New HMC40 user questions

S

SteveD

Member
Hi to all -- great forum here I've learned a lot. I'm no pro, but starting to explore this camera as a serious hobby.

My camera is one week old. I can capture clips and play straight from the camera via HDMI cable to our HDTV. The camera has a Panasonic 16GB class 10 SDHC card (maybe overbought on that). I did not reformat it but it seems to work fine.

The problem is that when I hook up my camera to my computer (Windows XP) the camera does not show up, so I cannot transfer files for editing. Is this normal or a problem? I know the cable is good, USB 2.0 port is good (use both for still camera downloads). Do I need to load up the Edius 2.5 (came with the camera) or other transfer software first? Or maybe reformat the card in the camera first (I'd hate to lose what I have already, but oh well).

Many thanks -Steve
 
I use the camera with FCP on my MacPro and the workflow is flawless. not too sure about PC though. If you haven't installed the editing software yet, definitely do that. Sometimes they're pre-loaded with drivers that serve to recognize the hardware. If that doesn't help, you may need to update windows. Also, this is a no-brainer, but make sure the software/hardware is compatible with XP.
 
Why do you want to hook the camera to a computer? Pull out the card and insert into a computer's reader. Done. No SDHC reader? Get an SD-to-USB adapter, you can buy one for as little as $1.99.

If you still insist on connecting the camera to a computer then do not forget to power the camera from the power adapter.
 
Thanks for your quick insight. Since my computer does not have built-in card readers, I went out and bought a Dynex SDHC card reader for $25 at BestBuy:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dynex%26%23153%3B+-+6-in-1+USB+2.0+Memory+Card+Reader/9119438.p?id=1218029378008&skuId=9119438&st=sdhc card reader&cp=1&lp=1

Works like a charm! I also downloaded the Panasonic AVCCAM Viewer. Played the SDHC card no problem. I still need to install Edius 2.5 -- one thing at a time. Hopefully that will allow me to download from my camera (not that I really need to now).
 
I hope that for this price your card reader is proudly made in the good old U.S.A. I have three of those shown below, two of them work great and another did not work right out of the box, what do you want for $1.19.

119-106_2_.jpg


Splash viewer is great if you have a graphics card it can recognize and use. On my machine I can watch AVCHD with no hiccups with only 5% CPU load. For CPU-only playback try Windows Media Player Classic coupled with CoreAVC decoder and turn CUDA acceleration off. For some reason CoreAVC cannot correctly use CUDA on my Nvidia card.
 
Thanks Felipe and Mr. Bit. Splash has a free Lite version and a $20 Pro version. Any recommendations? If I read the chart correctly, the Lite is worthless to me since it cannot play back AVCHD.

I can check graphics card compatibility of the Pro version by downloading a one month trial (nice touch).
 
SteveD said:
Thanks Felipe and Mr. Bit. Splash has a free Lite version and a $20 Pro version. Any recommendations? If I read the chart correctly, the Lite is worthless to me since it cannot play back AVCHD.

I can check graphics card compatibility of the Pro version by downloading a one month trial (nice touch).
Click to expand...

Lite is perfect for AVCHD, Pro is Great
 
I want to add a final note to this thread, in case another new HMC40 user faces the same issue (my problem was that my computer did not seem to recognize my camera and clip files when the camera was plugged into my computer using a USB 2.0 port). The solution was simple (Panasonic tech support straightened me out): I needed to have the LCD screen open (I had the camera on but the screen shut), then select "PC" from the two choices ("PC" or "Printer") that appeared on the screen. Duh. (but in my defense, all of the still cameras I've used in the past did not require that). It worked great. As suggested before, they did recommend removing the card from the camera and using a USB reader, as discussed earlier in this thread. Other than that, I am having fun with this new camera! I really like it a lot.
 
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