Looking for advice: I have a Sony HDR-HC1 which records on tape in the HDV format. I'm thinking of going to the Canon HF-S11 or possibly to the Panasonic HDC-TM300 (because of the viewfinder). I've read several times that as far as picture quality goes, flash based doesn't have the PQ of tape. Is that true?

I'd really like to switch to flash based because the processing power required for HDV is more than my computer can handle and AVCHD requires a little less power (although I plan on replacing my computer this month).

No, AVCHD requires MORE power than HDV to edit because of the way it's compressed.

While it used to be true that HDV had a better picture than AVCHD, and still may be true in theory, the latest batch of AVC cams can blow away earlier, much more expensive HDV cams. The Sony XR520V has the best picture I've ever seen in a small cam. But it depends on the cam, lens, chip size and other factors, not just the format.

__________________
Adam
Proud owner of 8, no, 7, no, wait, now NINE Sony HDV cams. Checking into rehab next week.
"There are no experimental failures. There's only more data."

Thanks for the response acgold7. Good to know that I shouldn't expect a step down in video.

The following is what I am basing my processor power assumption on:
(From Adobe.com Re: Premeire Elements)
1.8GHz processor with SSE2 support; 3GHz processor required for HDV or Blu-ray; dual-core processor required for AVCHD

I have a QUAD cord at 2.4 ghz. I have 4 GB RAM and am running Vista yet my computer is choked out before it is able to complete a burn of a BD. I have even killed all other processes, including antivirus in an attempt to get it done but no dice.

I called Adobe at one point, and asked if having a quad core would mean any lower requirements than 3.0 ghz and they said no, that it would still have to be 3.0 ghz for EACH core. At the time (and maybe even now) there weren't 3 ghz quads available, either from HP or Dell - I tried to customize one!

There are tons of 3+ GHz quads around; check out Xeon or Core i7 processors at NewEgg or other places. Dell can build workstations for you with these as well.

As usual, the Adobe guys are out to lunch. Usually the wisdom is you multiply the speed times the number of cores to get a rough estimate; it's not exact but it's a ballpark, so a quad at 2.4 GHz should be fine.

__________________
Adam
Proud owner of 8, no, 7, no, wait, now NINE Sony HDV cams. Checking into rehab next week.
"There are no experimental failures. There's only more data."

acgold7,
thanks again for your information, it has been very helpful. A little off the original topic but I can't resist:
1) why then does my computer choke when processing a HDV->BD w/menus?
2) I've not had much success with Premiere or Roxio's Creator or DVDit ProHD. Would you reccommend another?
3) As I stated in my original post, I am looking at the Canon HF-S11 or the Panasonic HDC-TM300. The Panasonic reviewed better and has a viewfinder (which I would really prefer. Always been a Canon guy but I'm also a viewfinder guy!) but with the Canon specs showing a bigger sensor AND more MP's - how does the Panasonic have a better reviewed PQ??

THANKS!! I know I'm asking alot and you've already helped a ton. If the Canon only had a viewfinder I'd have omitted #3!!

I've been editing AVCHD footage out of the Canon S11 using Premiere Pro with a Core2Duo 2.93Ghz 4gig RAM Vista machine. Editing is pretty smooth, rendering not too painful, and encoding is roughly 30 secs for 1sec of footage. Your quad core should be a breeze I would have thought. I don't understand the issue of not having a viewfinder - I checked out the TM300 and looking through the EVF felt like trying to watch a 1/2 inch bad resolution TV through a black pipe. I'm beginning to appreciate the S11 more and more as I get the settings and editing/encoding profiles right. Deal breakers for me with the TM300 were the touch screen controls and the Canon's larger sensor and more manual settings.

Is your machine alright burning to DVD?