Sony HDR-CX12 High Definition Memory Stick PRO Duo Handycam Camcorder Review
September 15th, 2009
Sony HDR-CX12 High Definition Memory Stick PRO Duo Handycam Camcorder Review from justin. Addictive but be aware of the work you will create using the clips!, This isn’t a review of the features and performance of the camera. I am not an expert at comparing it to others. This is a review of what you can do with the files that you create.
I got this camera and the 16gb memory duo card. So far so good. It stores between 2 and 5 times the life of a single battery in video.. hours and hours unless you pick the highest bit rate.
The challenges come after you get your files home.
1. Sony Vegas
Probably this is the best solution for workflow from this camera, but it is windows only. Moving right along ..
2. PS3
Happily you can either insert the card into your PS3 (or into a multi-card reader via USB – a recent one, not an old one, as high capacity memory sticks can’t be read by older multi-card readers). The PS3 sees the clips, shows moving previews, and they look fantastic. You can also put them on a media server (such as MediaTomb mac/linux) and connect to it from the PS3. Not quite as nice, as the thumbnails lack preview, but workable.
3. Connecting the camera to your Mac via the included dock
This works fine and I’ll sub-divide what you can do at this point:
3a. Using Final Cut Express (or Final Cut Pro).
Neither of these programs will deal directly with the MTS files (which are AVCHD and 5.1 ac3) without the full directory structure of the card present! so don’t copy the MTS files off, and delete them if you want to use FCE! At any rate, use FCE to import the clips, they are decompressed and blown up to an apple format that uses heaps more space! you can’t edit natively in AVCHD using FCE. It isn’t clear to me that you can even edit natively in FC Pro. Note, FCE down-mixes to 2 channel stereo during import!
3b. Not using Final Cut Express – using other tools (linux users read this too)
You can’t play these MTS files reliably using Quicktime or Quicktime Pro despite the claim that quicktime pro can play h264 video. You can’t even use the Perian codecs (which are available free and based on the open source libraries used by ffmpeg). They claim h264 compatibility but unfortunately they do not read the sony h264 stream properly. You may see various problems: missed frames, half speed, crashing or lots of errors. It may be that a SD camera setting on this camera is more reliably usable, I got bored trying so many different things. This also means you can’t use ffmpeg or mencoder under linux, despite their flexibility. The latest version as of time of this review just does not deal with all your clips. It might deal with some, reading and re-encoding if necessary to mpeg4 or whatever, but you WILL get frustrated. The same problems apply to mplayer, vlc, MPEG Streamclip, and so on, as they also depend on the same libraries.
Note: xportdev will demux MTS files and TMPGenc will decode the video correctly, you CAN use these two tools to create mpeg4 or whatever.
see http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/forumdisplay.php?f=40 this forum for more info.
3c. Not using Final Cut Express – using VoltaicHD
VoltaicHD will convert the clips properly but there are no options to speak of. It creates much larger mov files that can be used in typical mac utilities, quicktime, etc.
3d. Using Toast Titanium
I believe this produce accepts AVCHD files. I haven’t tested it, obviously you have to buy the product. It appears to be capable of writing DVDs or even bluray discs after the edit is done.
4. Uploading to vimeo (the HD version of youtube)
Vimeo does not accept MTS files, it tries to accept h264 video if packaged in an avi or whatever, but will not process them correctly. It accepts mpeg4, or re-encoded h264 as output by mencoder. It probably also accepts mov files from VoltaicHD and obviously you can get FCE to output a file that vimeo will take.
The problem I have with this is the chain of encoding and decoding:
image –> camera –> encoded to avchd –> decoded in voltaicHD or FCE –> re-encoded to mpeg4 or whatever –> uploaded to vimeo –> decoded –> re-encoded to their On2 codec –> played by flash.
As you can see this chain is ridiculous and the result will not look as good as the ideal, which is:
image –> camera –> encoded to avchd –> played
My conclusion is that your frustration level will vary according to what you want out of your clips. The camera offers very limited editing: you can chop a clip into two and delete any clip, so you can basically throw away bits you won’t want to waste time on.
If you want to show them off on your HDTV via the PS3, without mixing them into a “movie” then everything is great. They look really good.. the interlacing is really not visible when the PS3 plays them, resolution is outstanding at least depending on how high a bit rate you pick.
If you want to burn DVDs then I expect Toast Titanium or FCE will be reasonable but there is some quality loss from the inevitable decode – reencode cycle.
If you want them on the web at vimeo, although the result is heaps better than youtube, it certainly isn’t high definition. I believe the vimeo bit rate is limited to 2000 kbit, for example.
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