Samsung SDHC camcorder - editing question

[tom hardwick]

A friend of mine has asked for my advice on this 20x zoom Samsung camcorder:

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-hm ... xtor=AL-71

It certainly looks an ok spec for £252.60 but I'm not really up with how these cameras link up to the average Jo's computer. It shoots full HD to SDHC cards but my friend only has a so-so pc and wonders if she'll be able to ingest the footage through her card reader.

So,

1) are these cameras able to downconvert the HD to SD?
2) can they shoot SD to card?
3) is the USB interface only for the stills it shoots?

any other thoughts somebody with a so-so pc should consider?

tom.

[col lamb]

Tom

Without downloading the user manual I'd guess that: -

1 - No, there are options for recording HD at different quality (different bitrates) settings and at 1080/720/sd but with MPEG4 you generally do not capture video as you do with MiniDV or HDV you simply transfer the file from the SD card to the PC

2 - No and yes, the settings are generally only quality / 1080 / 720 / sd, but the sd is MPEG4 not MPEG2 as in DV

3 - The camera will show up as "mass storage device" and so all video and stills will be visible on the PC

She should have a disk with the camcorder that includes MPEG4 viewing software.

It records in h264 but the ad does not specifically say AVCHD, so a bit of guess is all I can provide

Editing it is another matter if her PC is less than a 4 core with 4Gb RAM, she will probably need to transcode the footage.

Col Lamb

[tom hardwick]

Thanks for your thoughts Col. I'm hoping the CD will have some transcoding software included - I'll see when she buys it next week.