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It's unusual when an NLE is bundled with a camcorder. But JVC really had no alternative when it introduced its two HDV camcorders, the GR-HD1 and JY-HD10. So JVC turned to Japan's KDDI for an HD and SD MPEG-2 editor. And so a feature-reduced version of KDDI's $4,800 MPEG Edit Studio Pro became part of the bundle - along with ImageMixer DVD.
I've encountered very few editors who have used the NLE. So few, in fact, that I became curious why. When I started to use the bundled MPEG Edit Studio Pro LE 1.2, the reasons became clear. It ships with only a few pages of documentation in a PDF that covers the i.LINK I/O application followed by the admonition to consult the editor's Help function - a function that is crippled by a torturous Japanese-to-English translation. However, as I worked with it, I made notes that should help you use this free NLE. And in the end I concluded that it was a pretty efficient way to edit HDV. (I expect both Sony and JVC will show pro HDV camcorders with three CCDs at NAB. Ulead has announced it will show an HDV plugin to its MediaStudio Pro 7 NLE.)
After installing MPEG Edit Studio, go to http://supportcenteronline.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=614 and read how to install camcorder and D-VHS drivers under Windows XP. Now, using the bundled Pixela HD Capture Utility, you can capture either SD (480p60) or HD (720p30) MPEG-2 Transport Streams files from the camcorder or deck via i.LINK. To capture, click the Import button, select an i.LINK device, click Browse, and enter the filename. Now locate where you want to start the capture and click the Start button.
During capture you can't see or hear the MPEG-2 media on your PC's monitor. And there isn't any timecode captured from tape because none is transferred via i.LINK. After a capture, you'll quickly discover that every break in the Transport Stream yields a numbered subfile.
Unlike with Aspect HD from CineForm (www.cineform.com), the captured file need not be transcoded to another video format prior to editing. Moreover, in contrast to my own workaround, HDVcinema Pro (www.mindspring.com/~d-v-c), the input files need not be demuxed prior to import into the editor. After capture to disk by the...