HDR-TG3E need some help please

[millamay]

Hi,

I've recently bought a HDR-TG3E sony camcorder and I'm hoping someone out there can answer my following questions;

1. Why does it offer me the option of 'anaysing' my video clips? should I always do this, what's the benefit?

2. I've got a very old VAIO laptop so I can't actually view any HD or burn the HD clips, so I'm now shooting in SD for the moment, but when I convert them into MPEG files there is no sound, so the only way I can view the clips is thru 'picture motion browser'. When i look at the clips in windows media player there is no sound - help?

3. When I try to save the SD clips onto a disc it says that it can't find the file, so there's no way of me backing up my video clips - help?

4. I'm buying a new laptop soon, can anyone suggest which laptop is the most compatable for this HD camcorder? ie which one will I be able to burn the video clips onto DVD or will it be a blue ray?

thank you to all of you out there who's taken the time to read this as you can probably tell I'm totall novice and have bought a bit of kit which is way over my head!

[StevieBuck]

I don't have the answers to all your questions, but this will get the ball rolling:

To play any form of media on your PC, you need the appropriate audio & video decoders (codecs) installed on your machine. That camcorder records audio in Dolby Digital, so my guess is that your laptop doesn't have a suitable decoder installed to handle that audio format.

One option is to install "AC3Filter", which should decode the Dolby Digital audio track and hence give you sound when playing the files back in WMP.

Another option is to install a codec pack, such as the "K-Lite Codec Pack". This has a whole range of decoders (including AC3Filter) which it will install and set up for you, allowing your system to playback virtually any audio & video format out there - including the AVCHD format files created by your camcorder when shooting in HD.

AC3Filter

Free-Codecs.com : K-Lite Codec Pack

What exactly are you trying to backup to disk - the mpeg files 'as is' straight from the camcorder, or are you trying to burn them in standard DVD video format so they will play through a standalone DVD player?

[millamay]

Dear Stevie,

thank you so much for replying and giving me such great advice. I will download those web sites you kindly gave me, thank you.

I'm trying to save the movie clips onto a DVD as back up but also so other people can watch them on their lap tops or if possible even their TV's. In picture motion browser the clips are MPEG-2 format (as I've shot them in SD), I want to make a 'DVD creation' and it comes up saying 'cannot find a drive' so I can't save the clips onto a DVD... any thoughts? is this because I've got such an old laptop?

thanks again for being so helpful, this is a great forum site!

cheers,

Milla

[orpheus]

Originally Posted by millamay

Hi,

I've recently bought a HDR-TG3E sony camcorder and I'm hoping someone out there can answer my following questions;

1. Why does it offer me the option of 'anaysing' my video clips? should I always do this, what's the benefit?

When you choose to analyse the video clips, the PMB software will create a multiple thumbnail sequence for each clip in the calendar view. To do this, it selects frames from periodic intervals in the clips.
If you select not to analyse the video, you will just see the first frame as a thumbnail.

I don't use the analyse feature because I've found it takes a *very* long time to process the video clips.

[twoodley]

When you loaded PMB did it not also load "Player for AVCHD". With this you can at least view the original media on your PC/Laptop.

Terry

[glesgaguyav]

Originally Posted by millamay

Hi,

I've recently bought a HDR-TG3E sony camcorder and I'm hoping someone out there can answer my following questions;

1. Why does it offer me the option of 'anaysing' my video clips? should I always do this, what's the benefit?

2. I've got a very old VAIO laptop so I can't actually view any HD or burn the HD clips, so I'm now shooting in SD for the moment, but when I convert them into MPEG files there is no sound, so the only way I can view the clips is thru 'picture motion browser'. When i look at the clips in windows media player there is no sound - help?

3. When I try to save the SD clips onto a disc it says that it can't find the file, so there's no way of me backing up my video clips - help?

4. I'm buying a new laptop soon, can anyone suggest which laptop is the most compatable for this HD camcorder? ie which one will I be able to burn the video clips onto DVD or will it be a blue ray?

thank you to all of you out there who's taken the time to read this as you can probably tell I'm totall novice and have bought a bit of kit which is way over my head!

1 The video analyzing function is good if you want to find "smilely" faces or people or scences within PMB that can be saved as pictures or clips, you'll find the buttons at the bottom of the PBM interface, the analyzing function has to be used for this purpose, like the previous poster I rarely use it.

2 If you are having problems with sound you could try setting the cam for normal stereo and not 5.1, I believe I read that the newer versions of the cam don't have 5.1 sound (I may be wrong) anyway I find the 5.1 sound can give problems when trying to edit, so some codecs may not handle it properly

3. It should be easy to backup your clips to DVD with PMB either as Data AVCHD or MPEG, are you using PMB to import the clips to a specified folder ?

4. The only answer to this is the best perfomer that you can afford (processor/memory) which excludes entry level laptops

[millamay]

hi glesgaguyav
thanks for helping me...I am using PMB to try and download the clips onto a DVD but it says it 'can't find the drive'. I wonder if it's because I've got such an old laptop I can't save MPEG's onto a DVD?? thank you....

[glesgaguyav]

Originally Posted by millamay

hi glesgaguyav
thanks for helping me...I am using PMB to try and download the clips onto a DVD but it says it 'can't find the drive'. I wonder if it's because I've got such an old laptop I can't save MPEG's onto a DVD?? thank you....

Sounds like PMB is having problems recognising your DVD burner, you could try checking your Windows device manager to see if the DVD burner is registered correctly, plus the obvious question, are you sure your laptop's DVD is capable of burning DVDR/RW? if it's quite old it may only burn CD's