The Sony HDR-SR1 is the world's first high-definition, hard drive camcorder. It represents the start of a new era, and is a camera I've personally been waiting many years to see arrive.

When JVC introduced the Everio line of hard drive camcorders in late 2004, I figured it would only be a couple of months until they came up with a high definition version of the same. Prosumer high definition camcorders were already available at the time, so it seemed logical they would marry the two at the earliest opportunity.

The closest they came, was an optional hard drive attachment for the very sexy GY-HD100 . But Sony has caught up with JVC, and taken the lead in the consumer market, with this groundbreaking and reasonably priced camcorder.

I managed to get my hand on one of these when they were launched in the UK last month. I've now had a chance to put it through its paces...

(Please note this is not a full review of the HDR-SR1. You can find a comprehensive review here. Instead I focus on some of the practicalities of dealing with Sony's new file format AVCHD).

(contd)...

While the premise of this camera is excellent, dealing with Sony's AVC file format is very difficult. This will change in the months ahead, as leading software makers release updates to cope.

Sony has decided to use an H.264 based file format they call AVCHD, promoted in conjunction with Panasonic. I've been a fan of H264 ever since Apple started using it in Quicktime. It's a very efficient compression algorithm, yielding excellent picture quality and small file sizes.

Unfortunately, Sony's H264 isn't compatible with Apple's H264, and there is not a single major editing program that currently supports it. Even Sony's own 'Vegas' editing program will not be supporting the format until Spring 2007.

So what can you do with the footage?

The camera stores high definition footage on its internal hard drive as .m2ts files, one file for each clip you shoot. You can easily transfer these to your computer via USB - the camera shows up as an external hard drive on your computer, as you would hope and expect.

You can also use Sony's supplied software, available only for PC, to transfer footage, and this is an efficient way of importing lots of clips at once. The software organizes these clips into chronological folders, according to the date of each clip's shooting. A nice feature.

If you are on a Mac, you will need an Intel Mac and have Windows XP installed to do this. Nobody to my knowledge has got playback to work on a Mac yet other than running under Windows. And I've searched. I have a Mac Pro, and the only way I can play back the files is to boot into Windows XP using BootCamp, and install Sony's software. This works very well, but is not exactly ideal.

Playback of AVCHD files

To play back files smoothly you will need a very fast computer. Decoding H.264 high definition footage is extremely processor intensive. I tried it on Dell's latest entry level laptop as a yardstick, and the playback was slow and stuttery.

Sony's Picture Motion Browser software is used to browse your imported media files. To play back a clip in full screen, you highlight a clip, and click the slideshow button at top, which looks like a movie projection screen. This fires up the 'Player for AVCHD', a program I initially tried to open by itself without success. On the MacPro 'PC', playback was smooth and very impressive. You use the arrow buttons to move left and right through different clips, and hitting Enter acts as a pause control.

To playback .m2ts files in any other player requires some jumping of hoops, but is not very difficult. In basic terms you need an AVC decoder installed on your computer, and that done, you can play back the files in Windows Media Player, and other players that support DirectShow technology.

The 3 Steps to play back .M2TS files in Windows Media Player
(UPDATED MARCH 2007)

1. Download and install a trial or full version of Cyberlink PowerDVD 7. If you decide to purchase it, you will need the Deluxe or Max version. **UPDATE** - Curiously (because of this post?) Cyberlink have removed the H264/AVCHD codec from their Cyberlink PowerDVD trial, even though the version number has stayed exactly the same. Until I'm told otherwise, here is a trial version of PowerDVD 7 with the original codec included (CL264DEC.ax).

2. Rename the imported .M2TS files to have a .MPG extension

3. Double click a file to view it
   

All this works because Cyberlink PowerDVD comes with an AVC DirectShow compatible decoder as part of the software package. Note that there are other files on the camera's hard drive, and you do not need to transfer these for playback. All the video information is stored in the .M2TS files.

Other Media Players
CoreAVC is a commercial AVC decoder costing $15 for a multi-core processor version. This codec claims to be the most efficient AVC software decoder, meaning you can get away with a less powerful computer for smooth playback. I have not been able to get it to work, but many others have.

Nero offers an AVC decoder and if you are a Nero enthusiast this might be a good option to try. I did not test it myself, but according to this benchmark, it is the slowest of the main players.

Elecard offers an AVC plugin for their DVD Player. I tested a trial version and the quality was below par. I did not test their MPG player which also has an AVC plugin.

Editing with AVCHD

There are three approaches to editing with AVCHD.

1. The first is to use Sony's supplied software to convert the .m2ts files into mpeg-2 files, and then edit those. This is not ideal, because it lowers quality, and the quality of the converter itself is not great.

2. The second approach is to capture the HDMI output of the camcorder with a capture card. Blackmagic Design are about to launch an HDMI capture card costing $249, and I am hoping to receive a review copy to put it through its paces. If it works, this would represent a very attractive option, since the quality should be very high indeed. It would also allow capture of live HDMI footage from the camera, without the quality lost when compressing the files for storage on the internal drive.

3. The third and final approach is to use editing software that can deal with AVCHD directly. As indicated above, none of the major software packages currently allow this, but there is one lesser known option. The Cyberlink AVC decoder is a DirectShow filter, and in theory this means that any editor supporting DirectShow should be able to use that decoder to access the footage. TMPGEnc XPress is one, and it will happily edit .m2ts files, no renaming required, providing you have installed the AVC decoder as described above. It is a simple cuts only editor, albeit one with a wide array of export options. You will need to add each clip twice, once in the video browse dialog and once in the audio browse dialog to have audio. I successfully used it to edit two .m2ts files together and outputted the result in HDV format. The quality was impressive.
   

I have tried unsuccessfully to find another editing option including several open source and commercial video editors claiming to have DirectShow support. So far I have tested...

• uLead VideoStudio (earlier versions supported DirectShow)
• MainActor (DirectShow)
• Positron (DirectShow)
• Avidemux (DirectShow)
• Jahshaka (cool looking open source NLE. DirectShow?)

In conclusion, it seems that DirectShow compatible media players work well (e.g. Core Media Player), but DirectShow editors do not.

Do you have any tips for working with AVCHD?

I would be grateful if you would share any tips or experiences you have working with AVHCD and the Sony SR1 below. Your comments will also help other SR1 users. I will maintain this posting over time and add any new information I find.

UPDATE - Blackmagic have sent through their HDMI intensity card for review and I have begun putting it through its paces here.

Posted by Alx Klive at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (84)

Here in jolly England we've had 6 months of HD television, and the selection so far has been adequate, but still fairly limited.

At the time of writing there are exactly 13 HD channels, which include 4 movie channels, 4 lifestyle channels, 3 sports channels, 1 general interest channel and BBC HD. The latter is basically just a preview channel at the moment with various 3-5 minute selections of footage from BBC Dramas, entertainment shows and natural history programming, which are all universally being shot now by the BBC in high definition.

The promise of all this is breathtaking and the channel makes a very nice showcase to have on if you have friends round or whatever. But it is just that... a promise, a tease.

The BBC certainly has enough HD material to fill a round the clock channel, but for whatever reason they are not doing so. It's probably arguments over funding, scheduling or some other typical BBC politics.

For a couple of hours per day however we are treated to some full length HD programming, and no better example is the absolutely stunning, gasp out loud amazing natural history series 'Planet Earth'.

For many years the BBC has had its specialist natural history unit spirited away in a regional town called Bristol, about two-and-a-half hours outside of London. These guys (and girls) are literally the very best in the world at what they do, and in my personal opinion more talented and dedicated than the very best feature film directors or cinematographers. I used to work as a cameraman, and what these people do leaves me speechless.

No better example of their sheer talent and determination is apparant than in this new series Planet Earth. With the venerable David Attenborough as narrator, and with HD at their disposal, the natural history unit in Bristol has come up with the most amazing natural history series you have ever seen in your life.

Currently airing in Britain on Sunday nights for a second run, and in HD, it is appointment to view television like nothing I've experienced. The wife and I literally look forward to Sundays at 9pm so we can sit down, with lights turned off, and travel to a world we're unlikely to ever see in person. I can't remember the last time I felt like that about television.

Last night was a show about the jungles of the world. Stretching from the rainforests of South America, to New Guinea and back to Africa, you get to see creatures and plants that you simply had no idea even existed. There are the fungal spores that absorb themselves into insects such as ants, move through their bodies into their brains, send them mad, kill them, then grow out 'Alien style' from their heads. I'm not joking. There is the spider who lives on the outside of an insect trapping plant, who rappels down into the plant to steal the insects trapped within, narrowly avoiding death itself. There are the male birds of paradise in New Guinea (see pic), who in a role reversal of humans, put on incredibly bizzare, costume-like displays, to attract the rather boring and dull looking females.

If you get the chance to see this series, do not hesitate, do not pass go, buy an HD television just to watch it. You will never in your life be so taken back and surprised by the world that exists around us.

I particularly like how at the end of each show you get to see how the filmmakers achieved some of the 'how-did-they-do-that shots'. For the birds of paradise segment, one cameraman spent 5 weeks, for up to 15 hours in a day, waiting inside a hideaway, for just three shots. The result is something that has never before been captured on camera.

Bravo and kudos.

Posted by Alx Klive at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Industry rag Variety has officially called the death of VHS after 30 years of trusty service.

Posted by Alx Klive at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Strike one up for the power of the Internet and people power!

In a huge departure from the past, UK monopobroadcaster Sky (owner's of FOX and MySpace) has decided to throw in the towel and actually give people what they really want. Recognizing that large numbers of viewers in the UK are pissed off with having to wait months for popular US shows like Lost and 24 to turn up on British screens, and instead have been turning to Bittorrent to download the shows themselves, Sky has announced that starting in February, Lost will air 4 days after it's broadcast in the States. It's only taken 50 years, but finally the artificial geographical boundaries created by nonsensical TV execs, are finally giving way to simple common sense. Hooray!

It clearly makes no sense that it's taken this long for them to wake up and smell the coffee beans. Viewers in the UK surprisingly DO actually visit entertainment websites in the US, and are constantly frustrated with the issue of plotlines being spoiled for them when they read what everyone else in the US is talking about around the water cooler. Says Sky's Hannah Barnes "We know the world is a smaller place. If we have customers aware of Lost storylines from the USA, we need to give them immediacy". Round of applause please! One small question... how is a 4 day delay immediate??

Other shows that will get the 'immediate' treatment include 24, The Simpsons, Standoff and Bones. For 24 and The Simpsons there will be a 7 day delay, and for Standoff and Bones, several weeks is the new timeframe. It's a significant step forward, albeit one we should have had years ago, but unfortunately as usual it stems from financial loss rather than people's satisfaction, something Sky knows very little about.

Heard the story about Sky/Newscorp stealing their user's MySpace URL's??

Posted by Alx Klive at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With all the accounting stuff out the way, I'm able to focus on more productive issues, like moving to a new web server.

As anyone who's moved a website before will know, this can be a perilous exercise, and an order of magnitude more risky if your site contains anything other than straightforward HTML with images.

WorldTV is currently hosted on a Virtual Private Server. A VPS is a relatively recent option for people looking to host websites, as it neatly fills the gap between high end dedicated servers and low end shared hosting.

A VPS is basically a dedicated server split between a small number of customers, say 4 or 8. Shared hosting on the other hand can mean you are sharing your server with literally dozens of other customers. The other key difference is that with a VPS, clever software makes your server appear as if you have your own dedicated server. You can install all your own key software packages, including staples like Apache (for serving web pages), PHP (the popular web application language), Perl, etc. You can't do this with regular shared hosting, you have to rely on the software they install for you.

In terms of cost, a decent shared hosting package costs around $20 per month, a VPS around $75 per month, and a dedicated server around $150 per month. It's easy to see why VPS servers are popular for mid sized websites...

With WorldTV gearing up for its full launch, our current VPS package is no longer a serious option. It's time to make the move to a dedicated server, and with a hosting company that can handle scaling to multiple dedicated servers.

As a bootstrapping startup without a Chief Technology Officer, I'm having to fill the role of CTO myself. The question I'm considering is whether to do this particular move myself, or have our outside development partner do it. The new dedicated server is set up and ready to go (by our hosting company), all I need to do it would seem is move the site over to the new server, something I've done in the past, albeit slowly and with much hair pulling.

On the one hand, delegating this to experts would free up a week of my time and probably a fair bit of stress. But on the other, only I really know all the details of how the current server is put together, and it could be more trouble than its worth to try to explain it to someone.

It's a tricky question!

(I did end up doing it myself and was happy to have been able to do a 'cleansing' of all the unused files - ed)

Posted by Alx Klive at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post and boy is it fun to do something different for a change. I've spent the last two weeks with my head in the books literally, bringing all the company's accounting up to date. But how can a company only 5 weeks old have a lot of accounting you might ask...?

A couple of years ago I set up a business doing news aggregation on UK sports teams. The company developed some software called Newsfinity, which works tirelessly and automatically to gather news stories on specific subjects, and turn them into web pages. An example of such a site is Gooner News.

The business has been relatively successful (it makes a small operating profit) but I haven't had as much time as I would like to devote to it. My partner in the project moved on to other things very early in the proceedings, and offers of consulting work pulled me away myself. With no employees to speak of, just a part-time developer requiring supervision to do actual work, the business stagnated, although the sites themselves have grown steadily during that time.

When it came to finally starting WorldTV, I looked closely at the accounts for the news sites - a large drawer filled with receipts - and decided it would make a good 'shell' for WorldTV. The company had a history, it had expenses, it had revenue. These are all good things to start a new venture with.

My reasoning was...

• Suppliers are more likely to extend credit or lease facilities
  
• Having prior accounts looks good to investors, even if they show losses
  
• Losses can be brought forward to offset future profits
  
• It can save 3-4 weeks of beaurocracy setting up a new company and the hassle of opening new bank accounts
  

Having never properly done the accounts for my news business, a drawer full of receipts going back over 2 years was always going to be a major ordeal, but finished they are, all duly entered into QuickBooks. It's quite satisfying to be able to produce every conceivable financial report, whether it's a balance sheet or P&L, or heaven knows what else might be asked of us, in about two clicks of a mouse.

If I have time later today I'll post my 'system' for turning receipts into accounts with the least hassle.

Posted by Alx Klive at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)