Mini-DVD camcorder survey ¡V please contribute

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:37 am

Clevo,
The topic is for the camcorders that record direct to mpeg2 format. Your cam is a dv cam which doesn't have this problem.

Subject of thread:
Mini-DVD camcorder survey ¡V please contribute

I think you can delete your post but it's good to mention you don't have a problem working with the dv format (tape based camcorder).

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:55 am

Jerry,

I now convert my standard definition DVD camcorder MPEGs to DV .avi using the DV codec in a competing program (which I won't name, but which features an amazingly effective DVD-to-DV transcode), then I edit.

Same here (sometimes convert mpeg2 encoded at a high bit rate to dv.avi). I've always felt that ulead seemed to be under sampling the mpeg2 file, but you say ulead is reading the avchd file and converting it to cineform correctly? That's good, then why not so good with a dv conversion., must be in the dv compressor that ulead is using..

petgray · Post by **petgray** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:21 pm

Obviously this is a complex issue but I'm wondering whether a common factor which at least some people have is that the audio produced by their camcorders is 5.1 channel. It seems like people with 5.1 channel audio are more likely to have this problem whereas people with 2-channel audio aren't. I can't test this theory right now because I don't have the camera with me, but when I get my hands on it I will try changing the audio output to 2-channel Dolby (if possible). I don't need 5.1 channel audio, but that was the factory setting on the camcorder and I generally don't change factory settings unless I have to.

Jerry Jones · Post by **Jerry Jones** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:49 pm

Corel (Ulead) VideoStudio 11 Plus does seem to be converting AVCHD to Cineform correctly.

However, the Cineform "Neo HDV" codec download includes a Cineform software program called "HDLink."

"HDLink" can convert HDV MPEG-2 and AVCHD to Cineform .avi.

However, to get "HDLink" to work, you must have an AVCHD decoder both installed *and* working as a DirectShow filter so that AVCHD can play in Windows Media Player.

So -- to achieve this -- I paid $39.95 for the CyberLink "HD264" plug-in for Microsoft Windows Media Player.

I installed the plug-in.

At first, I couldn't play any AVCHD files in Microsoft Windows Media Player and I couldn't get "HDLink" to see the CyberLink decoder.

The reason for this is that -- on my computer system -- I had many months ago installed the InterVideo "DVDXPack" -- a plug-in that enables DVD playback in Microsoft Windows Media Player.

This old InterVideo "DVDXPack" decoder was getting in the way.

I learned this was the case by downloading that free Microsoft utility called "GraphEdit."

The "GraphEdit" interface allows you to import an AVCHD file and then the interface paints a DirectShow "flow chart."

This "flow chart" is a visual representation of how one's media files are handled by the DirectShow filters on one's computer.

In my case, even though I had never used GraphEdit before, I quickly learned from the flow chart that it presented to me that my demuxer was feeding data from my AVCHD files -- incorrectly -- to my old InterVideo DVDXPack for decoding.

This was the reason AVCHD files were not playing in Microsoft Windows Media Player on my system in spite of the CyberLink "HD264" plug-in.

So now I understood the problem and I next had to figure out how to solve it.

So I downloaded another free utility from www.softella.com.

This utility is called "DirectShow Filter Manager."

You don't have to install it; you can just open it on your desktop and it will list all of the DirectShow filters on your computer.

More important, it will allow you to assign priority to these filters.

Here was my solution.

I lowered the priority of the old InterVideo "DVDXPack" plug-in.

I elevated the priority of the CyberLink "HD264" plug-in.

Then I tested playback of my AVCHD files using Windows Media Player.

Now they worked!

This was a victory.

Because once you have AVCHD playback working in Windows Media Player, you should be able to use Cineform's "HDLink" to do your AVCHD-To-Cineform .AVI conversions.

I opened "HDLink" and gave it try.

JACKPOT!

It now worked like a charm and my conversions in "HDLink" seem to be faster than if I use the Corel applications to do the conversions.

As for Corel's standard definition MPEG-2 to DV .avi conversions, I believe there is either a problem with the Microsoft DV codec (which the Corel applications use) *or* there's a problem in the rendering engines of the Corel applications themselves.

So I use a competing application for all standard definition MPEG-2 to DV .avi conversions.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net

etech6355 wrote:I've always felt that ulead seemed to be under sampling the mpeg2 file, but you say ulead is reading the avchd file and converting it to cineform correctly? That's good, then why not so good with a dv conversion., must be in the dv compressor that ulead is using..

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:21 pm

Jerry,
Thanks for the workflow, I was starting to get the impression you were using VS11+ to convert the avchd to cineform.
So your using the HDLink to read the avchd files (via the directshow filter & H264 plugin) & convert them to cineform.
Then you can use the Cineform videos in VS.
Sounds like I got this correct now, thanks.
My conversions in VS11+ trial (when using it) from avchd to any format was sort of bla.
You know I've re-sampled the cineform codec many times on the same project, using cineform as the source & target (using other software for editing). The resultant HighDef mpeg2 file after multiple re-renders of the cineform videos is still excellent.

Jerry Jones · Post by **Jerry Jones** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:30 am

Well, I do... sometimes.

I've compared the results of the Corel VideoStudio 11 Plus AVCHD-To-Cineform transcodes with the Cineform HDLink AVCHD-To-Cineform transcodes and I can see no difference.

I use the HDLink application most of the time.

But there are times when Corel VideoStudio 11 Plus comes in handy.

For example, I wanted to find out if I could mix HD video from a Sanyo VPC-HD2 (720p) with HD video from my Sony HDR-UX1 (1080i) in the same timeline.

So I used Corel VideoStudio 11 Plus to convert the Sanyo VPC-HD2 .MP4 files to Cineform .avi format.

The Cineform HDLink application does not recognize the .MP4 file extension.

So after converting both the Sony and Sanyo videos to Cineform .avis, I inserted them into the timeline and did some intercutting to see how it would look.

I was surprised by how good it looked.

Yes, the Sony has higher resolution and image quality, but the Sanyo has improved enough for bright light shooting that it's possible to intercut the video from the two.

It was an interesting experiment.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net

etech6355 wrote:I was starting to get the impression you were using VS11+ to convert the avchd to cineform.