R600: MXP or FXP

[Lobalobo]

Just purchased an R600 camcorder (consumer entry level). Shooting AVCHD there is a choice between MXP and FXP.  I understand that the tradeoff is between quality and file size and that storage is cheap, but I wonder whether it makes sense for shoot at the higher bit rate if I'm unlikely to burn Blu Ray disks and would just like high quality YouTube posts to share with family.  (My son's piano recital, e.g., is next event to be recorded.) The cost of the larger file to me is transfer time and sluggishness in editing, or maybe even that is not a concern.  Advice is welcome.  Thanks in advance.

[Mykolas]

Hi Lobalobo!

Thanks for posting.

If you only intend to upload these to YouTube or other web services, shooting in FXP is just fine.  It will keep the files sizes slightly smaller, making it easier to edit and upload and the quality is still great.

[VideoGeek]

If storage is not an issue and the editing software can handle the file without being sluggish I would shoot at the highest resolution possible.  Downconverting the video, to me, is the better option as upconverting the video to a higher resolution is not practical. I'm not convinced that it is even possible since the additional file information is simply not there.  This may result in a higher quality video even when it is exported as something other than a Blu-ray file.  I would only shoot with a smaller file size if I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I would never want or need the higher quality video.  I'm not saying the FXP quality wouldn't be good enough for what you want to do.