Hey people before you say anything, I did see one thread on one of the cameras after searching for the product name, and I have searched on gogle but can not find the difference between the two models. My main questions are; what is the difference between the two? What is different? Other questions is (if anyone owning this could please answer these, I'd be grateful); how d'you find it? Is it worth it's price and what are the problems (if any, except battery for HDR-SR7, thanks) ? Cheers people, Rich.
If it is like the difference between my DCR-HC96 and the DCR-HC96E, I believe the E designation is for PAL format.
So I suppose that the HDR-SR7 is the more "American" version, while the HDR-SR7E is the more "European" version?
I believe that to be the case, but I could be wrong. Here are two URL's for the camcorder that I purchased. The first one is the one that I have, and the second one is the E version. The E version says PAL, and it says it is not for use in the USA. It looks like the E stands for Europe. http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product_Id=4078175&JRSource=shopzilla.datafeed.SON+DCRHC96 http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4096014 Edit: Here is the URL for the one you asked about. http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4186765
Thanks a lot. Did a bit of digging and looks like you are right. E most likely stands for Europe. PAL is compatible in the US, I mean on Pcs obviously, once burnt though, you'd need to convert it somehow, and I understand that it displays differently, tho converting it from PAL to NTSC is better than NTSC to PAL, because PAL uses more bars for displaying the visual content, so it's a lot better to convert - well I'm quite lazy right now, thats my crappy explanation, any way, thanks again.
In general the "E" is indeed used for "Europe". But the reason to explicitely add the E is not PAL or NTSC (PAL is being used in many other cuntries outside Europe as well). The main reason is to indicate that it is "nEUtered", which means that DV-in is disabled. This is done for models sold in Europe for tax reasons. A camcorder that has DV-in (or analog-in for that matter) can be used as a VCR. There is a higher import duty on VCR's than on camcorders.
Thanks for that explaination, but does it matter to me? since this camcorder is not compatible with a firewire (to many peoples' surprise). From what I understand, DV-in is used with a firewire? This site may be useful to anyone who may require DV-in, but I'm a total noob on this subject, so I'll leave that for you people to decide. http://lea.hamradio.si/~s51kq/DV-IN.HTM
Good point. I checked it out and you're right, it has no Firewire. DV-in is indeed generally associated with Firewire, but nEutered does not only mean that DV-in is disabled, but also analog input over a composite or S-video connection. Anyway, according to camcorderinfo this model apprently has no input possibilities alltogether...
I bought a HDR-SR7E a few weeks ago and I can honestly say I'm amazed at the quality of the output. That's not to say it's perfect though. I'd say DV is better but given the HDD camcorders I've used in the past this one rocks! That's where the praise ends unfortunately. Trying to edit the video is a bit of a nightmare at the moment as most of the software (including Nero Vision 5) crashes out at some stage or other or just refuses to recognise the .MTS files that the camera records. I sent an e-mail to Nero customer support last week as 4 of the 90 clips I've tried to import crash the software straight away and transcoding them to another format for editing is extremely unreliable (crashing part way through). I'm still waiting for a response from them. Fingers crossed. It seems AVCHD is just a little too new to be useful at the moment. Maybe in a few months the likes of Nero Vision, Sony Vegas and Pinnacle Studio will actually work with these formats (yep, I've tried them all!).
Thank you, I was really wanting some first hand experience on this camera to shed some light on what I don't know about. You are getting me a little bit worried, but that's all kl, this is why you research on your products before you buy them. That NOW MEANS that I am relying on you to get a positive answer back from Nero, that will leave me wanting to buy that camera. What other formats does it record in? Just .mts? and could it be your computer? Although all 3 of those softwares...
Indeed AVCHD is still somewhat new on the market (it was introduced on the market in 2006) to be processed by all video editing software around. But I understood that the latest releases of Vegas, Ulead's VideoStudio 11, Pinnacle's Studio Plus 11 should support it. However, the decoding/encoding involved in editing AVCHD is very CPU demanding. So you need to make sure that your system is able to cope with that. If not, it will choke...
Hi there, glad to here my post if of some use. I still haven't had a reply from Nero which is irritating (in case any Nero engineers are reading this, Case Number 3708205001). I've sent them a link to my FTP server where the 4 worst offending clips are available for them to download but a check on the logs shows nobody (bar the usual port scanners) have accessed the server. As for machine types, I've tried using my Dell XPS M1730 (Vista) and my very old Dell Inspiron 8600 (XP SP2). Both have the same problem with Nero. We have a version of Sony Vegas 8 at work running on a video editing machine and it didn't understand the .MTS files but it probably hasn't had any of the latest patches applied. I haven't played around with the camera very much since I last used it (to video a friends wedding) but as far as I can tell, it's only MTS files that it generates. The software that comes with it is barely worth having as it only allows you to playback the video or burn it to BlueRay. There's no editing software at all! Being a programmer by trade I have tried generating a DirectX render graph which works so now I'm trying to find out how to build an AVI or MPEG2 writting graph that should allow me to transcode into something I can edit. I've also tried some opensource stuff and FFmpeg might be an option for transcoding but the videos it generates are twice the length of the original and run at half the frame rate. It's not a playback problem, the video is actually twice as long as the audio which plays back fine. When I get time I'll post onto the FFmpeg forums and see if anyone has solved this problem (there are a few people who have asked about it but no useful replies). I'm currently in MinGW/MSYS install hell trying to get FFmpeg to compile. Phew, that was longer than expected. In short, I'll keep you posted if I find anything out. I may purchase a copy of Sony Vegas 8 Platinum and apply all the latest patches to see if they've sorted it all out yet. I've just had an unsuccessful trip to PCWorld as I've tried buying Pinnacle Studio 11 but the two versions I've tried so far have refused to accept the serial numbers printed on the DVD sleaves! I'm going to give up on that one I think.
Ahha, ok, panic over. I've downloaded the latest trial version of Vegas Studio 8 Platinum. This version is 8.0c and now correctly imports the MTS files from the Sony HDR-SR7 and also imports the MOD files from my JVC GZ-MG50 (a standardDef HDD camcorder). I've successfully imported the clips that crashed Nero Vision and edited a couple of transitions (that was a bit fiddly but I've got my head round it now) and successfully exported the movie in SD AVI and HD MPEG2 and the quality is not bad at all. There's lots of options to fiddle with on the export so I'm sure I can get better results but the default output is still very good (I'm looking at interlace problems on panning shots more than anything else). I've also had a bit more of a play with the camera and it will generate MPG files but only in standardDef mode. HighDef mode seems to only produce MTS files. I can't quite tell if the MPG files in SD mode are MPEG1/2 or MPEG4. Windows Media player and Media Player Classic seemed to have codec trouble but Nero ShowTime coped ok so I'm guessing it's still MPEG4 in a slightly different transport stream. Vegas Studio still copes with it (as one would hope!). Now I've found some edit software that won't break the bank, I can whole heartedly recommend this camera.
Thank you very much for ALL your help... can you perhaps give me an example of the final .avi file please? Also, I only have 256mb of RAM, I doubt very much so that that is enough, however, what do you think?
You should definitely get more RAM. 1GB is the minimum to have, 2GB is better. Most video editing programs will call for a minimum of 512k, for running the program itself. But, the RAM is not the most important item when it comes to video work on your computer. Encoding video is CPU intensive and also requires a good video card for rendering while encoding. RAM plays a very minor role, here.
Thanks, I thought that would be the case... looks like I might have to spend some time at my brother's place, doing the editing for my movie there. Oh yeah that's what I wanted to ask, do you think this camcorder is good enough for a movie, with any hope for becoming big? And GrandpaBW, are you really a grandad who served in the vietnam war, and are those your grandchildren (in your sig.)?
Yes, I think that camcorder will be good for your home movies. And yes to the two questions at the end of your post.
