Camcorder Questions

[BMW POWER]

Right guys I need to pick the brains from you media boys. Was given a JVC Everio GZ-HM200BEK (xmas present). Never had a camcorder before and need a little help. Firstly the cam says it can record in full HD suitable for burning onto a Blu-ray disc. This sounds like something which could be pretty good so my question is, what software would you recommend for video editing and then burning to Blu-ray disc? Probably not the easiest question to answer but at the moment the files are copied to my PC as "metastream" format, something I've never worked with or even heard of before. So I'm looking for a program that can edit these files and then convert them to either HD format for PC viewing or a suitable format to burn onto Blue-ray but without losing any of the quality originally filmed by the cam. Is this something that is practically possible? Or am I just living in a media dream world? As usual, answers on a postcard or failing that just reply here!
Cheers

 

[TB]

From JVC's website:

What format does this camera record in?

With recording speed set as: UXP, XP, SP or EP video files are created in AVCHD format and have .MTS extension.

To find files carrying .MTS extension after connecting camera to a computer look into folders: AVCHD -> BDMV -> STREAM (on built in HDD) or PRIVATE -> AVCHD -> BDMV -> STREAM (on SDHC/Micro SDHC card).

What software can be used to edit AVCHD files in Windows?

Included on the provided CD-ROM is Pixela Everio Media Browser HD software. This software makes it easy to do basic editing. It also allows you to create Blu-ray discs, as well as AVCHD discs and standard DVDs. In addition, this software can be used to upload your videos to You Tube and to export your videos to iTunes.

Can I edit files from my Everio with Windows Movie Maker?

For Windows, you need to use Windows Movie Maker with Windows Vista Home Premium (or higher). Where you select the type of file to import you need to ask it to display "All Files." This will show the Everio .mod files which can then be imported and edited with Windows Movie Maker.

So apparently there is some software included that should do at least some basic editing. I'd start there and, if need be, move on to bigger and better if needed.

 

[Jondot]

As it sounds like the files have been transferred in some sort of JVC file type nonsense, I would have thought that they'd supply their own software for doing so - even if it is just a basic burn-not-edit kinda thing. I'm not familiar with what's available to do this kinda thing on PC, but I think this version of Sony Vegas is designed in mind with what you want to do. The GZ-HM200 looks like it will export in AVCHD (which is a standard HD camcorder file format that Vegas and the like will understand), so that should be OK provided you start importing things via Vegas rather than whatever method is putting them into 'metastream'.

As for free options, I'm not hugely useful. As I recall the files from my Canon AVCHD camcorder would play quite happily on my Windows 7 desktop via Media Player, so I suppose it's not a completely ridiculous idea to suggest that Live Movie Maker or whatever it's called now might be able to handle them. Though the last time I looked I had a feeling it was 720p only. I could be wrong, of course...

Hope that helps in some way at least!


EDIT

Tree'd by someone more useful, as usual

 

[TB]

EDIT

Tree'd by someone more useful, as usual

I beg to differ, good sir. Your post was much more informative than mine. Although we did essentially say the same thing.