WARNING
Be very careful with the Firewire connections when using the HV20. Ensure you're putting the plugs in dead straight, and always make sure the HV20's power is off before plugging the cable into it.
Other users have also strongly recommended that, if using a 6 pin (large) Firewire cable from your desktop computer, you turn off the computer before plugging in the cable. This is to ensure no stray voltage crosses the pins of the plug as it is being put in.
What is HDV?
HDV stands for High Definition Video. The data rate is about the same as DV (now called Standard Definition video), 13gb per hour, but the HDV format is MPEG 2, frame size 1440x1080, so there are many more pixels per TV screen. The HDV specification is 1920x1080, but most consumer HDV cameras shoot 1440x1080 and stretch the pixels horizontally to make up the correct size. That's why, if you analyse your HV20 footage, it shows up as 1440x1080.
HDV should not be confused with AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition). Some cameras use this technology. It is highly compressed video that requires a very powerful computer eg very fast Quad core to edit. MEP 15 and up will handle AVCHD on a fast machine with a good graphics card. For those with slower computers, other options include proxy editing.
General
I've recently started using a Canon HV20 high definition video camera. Quite frankly, the image quality is fantastic, but will not be really appreciated until BluRay becomes an affordable option or you have a HD DVD player (MEP 14 + can burn HD DVD projects onto standard 4.7gb DVDs - you get about 25 minutes per disk; unfortunately, MEP 15 and later can no longer create HD DVD projects). Or, you can view HDV from the HV20 on your big TV if you have an HDMI port and cable (component cabling will also do).
In MEP, use the "HDV HD2" settings for a PAL HV20.
There's a HV20 forum here. Not many MEP users though (full Vegas and Premiere users and stroppy moderators).
Hardware Requirements
From one of the Magix gurus:
"Our software generally uses the GPU for decoding MPEG2 and for displaying the preview screen. Therefore, it is really with HD that it becomes really important, as you need a far whack of memory to handle realtime editing, playing and previewing." This came from this post.
Capturing HDV
HDV is downloaded from the camera in much the same way as DV: via Firewire.
MEP captures one large MPG file but will scene-detect as normal.
If you use MEP to capture, it'll save the video as an MPG. If you use HDVSplit, it'll be saved as an M2T (you can set HDVSplit to capture individual files for each scene).
You may need to untick Video Preview before capturing, otherwise the capture will crash after a few seconds. I think this is related to computer CPU power.
If you are using the AV>DV passthrough conversion function, ensure you pull out your tape, otherwise when you hit Record, the HV20 will start playing the tape.
Capturing Downconverted DV
You can of course capture in DV. Be aware that the HV20 has a bug where it doesn't get the scene detection right: it misses by 2 frames, which have to be trimmed off manually. Use the CTRL 0 or CTRL 9 to jump between object edges to trim your scene split.
This bug occurs with other capture programs. Have a read of this thread for examples.
Export Back To Tape
MEP will export HDV back to tape. I'm still finetuning the procedure, but here's what I've come up with so far:
On the HV20 PLAY menus:
In MEP:
If you want to upload a file you've already rendered, File>Play Audio/Video. From the dropdown list, select Camcorder> HV20 and off you go (make sure your file is HDV compliant)!
If you have any trouble, turn off the HV20, turn it back on then scan for devices.
Exporting Stills
I must say that I am very impressed by the quality of stills taken off the MPG/M2T files or indeed playing the tape and then hitting "still photo" on the HV20. Stills should be exported from MEP as 1920x1080. One aspect I have noticed though is that the file size of MEP's exported JPEGs is quite low; for example, VideoRedo will export a HDV frame
High Definition General
Viewing UDF 2.5 disks in Win XP
The standard version of Windows XP cannot read UDF version 2.5 disks, which are used for Bluray. However, it is easy to install drivers to do so. See the Digital Digest website here.
Information
Format information at VideoHelp
HD DVD folder format:
The folder name on the HD DVD disk itself is HVDVD_TS. You will need to rename the MEP folder to this if you want to burn a HD DVD folder/file set onto a standard DVD with Imgburn.