Sanyo VPC-FH1 test footage
December, 2009:
I bought a Sanyo
VPC-FHI video camera capable of shooting HD onto SD
cards.
Here are the HD video formats it can record.
At first I tried shooting in the highest-end mode of 1080 60p, but soon
found that my PC could
not play the files back cleanly. There was a lot of stuttering,
stopping and starting, especially on shots that pan. My main PC
is a Dell e1705 with an nvidia 256mb video card, 2GB ram, plenty of HD
space. Go figure. So then there's not much use in writing
me to ask me my opinions on specifics about codecs,
software, etc. I am baffled by it all myself. Having said
that, if these files don't play well or at all, I can suggest trying
installing the K-lite
codec pack,
which includes "Media Player Classic Home Cinema" video
player. This
is
the player that gives me the best results - as good as the player that
came bundled with the camera. When I installed the codec pack, I
chose the "lots of
stuff" profile. INSTALL THESE AT YOUR OWN
RISK. If
you find things become worse after you install this, uninstall
it! If your machine melts down into a puddle or otherwise becomes
inert/dead/broken/unresponsive, DON'T BLAME ME!
2012 update:
I now have a laptop with a 1GB video card. All these videos run
just great on it. I still recommend the player mentioned above,
however.
Below are links to test shots.
Don't just click on them!
Download
the files by right-clicking on the links
(control-click for Macs) and
choose "SAVE TARGET AS".
THE FOLLOWING IS A SLOW PAN OF A STATIC SCENE
THE FOLLOWING ARE STATIC SHOTS ON A TRIPOD, WITH OBJECTS MOVING THROUGH
THEM
THE FOLLOWING ARE HAND-HELD PANNING SHOTS, FOLLOWING AN OBJECT
- Three similar shots taken at three settings: 1080 60p 60i 30p
Dec 21, 2009: Update: My ability to play 60p videos has
improved. They now barely stutter, but the audio ends
before the video!