Hi guys!
I've bought a new Canon Eos 550d, a photocamera that can make videos in Full HD, 25p or 24p, 25 frames/sec.
Kdenlive recognize the files (you can find one at http://www.onedrop.it/Luigi/ftp/MVI_0049.MOV) but it's not possible to view the videos smoothly, even if I have a 64bit architecture, Ubuntu 9.10, 4 gigabyte of RAM...
Maybe I use a wrong video driver (I've got an Nvidia)...
If someone want to download the footage and try to to something, it would be wonderful!
Thanks a lot!
Gigi

Hi,

The problem is simply that it's AVCHD. AVCHD needs a very powerful CPU, and even then seeking through the file is quite jerky.

On my computer (quadcore Athlon X4) the file plays smoothly in Kdenlive, but seeking through it on the timeline is bot smooth at all. Which is normal.

To make editing way easier, the best solution is to transcode the files to DNxHD. Use the Kdenlive trancoding feature (file->transcode clips), it will automatically select the best profile. For the file you provided it is "DNxHD 1920x1080 25p 120 Mb/s". The resulting file will be quite a bit larger, but editing will be perfectly smooth.

edit : and actually I'm thinking of buying a 550D as my main video camera. Would you recommend it for that purpose ? What is the autofocusing like during the recording ? Thanks !

Thanks!
And transcoding the file do I lose quality? (I don't think so, if the file is even larger!!)

Well, I've bought the 550D Saturday and I'm still trying it! At the moment the main problem for me is that I've got just an objective 50mm, no stabilized, and it's quite difficult to make a good movie, above all for the focus, because the autofocusing is not really helpful... I'll try something next days and I'll post you a video on vimeo... I come from a Canon Xha1-s (HDV) and the difference is incredible... I mean, the images of the 550d are really better (IMHO) even if it's not confortable like a videocamera!!


Edit: I've tried the transcode and it works perfectly!!!

Any encoding in a lossless format means that there will be some quality loss. But to actually see any difference between the orginal AVCHD and AVCHD converted to high bitrate DNxHD, you'd probably need to buy yourself some bionic eyes of some sort.

Concerning the 550D I'd probably get it with the kit lens (18-55), which is also stabilized, so it should hopefully make filming smoother.

http://vimeo.com/10346105

Here there's a video that I made with my 550d and that I edited with Kdenlive.. I had some problems with the export, so I transcoded the video with ffmpeg directly...

I finally bought the EOS 550D, and it's really a great camera, with impressive low-light/high-ISO performance.

On the video side, here how it compares to an HD camcorder :

+ Good low-light performance
+ 25p full HD AVCHD recording (other framerates and resolutions are also available)
+ Mic input (which is missing on most cameras under 800$, expect the Canons)
+ 'film like' image (small depth of field)
+ Very wide angle with default lens kit (28mm as opposed to the usual 44mm or so of most cameras)
+ Changeable lens
+ Manual focus

- Manual focus ONLY (autofocus is really unusable when filming)
- limited to 12min continuous filming
- Small zoom (with default lens kit)

For under 800€ with a 18-55 stabilized lens, it makes better films than any other camera in that price range. The main issue is not having a good autofocus. Instead you get a great manual focus, but it takes a while getting used to. I think the Panasonic GH1 is a lot better for that, but it's also quite a bit more expensive.

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