Hdr Competition

I Have a Sony HDR-SR1, HD or SD footage?

I have a school video competition and am contemplating to use it for it. HD is just about impossible to edit with (anyone know a program that can verrrryy easily edit m2ts files? like extremely simplistic) or should I just use windows movie maker and use highest SD quality? I am constricted for time, and I want to get best of quality and editing, any advice?

Because that camcorder saves high definition using AVCHD compressed video, just go ahead and skip it and record in standard definition... BUT in widescreen (16:9) standard definition. MovieMaker will be able to edit it, but it will be 16:9 (which is what high definition records).

Sony Vegas can use the AVCHD files, but since it compresses so much, and because you will likely need to output to a standard definition DVD to enter the video contest, using high-def (with AVCHD) is not going to buy you any quality improvement that normal people will notice.

That said, if you were using a miniDV tape based camcorder and recording in HDV, the resulting end-product standard definition DVD would be the clearest vedo you've seen in the standard def format. HDV does not compress as much as AVCHD and the result is really clear video (whether high def or standard def).

Also, not knowing your computer and editing... for importing and rendering high def video, that takes a lot of crunching, so a CPU from the last year or two (CoreDuo or better) is strongly recommended... and while standard definition video (DV) uses about 13 gig per hour of video imported, high definition will use about 44 gig per hour of imported video - so you need a lot of hard drive space, too. In your environment, the compressed MPEG2 files will give you some relief, but you will still need a good chunk of hard drive space. An external drive (minimum 250 gig) is strongly recommended just for the video projects.