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Introduction
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01.Product Tour
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02.Colour & Noise Performance
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03.Motion & Sharpness Performance
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04.Low Light Performance
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05.Compression & Media
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06.Manual Controls
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07.Still Features
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08.Handling & Use
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09.Playback & Connectivity
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10.Audio & Other Features
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11.Panasonic HDC-HS60 Comparison
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12.JVC GZ-HD620 Comparison
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13.Canon HF S21 Comparison
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14.Conclusion
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15.Specs and Ratings
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16.Comments
Canon Legria HF M31
Previous: Part 4
Low Light PerformanceNext: Part 6
Manual Controls
Compression & Media Summary
Compression (7.5)
The Canon HF M31 uses AVCHD compression, which is based on the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec. AVCHD is the standard compression system for consumer HD camcorders and it is currently used by nearly all manufacturers (except Samsung and Sanyo). Read more about the advantages and disadvantages of AVCHD.
The camcorder has a number of quality settings for recording HD video, but it does not have a standard definition record mode. Both of the camcorder's frame rates (50i, PF25) can be used for recording with each quality setting. We must note that the PF25 frame rate is not recorded natively. Recordings made using those frame rates are converted by the camcorder and recorded onto memory as 50i.
| Format | Resolution | Bitrate | Codec |
| MXP | 1920 x 1080 | 24Mbps | MPEG4-AVC/H.264 (AVCHD) |
| FXP | 1920 x 1080 | 17Mbps | MPEG4-AVC/H.264 (AVCHD) |
| XP+ | 1440 x 1080 | 12Mbps | MPEG4-AVC/H.264 (AVCHD) |
| SP | 1440 x 1080 | 7Mbps | MPEG4-AVC/H.264 (AVCHD) |
| LP | 1440 x 1080 | 5Mbps | MPEG4-AVC/H.264 (AVCHD) |
Media (8.77)
The Canon HF M31 contains 32GB of internal flash memory along with a card slot that fits SD/SDHC memory cards. 32GB is good amount of memory for a mid-range HD camcorder to have, although there are a number of high-end models loaded with 64GB of flash memory or more. Read more about the advantages and disadvantages of flash memory here.
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| The camcorder can record to SD/SDHC cards as well as its internal memory. |
Recording at the M31's highest quality setting should allow you to capture close to three hours of video onto the camcorder's 32GB of internal flash memory. This really isn't that much in the whole scheme of things, so make sure you have a good plan for backing up your footage to some sort of storage device.
| MXP (24Mbps) |
FXP (17Mbps) |
XP+ (12Mbps) |
SP (7Mbps) |
LP (5Mbps) |
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| 4GB Memory Card | 20 min | 30 min | 40 min | 1 hour 10 min | 1 hour 30 min |
| 8GB Memory Card | 40 min | 1 hour | 1 hour 25 min | 2 hours 20 min | 3 hours |
| 16GB Memory Card | 1 hour 25 min | 2 hours 5 min | 2 hours 50 min | 4 hours 45 min | 6 hours 5 min |
| 32GB Internal Flash Memory | 2 hours 55 min | 4 hours 10 min | 5 hours 45 min | 9 hours 35 min | 12 hours 15 min |
Editing (7.0)
The Canon HF M31 ships with Pixela ImageMixer 3SE Video Editing software—the same software that comes with the HF S21 and a number of Canon camcorders from last year. For an overview of the software that ships with the Canon HF M31 and other Canon camcorders, see our article: "Video Editing Software For Your Camcorder"
| Canon HF M31 Comparisons | ||
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| Panasonic HDC-HS60 | JVC GZ-HD620 | Canon HF S21 |
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