A month or more ago I purchased a Sony HDR-SR11 it is a High Definition Camera with a 60GB drive in it. I want to relay my experience with this camera as it is not all good.
When it comes to shooting video and quality of Video I have no complaints. The camera delivers as advertised. But when it comes to processing those videos one might as well smash the damn thing.
First things first it records to the Hard Drive in a .MTS format and “REQUIRES” that you use the tool provided by Sony to move the files off the camera. When it does so it changes the file somehow “MAGIC” and changes the file extension to .m2ts which is supposedly in a AVCHD format.
They provide some software to put the clips on a DVD but their is no real editing software that is provided with the camera. But getting the media to load in its native format on a MAC is a non starter. I have yet to find any MAC support.
Second it is rumored if you “BUY” Sony Vegas that it supposedly can mitigate the files for proper editing.
I Like Sony products but let me tell you something Sony has blew it. I am a geek and I deal with media on a daily basis and nothing has pissed me off more than the process Sony makes you go through.
Why they do not encode in a normal format is beyond me. All of the utilities they provide down convert the media into a non high definition experience. In all honesty I hate the camera due to the fact it is nearly impossible to edit the videos with. My advice is go buy a product from another company stay away from this line of cameras completely.
I see AVCHD as the future of HDD camercorders, and HDD as a replacement for HDV. I am planning on purchasing a HDR SR11 and I think the best plan is to use the direct to DVD capture and store the DVDs until I upgrade my PC and the AVCHD video editing software has caught up. AVCHD is an extremely good compression format for HD video, just laborious to edit with most of today’s average PCs.
Thank you for all your reviews. I am told Final Cut pro has support for AVCHD.But if you read their documentation, it has some convulated way of explaining the whole stuff. So I gave up. But for those who want AVCHD support, Apple claims to have it.
I was about to make this purchase for $599 on internet. Looking through your reviews, I am better off staying away from AVCHD for a while till I see some good reaction from the community.
Is there any opinion on HDV format ?
I’m having problems when capturing the video to PC. The video looks great in the camera but stutters with black frames in Sony’s Picture Motion Browser.
I’m having problems when capturing the video to PC. The video looks great in the camera but stutters with black frames in thier Picture Motion Browser.
I have great video editing software. I have final cut pro cost $1300.00 I have some top end windows based video editing software. Non of these packages will edit the output video files that sony creates.
I am no rookie to video editing I have pro-cameras this was a non-pro camera purchased to fill a personal need.
Ahhh…dude – u bought a camera not video editing software. You bought a great piece of hardware and its not reasonable to expect Sony to solve your editing woes. A decent NLE goes for $400…so how would you feel if they added that to the price of your cam?
How about the guys that complained that they’d just bought a PS3 when they first came out – but “Damn Sony! There’s no games!”. I’m not a Sony lover – but man do some research before you start bashing them.
The other great camera that’s out right now is the Canon HF10 or HF100. Guess what? They’re also AVCHD cams and editing software is behind the curve. Had you bought the HF10, you’d be slamming Canon.
If you want, you can get Pinnacle 12 (you need Ultra edition for AVCHD) for about $130.