http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/ Engadget HD Comments for http://www.engadgethd.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgethd.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
What are we looking at here?

]]>Jun 17th 2008 11:16AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 17th 2008 2:08PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/]]>Jun 18th 2008 10:27AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jul 11th 2008 6:16PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 17th 2008 11:18AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ratings.php

(they're all basically running the same sensor, so I figured I'd ask.)]]>Jun 17th 2008 11:25AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
Is the MP4 file format easier to work with? How does its EIS stabilizer compare? How does its auto-focus compare? etc.
]]>Jun 17th 2008 12:17PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 19th 2008 3:58PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 17th 2008 11:55AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
Then I see page 128 of the user manual ( http://org.downloadcenter.samsung.com/downloadfile/ContentsFile.aspx?CDSite=us&CttFileID=1923481&CDCttType=UM&ModelType=C&ModelName=SC-HMX20C&VPath=UM/200805/20080514172437796_SC-HMX20C_ENG_IB_0403.pdf ), which states the following:

Symptom: The comptuer does not recognize your HD camcorder
Solution: You can not use the HD camcorder with a Macintosh]]>Jun 17th 2008 4:51PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
Your review says: "Upon connecting it to a Windows XP-based machine, it simply mounted as a drive and enabled us to pull the MPEG-4 clips over to our PC's hard drive."

Please let us know how it works with a Mac using the same process. I've seen mixed reviews as well (see link to official manual above and on other sites that reviewed this camera).

Nobody uses a Mac for video production or reviewing? I thought Engadget loved apple!]]>Jun 17th 2008 4:54PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/

Personally, I'm a big fan of the simplistic .MP4 container. ]]>Jun 17th 2008 8:07PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
All I wanted was a way to rip the tasty h.264 files off that sucker without jumping through a bunch of BS hoops. Thanks!]]>Jun 17th 2008 11:04PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
The drive contains four root folders and two sub folders:

DCIM
+ 100PHOTO
MISC
MUSIC
VIDEO
+ 100VIDEO

Able to copy the pictures right from the 100PHOTO folder and video right from the 100VIDEO folder.
]]>Jun 20th 2008 9:42PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/- Which one of the MPEG-4 standards does it record? I'd guess AVCHD.
- What is the bit-rate of its SuperFine mode?]]>Jun 17th 2008 11:56AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/ans: Its AVCHD

- What is the bit-rate of its SuperFine mode?
Its less than 17mbs (megabits per second) more like 11mbs.]]>Jul 11th 2008 6:20PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 17th 2008 11:57AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 17th 2008 2:28PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 17th 2008 2:37PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
However, it's a shame that they use the MP4 container rather than AVCHD .mts which is more appropriate/faster for editing. It seems that Samsung things that whoever buys this camera will never want to edit.]]>Jun 17th 2008 2:52PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
Please correct me if I am wrong. Please cite sources if you wish.]]>Jun 17th 2008 5:11PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/06/17/i-hate-samsung/

I get 1 fps trying to edit it.]]>Jun 18th 2008 3:03PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/I'll do some tests of my own and see what I find out.]]>Jun 18th 2008 4:21PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
I created two sets of 20 second AVI clips: one from the Samsung MP4 files and the other from the MTS files from the HF10. (I got the files from using both camcorders in the store.) Each of the raw footage was set at 1080p30 and I was using Cyberlink's PowerDVD to produce the clips. The Samsung clip took 51 seconds to render and the Canon clip took 34 seconds to render. So in this case, the Canon files were about 1.5X faster to produce.

I then created 2 more slightly longer clips: 1 minute and 5 seconds each. The Samsung clip took 2 minutes and 6 seconds to render. The Canon clip took 2 minutes and 1 seconds. This time both took nearly the identical amount of time to render.

So from my tests, I had no trouble editing either file format and it seems like Canon is slightly faster to render but not by very much. From my limited exposure to the file formats, I think I'd prefer Samsung's MP4 file format since it seems like it can play back with more ease, as Eugenia even admitted. But that's just my opinion and I don't profess to being an expert, (far from it), so take my opinion with a grain of salt.]]>Jun 18th 2008 9:52PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 17th 2008 4:12PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/damn! that breaks the deal.]]>Jun 17th 2008 5:37PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
What the review says that it doesn't have is a professional "XLR" jack, which I'd bet that practically all consumer camcorders in this class do not have.

If you check out this photo from the photo gallery, you'll see that it does indeed have a non-professional mic input:
http://www.engadgethd.com/photos/samsungs-sc-hmx20c-1080p-camcorder-hands-on/856824/]]>Jun 17th 2008 5:46PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 17th 2008 8:08PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
I think more and more programs are able to edit MTS files. I could be wrong but it seems the vast majority of consumer video cams are AVCHD. The Samsung seems to be in the minority.

]]>Jun 17th 2008 8:44PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
I was hoping to buy this camera based on the specs, but upon trying it out, I'm going to keep looking.]]>Jun 17th 2008 11:00PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/]]>Jun 17th 2008 11:49PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
On the other hand, it's a testament to how light (and thus, shakable) the unit is.]]>Jun 18th 2008 12:27AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Have you guys tested the Canon HF10? If so, how does the Canon's OIS stabilizer compare with this Samsung model's EIS stabilizer?]]>Jun 18th 2008 7:28AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 18th 2008 7:31AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Maybe you'll get the HF10 next to review and you do a comparison of the two.]]>Jun 18th 2008 8:16AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 19th 2008 1:23PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
Also, the only main capture modes are 1080p30, 1080i60, 480p60 and SlowMotion. ]]>Jun 24th 2008 3:59PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 19th 2008 3:59PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 23rd 2008 10:50AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jun 25th 2008 12:18PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
I first noticed the in-store sale at a Daytona Beach CC, but they were out of stock. The sales person told me he didn't have any idea why the camera was so heavily discounted, but he bought one himself. I offered to buy the display model but he said he couldn't sell display units for products that were current and offered to order one for me.

Instead, we confirmed one was available in Orlando so I made the journey and scored. I don't know if this was a mistake in pricing or a marketing test or what ... but the CC web site apparently did not display the sale price and I have no idea if its still happening or if it was restricted to that region of Florida.

Anyway ... so far I think its a sweet camera (at a sweeter price!). For what its worth, I am a pro shooter and bought one mainly to stick in a pocket of my still camera bag for quick video grab shots. I'll be taking some scenes into the edit suite this week to see how they stack up. FYI, the tilt down handle config makes for killer ground level shots!]]>Jun 24th 2008 12:10AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
But I definitely would have snatched the camcorder if it was priced so low like you found it. I'll definitely have to check my local Circuit City to see if they have the camcorder at that price.
]]>Jun 25th 2008 12:22PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://astore.amazon.com/buy_cheap-20/detail/B0018KTCIM/002-8934402-0084049
Is that real? ]]>Jul 6th 2008 8:15AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jul 7th 2008 3:51PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/It's really helpful to consider HMX20 and also comparing others.
It's a good point that it supports slow motion video at 300fps, so it can be helpful for shooting homevideo and watching it.
I think HMX20c is a proper cam for users who want both HDcam & still camera in good q'ty.
The price also meets for general users.(not bad)

]]>Jul 9th 2008 1:07PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Jul 11th 2008 6:13PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/
Could you post a sample of 1080i recorded video from this camera? This would be by far the better mode for recording fast action like baseball...]]>Jul 11th 2008 11:27PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Aug 13th 2008 5:41PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/Aug 18th 2008 6:25AM