Bison Bud

I am starting to get interested in shooting more video with my new/used Sony RX100 VA and I am wondering what software most of you use for playback and editing. My RX100 provides three video shooting selections, XAVC S-4K, XAVC S HD, and AVCHD. I honestly don't know what these acronyms actually stand for other than the different resolutions used and would appreciate any insight in that area as well. Anyway, I presently have no video editing software and would also like suggestions in that area, but I am mostly concerned about the fact that my editing computer only seems to play the AVCHD format (which I believe to be the lowest resolution). I believe that there is a "Codec" or other file that has to be added to Window Media Player to accommodate the other two formats, but have no idea where to even start on making this work. Any help in this area would be deeply appreciated!

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

I don't understand the acronyms either but there is a free video editor call Openshot that seems to be pretty good.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

This is the solution. There might be others but this one is extremely good in all the ways that I have used it.
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

XAVC is higher quality than AVC, probably twice the bitrate. 4K is 4K (3840 pixels horizontally) and HD is half that (1920 px). AVCHD is AVC in HD. In the US you want to be shooting 30fps (30p) and in Europe 25P for television playback. For computer it doesn't matter.

Windows Media Player is complete crap. Get VLC. There is a good free video converter called "Handbrake“ that can downconvert XAVC and resize it for various platforms and uses.

Bison Bud

Thanks for the software suggestions! I'll be looking into all of them and have already downloaded "VLCMediaplayer" to try it out.

garyposs Loc: Canyon Lake, Texas

Depending on the project, I use the following video editors. Each has it's features, ease of use, cost, etc.

Some are easier - some are more versatile. All work well.

Openshot - https://www.openshot.org/

Movavi - https://www.movavi.com/

Cyberlink PowerDirector - https://www.cyberlink.com/index_en_US.html

Corel Video Studio Pro - https://www.videostudiopro.com/en/

NCH VideoPad - https://www.nchsoftware.com/

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I tend to use .mov. Most of what I record is 4K at 30 FPS or 24 FPS and 100 Mbps.

I have never heard of XAVC S-4K or XAVC S HD. The new cameras have pages and pages and pages of options in their menus. H.264 and H.265 are the most common standards, with Apple ProRes becoming more popular for its smooth editability.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

I think I read up on this topic a few years ago and at that time I decided AVCHD was best. The trouble was, my Blue-ray player could not play those. I've stuck with the MP-4 option since then. So my advice is to try out some test videos and try to play them as you intend to use them to see the results.

By the way, I use Corel's Video Studio for editing video and I've had mostly good experiences with it. It can probably read any video format you record with and convert to most other options.

Bison Bud

I have installed the VLC Media Player on my photo laptop and after using it for a couple days I've found it to be pretty good (far superior to Window Media Player). However, it still won't play the XAVC S-4k videos I shot previously and hoped to be able to view. It tries to play them because the audio runs fine, but the video stays locked on the opening scene and I'm not sure why. The XAVC S-HD videos do play, but with a jerky, non-continuous flow which makes me think the problem is my old computer (possibly a memory or speed issue). However, on a bright note, I was able to convert the videos I could previously only watch on my new/used camera to another format with the program's convert and save feature and I am now able to view them on my computer and TV as well. It takes quite awhile to convert one, but it did a nice job and I am pleased that I can now view these videos on multiple devices, but it appears that when shooting I will be sticking with the AVCHD format and I guess I can live with that for now.

On another note, does anyone using VLC Media Player know how to select it as my primary Media Player, so I can bypass Windows Media Player entirely? It would be nice to click on a file and have it come up in VLC rather than Windows, but I can't seem to figure out how to do that just yet.

Anyway, I guess it's on to editing software now and I really appreciate all the recommendations and information provided here. I've got a lot to learn about digital video and my primary interest is in stills photography anyway, but I am going to try to teach this old dog some new tricks and appreciate your input. Good luck and good shooting to all.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

It sounds to me that your computer is too slow to play the files. XAVS-C files are like 50MB/s, which puts a lot of demand on your graphics card.

To default to VLC right click on a file and choose "choose another app". From the context menu choose VLC and check the "always use this app" checkbox at the bottom.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

That was my first thought, too. Video from recent devices is pretty "data dense," requiring either substantial processor resources, fast graphics cards, or hardware decoders, or all three, plus lots of memory.

A good, free, cross-platform "down-sampling" application is HandBrake. It is open source and can make smaller files from big ones. I've used it for years, although less and less as processors have improved.

For Mac users, the procedure to set a different default application is similar. Highlight the file, press Command+I, choose "Open With," and pick an application. Then click "Change All." You can set the app to anything that will open your file. This works for all Mac files that can be opened with more than one application.

Bison Bud

Yeah, I agree that it's probably a speed problem with my older computer. At least VLC tries to play the files, where Windows Media Player just comes up with a message saying it can't play them.

Also appreciate the info. on how to default to VLC. You've been very helpful indeed!

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

That surely is the problem in some cases. However another possibility is that the software you are using to play the video just does not support the latest formats. New ones seem to come out pretty frequently.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

XAVC has been around for years