212 of 227 people found the following review helpful

Just Beware, July 9, 2009

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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder w/15x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I Believe this camera is great. It's just above your average models. I've used for a week now filming basic family stuff, kids sports and it works great. It shows great video through a the HDMI cable on my HD TV as well (cable does not come with camera).

The problem I have now is trying to get my computer to read the files. My memory is full and need put on DVD now. After doing some research I found out that camera requires new software and for whatever reason Canon does not provide the proper software to do this with the camera. The files that you will be dealing with, will be CPI or MTS files. I'm not very savvy about this stuff, but I understand now that I have to buy a new program that will read these files and because they are fairly new files, there isn't that many programs out there yet. The programs range from $75 and up, so now you can add this to your cost. After my research every new HD camcorder brand is pretty much having similiar problems.

http://www.internetvideomag.com/Articles_2008/022408_HD_Video_Editing.htm
I just stumbled across this. I hope you have a new, big, powerful computer to operate this camcorder as well, if not, your looking at another $1000 for a computer to handle this thing. This camcorder is ahead of it's time right now. Pc's and software are trying to keep up with them.

To look for software, google video editing software, to get a good idea what you're up against.

Like I said, so far the camcorder itself works great. I see a bunch of people complaining about the low light filming being grainy, but if you have ever owned a camcorder, you will know that they all do that. unless you spend over $2000-$2500 for a one.

I gave this 3 stars only because I'm not happy that Canon didn't provide the proper software in the box in the first place.

If any of you ever had any problems with this or found a better solution, please let me know or leave comments.

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Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder w/15x Optical Zoom B001OI2Z2I Canon Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder w/15x Optical Zoom Camera & Photo Just Beware I Believe this camera is great. It's just above your average models. I've used for a week now filming basic family stuff, kids sports and it works great. It shows great video through a the HDMI cable on my HD TV as well (cable does not come with camera).

The problem I have now is trying to get my computer to read the files. My memory is full and need put on DVD now. After doing some research I found out that camera requires new software and for whatever reason Canon does not provide the proper software to do this with the camera. The files that you will be dealing with, will be CPI or MTS files. I'm not very savvy about this stuff, but I understand now that I have to buy a new program that will read these files and because they are fairly new files, there isn't that many programs out there yet. The programs range from $75 and up, so now you can add this to your cost. After my research every new HD camcorder brand is pretty much having similiar problems.

http://www.internetvideomag.com/Articles_2008/022408_HD_Video_Editing.htm
I just stumbled across this. I hope you have a new, big, powerful computer to operate this camcorder as well, if not, your looking at another $1000 for a computer to handle this thing. This camcorder is ahead of it's time right now. Pc's and software are trying to keep up with them.

To look for software, google video editing software, to get a good idea what you're up against.

Like I said, so far the camcorder itself works great. I see a bunch of people complaining about the low light filming being grainy, but if you have ever owned a camcorder, you will know that they all do that. unless you spend over $2000-$2500 for a one.

I gave this 3 stars only because I'm not happy that Canon didn't provide the proper software in the box in the first place.

If any of you ever had any problems with this or found a better solution, please let me know or leave comments. Shannon L. Dizmang "Dizzy" July 9, 2009

Overall: 5

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Tracked by 11 customers

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Showing 1-10 of 35 posts in this discussion

Initial post: Jul 13, 2009 12:46:30 PM PDT

Brutus says:

Excellent Review. Thanks for showing the weaknesses as well as the strengths.

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6 of 6 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you?

Posted on Jul 15, 2009 1:01:13 AM PDT

Watsh Rajneesh says:

I used Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 to copy the MTS files to DVD video and AVCHD video (plays only in blu-ray players) on a $550 HP dv4z laptop with Windows vista home premium 64 bit with 3 GB RAM and the Corel software was quick to let me edit the video and make a movie of my MTS file clips but cutting on DVD was a tad slow (took more than 1hr to cut a 50min worth of video in AVCHD format on a DVD). PlayStation 3 80GB could play both DVD movie and AVCHD DVD well.

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9 of 9 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you?

Posted on Jul 15, 2009 1:08:09 AM PDT

Watsh Rajneesh says:

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3 of 4 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you?

Posted on Jul 17, 2009 12:42:39 PM PDT

John M says:

How about reading the files on a mac? have you tried that? Im guessing it might be less suck prone.

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4 of 19 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you?

Posted on Jul 20, 2009 8:03:52 AM PDT

Canon 30D says:

Very well written review...

Mac's iMovie reads the file with no problem...coverts them to .mov files which are easy to edit too, then you can export them in any format you like. To store I use the default .mt format and burn DVDs... My computer is an iMac 3GB Ram 2.4GHz processor. I do understand, it is a bit tricky with windows...

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In reply to an earlier post on Jul 20, 2009 8:36:39 AM PDT
Last edited by the author on Jul 20, 2009 12:44:18 PM PDT

Shannon L. Dizmang says:

Recently I got Adobe premiere Elements and the program is doing everthing I need now, but my computer is to slow to read mts, H264 and mpeg 2 files. It can read them but too choppy to edit, but once I burn to dvd, it looks good on my HDTV. If anyone would like to see some video on youtube edited into a flv 8 file from this camcorder, let me know.

Oh yeah, if you want to use this camcorders full potential, get a PC with a blue ray burner.

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7 of 7 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you?

In reply to an earlier post on Jul 21, 2009 8:46:11 AM PDT

Dannielle Freddie says:

I just bought a new HP computer Quad Processor and 6 GB RAM and I am still having troubles when editing its very choppy (using the corel software). But the files are CPI, I haven't figured out how to make it MTS, will that make a difference?

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In reply to an earlier post on Jul 21, 2009 11:14:45 AM PDT

Shannon L. Dizmang says:

I'm not sure, but that is good to hear about your computer. that tells me that I might need to get the new I 7 processors. When I use adobe it automatically puts them to mts. files. What you can do is convert to lower file to do your editing. The problem you have here is that you will start to lose video quality because you have to convert video 2x's. Once to get it to where it isn't choppy anymore and once to burn to DVD. I just deal with the choppiness right now to edit that way when I put to flv or H264 file, I will have the best quality possible.

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Posted on Aug 2, 2009 3:46:15 PM PDT

[Deleted by the author on Aug 2, 2009 3:49:06 PM PDT]

Posted on Aug 5, 2009 11:47:19 PM PDT

Hexydes says:

For those of you having trouble with the editing process, you need to know that AVCHD compression (the type of compression used in the MTS files this camcorder produces) is still very hard for today's computers to process. Even on a quad-core computer with many GB of RAM, you'll be lucky to even be able to play the video back in real-time, let alone edit the video. In a year or two, this will be less of a factor, but for now, this camera is just ahead of the curve.

In the meantime, you might want to look at something like this:
http://www.cineform.com/neoscene/

What Neoscene does is converts your AVCHD-compressed MTS file, into a proprietary-compression (called "Cineform Intermediary Codec) AVI file. These types of files are much easier for today's computers to work with. Note that the file size will increase, so it's a good idea to have a larger hard drive (at least 500GB). If you are an Apple user, Apple includes something called the "Apple Intermediary Codec", which is basically the same thing.

I have this camera, and love it. The videos produced truly could be put onto a big-screen, and look right at home!

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