobe applications.
It's very frustrating to own a HDV camera like my Canon HV-30 and have to put out DVDs for SDTV instead of Blu-Ray disks for HDTV. Well the situation is slowly improvong and the current business slowdown (Dare I say the D word?) is bound to bring don prices. The problem then will be can we afford to buy anything?
The improving news is that Frys is advertising today an internal Blu-Ray burner for $219.99. Now when it comes down to $100 I might buy one, considering that I'd have to buy a Blu-Ray player for an also new digital HDTV.
Blu-Ray blanks are down to 5 for $25 or $5 apiece. How would you like to make a $5 coffee coaster?
I don't know the actual difference in manufacturing costs of a DVD versus Blu-Ray burner. Is a blue laser much differnt to make than a red laser? Are Blu-Ray blanks much different from the 19 cent DVD blanks I churn through?
I don't know the answers to these questions but my head is getting tired of thinking about them. So I'm through for now. Bye!
