[dcubrakovic]

I am interested if HD camcorders (I am thinking buying Canon HG20) can record in standard (not HD resolution)?

I have really tried to find answer but no success. And I wonder why nobody explains this.
I want to buy camcorder. I still do not have computer good enough for HD video editing. So I suppose what I record in HD, I can play from camcorder and I can watch on my HDTV. But then, I want to send something so to shoot in standard resolution, to edit easily, and to send as divx, or MP2.

So in other words, if I decide to buy HD camcorder, can I still use it as non-HD camcorder? In this moment, I would shoot more in standard resolutions, but the computers will get stronger and bluray burners/players will become cheaper, and than I will use more HD. And I dont want to buy now standard camcorder and in year or two again new HD one.

I would really appreciate the answer, and I am sure there are also others interested in answer.

Regards,
Denis

[richardstringer]

I think it must do because you can set different quality video recording in the camcorder, and this also enables to record for longer if you set a quality to lower. But regardless, why not get a video converter software like this :

Allok Video Converter - Convert all video files to AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, H264, 3GP, FLV etc.

Its an awesome piece of software. I have the MPEG4 converter from Allok, and I have to say, its never let me down, the converted quality is as good as the original video you're converting, and if you get the all in one converter you can convert to any format you want. You've got loads of resolutions to choose from, so you'll be able to convert from 1920 x 1080 to a native resolution that you want. Plus you can adjust the frame rate, aspect ratio, output volume of the converted video and also adjust the audio quality to keep it pristine. So you'd be able to convert from the 1920 x 1080 to the resolution of a crt tv if you wanted.

You can also trim the video to size if you want or cut bits off that you dont want. I use it mainly for converting you tube videos of documentaries that I download so I can watch them on my phone when i'm out and about. I got loads like fbi files etc... Its a cool piece of softwrae. I've used it as well to convert videos of me and my kids to play on my mobile phone. I've had the MPEG4 converter over a year now with not a single glitch. Its definately worth the money.

[dcubrakovic]

Thank you very much for this info. Can you tell me what would be the conversion time, on some average PC (not beast, but also not the snail).

Conversion would be probably the only way, since today in store I have checked, and the lowest resolution is 1440 x 1080. So, only AVCHD coding. So if I have to convert 1 hour of HD video, what approximately time would it need? (My PC for example is Athlon 64 x 2 Dual 2.50Ghz, so average).

Thanks,
Denis

[senu]

The HG10 did not record SD .
Unless the HG 20 is that different ,it is unlikely to as your research seem to have confirmed
it is a Canon shortcoming IMHO as the. Sonys do
Certainly you can convert your AVCHD footage to SD in software thereby having both the Hi def and Sd copy of your footage
This is an advantage for footage you may need in HD later but an extra step for quick use footage which would bnot mter if HD was the recorder setting
I dont know that software but I dont imagine it will be more than 1.5- 2x realtime