Can't Get Good AVCHD Burn - VS 11.5+

pablops · Post by **pablops** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:57 pm

I have been trying for a couple of days to get a good burn to AVCHD.

[I tried a "Blu-Ray" burn but it doesn't let me do that - I think it said something about the hardware which I suspect is that the choices are either 25 GB or 50 GB and I don't have a disk with such capacity (and my burner probalby wouldn't handle it, either, I suspect).]

So I selected "AVCHD" for the burn, and "AVCHD4.7G" for the disc capacity. But there are two problems:

1 - No matter how I try to burn the disk I can't get one that will actually play in my Blu-Ray player (Sony). I've played around with settings a little, and tried burning a video file first and then to disc, but no success yet. I did seem to get one that played, without correct audio (see next ietm), but it didn't burn the whole project.

2 - No matter what kind of disk I try to burn, only the original camera sound track will show up (I tried burning a standard DVD for example, and it had only the original soundtrack - although the video seemed OK). I have added a narration and CD BG music track and neither seems to come over into the burn although they play back just fine as edited in the project.

[I have been able to successfully get a good HD-DVD burned for a past project (although never tried adding any sound), but can't get something for AVCHD. I did try a 2 minute segment before I did all the editing to see if AVCHD worked and it seemed fine, but now that I'm doing the whole project (about 23 mins.) I can't seem to find anything that works. ]

Here are the technical particulars (hope I'm including everything that should be listed):

Version: ULead V/S 11.5.0157.2 Plus, Ulead Dolby Digital PowerPack 1.0
Installed: Upgrade PowerPack on 1/3/2008
Video: From Sony SR1 AVCHD camera - shot in highest video mode
and Dolby 5.1 Audio Mode
Computer: Dell XPS410 Multimedia

PROJECT PROPERTIES:
--------------------------
NTSC drop frame (29.97 fps)
MPEG files
24 bits, 1440 x 1080, 29.97 fps
Upper Field First
(MPEG-2), 16:9
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 18000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 224 kbps
MPEG audio layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo

Hmmm - I'm trying to post in some images of my other settings, but can't find a way to do that. How do I insert or attach images?

pablops · Post by **pablops** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:52 pm

Would appreciate it if someone would respond with how to add the images of my settings to this post. I couldn't find a way to do so but I've seen them in so many other messages that there is obviously some way to do it. Thanks.

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:59 pm

Please have a look at this thread for instructions on how to add images..

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/faq.php?mode=bbcode#9

When you are posting, look to the left side under Options. The "BBCode" is a hyperlink to the FAQ about various bulletin board codes..

pablops · Post by **pablops** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:38 am

OK - Here are the images showing my settings:

If someone can help me get an AVCHD burn I'd sure appreciate it. Thanks.

pablops · Post by **pablops** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 7:24 pm

Hmmm - Am I the only one here trying to burn AVCHD discs?

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:28 pm

Hi,
What make is your dvd burner and are you using DVD-R DVD's?

Under the GEAR Icon you should have "Do Not convert compliant files" and "XDisc" checked ON.
It looks like your "XDisc" is greyed out, I wonder why.
When you installed VS11+ did you also install the first patch and then the HD-Add-On pack?
Both patches are important to install, first the 1st patch, then the HD pack (not the HotFix pack, you don't need it).
Also you should install the latest Directx 9.0C dated November 2007 or later for XP or Vista.

What sony blu-ray player are you using?
Are you using the latest firmware update for your Sony Blu-Ray player?

You posted making a HD-DVD, they only play in the Toshiba HD-DVD players. HD-DVD players will not play an AVCHD disk.

You should easily be able to make an AVCHD disk that plays in the Sony Blu-Ray disk players.

Provided you have installed the above patches & latest Directx (and rebooted)

Start a blank VS11+ project and go directly to "Share -> Create Disk -> AVCHD Disk.
Under the GEAR Icon make sure "Do Not Convert Compliant Video" is checked ON.
Insert your compliant avc/h264 videos files (non-edited) into the burning module, then burn a dvd without any background audio or menu transitions..

In the burning stage you should not see "Converting Video 1 of 1" (re-encoding), just a quick menu compilation and then "Multi-Plexing" and starting of burning the avchd disk. You can't read these disks under XP, you can read them running Vista.

Maybe your simply not getting a good burn and the avchd dvd's are bad, could be a dvd compatibility issue with your burner or your Blu-Ray Disk player..
I would use DVD-R dvd's first to eliminate any compatibility problems..

I'm still curious why your XDisc feature is greyed out. Unless it's just a bad screenshot, or when the top selection "Do Not Convert Compliant"
is NOT checked ON then the XDisc becomes greyed out (I think I just answered my own question

) That's probably why,
the top selection "Do Not Convert" is always ON for my projects.

Also if your source videos are High Quality and they do need to be re-encoded then I would use CBR (Constant Bit Rate) either 15MBS or 16MBS.
The VBR (Variable Bit Rate) setting of 18MBS actually ends up at apprx 12MBS (this is normal for this encoder). If you do use VBR then I also would only use 2 pass encoding on source videos that use frame accurate compression (ex: DV.AVI type-1/2, hdcineform.avi files), even at that I've only been using single pass and the videos like fine.

Check to see if there's also any other software that may interfere with burning the dvd, like other packet writing software (Roxio Drag2Disk etc).

Hope this helps

pablops · Post by **pablops** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:58 pm

Thanks for the reply. I finally gave up and went through tech support. I've answered some of your questions below and appreciate the input which will help in the future. (I've delinked the images above which showed my settings since this is no longer an issue.)

Turns out that my primary probem is that the Panasonic (I thought it was Sony but not so) Blu-Ray player would hang when "Create Menu" was checked, and if I unchecked that it would then play OK. The tech support person I talked to says that he had another incident just the previous day on the same thing (Panasonic player), so this may be something that Panasonic needs to update in their software; thankfully the player is supposed to have that capability. Or maybe its something that Ulead will need to have updated, for that matter.

I've pasted in your post and answered a few questions:
-----------------------------

What make is your dvd burner and are you using DVD-R DVD's? It's a Samsung I bought on the internet for $40 which has the capacity to burn HD discs. The ones that Dell provided with the machine (they sent me 3 diff. ones) wouldn't do it even though they ostensibly they could.

Under the GEAR Icon you should have "Do Not convert compliant files" and "XDisc" checked ON.
It looks like your "XDisc" is greyed out, I wonder why. I don't know either.
When you installed VS11+ did you also install the first patch and then the HD-Add-On pack? Yes.
Both patches are important to install, first the 1st patch, then the HD pack (not the HotFix pack, you don't need it). I'm not sure in what order I did those, on this question.
Also you should install the latest Directx 9.0C dated November 2007 or later for XP or Vista. I noted that in some of the other posts, so downloaded the 9c DirectX but haven't put it in yet; since the problem was the "Menu" thing that didn't end up affecting my getting a successful burn, but I do have to install it to get rid of the crash when you try to do "auto chapters."

What sony blu-ray player are you using?
Are you using the latest firmware update for your Sony Blu-Ray player?
I was mistaken - when I looked at my player it was a Panasonic that I got at Costco. I haven't checked to see if they have any firmware updates.

You posted making a HD-DVD, they only play in the Toshiba HD-DVD players. HD-DVD players will not play an AVCHD disk. I'm aware of that; I have both a Blu-Ray (Panasonic) and an HD-DVD (Toshiba).

You should easily be able to make an AVCHD disk that plays in the Sony Blu-Ray disk players. Well that's what I thought, originally.

Provided you have installed the above patches & latest Directx (and rebooted)

Start a blank VS11+ project and go directly to "Share -> Create Disk -> AVCHD Disk.
Under the GEAR Icon make sure "Do Not Convert Compliant Video" is checked ON.
Insert your compliant avc/h264 videos files (non-edited) into the burning module, then burn a dvd without any background audio or menu transitions..

In the burning stage you should not see "Converting Video 1 of 1" (re-encoding), just a quick menu compilation and then "Multi-Plexing" and starting of burning the avchd disk. You can't read these disks under XP, you can read them running Vista.

Maybe your simply not getting a good burn and the avchd dvd's are bad, could be a dvd compatibility issue with your burner or your Blu-Ray Disk player..
I would use DVD-R dvd's first to eliminate any compatibility problems..
As mentioned above, the problem turned out to be "Menu" creation on this Panasoic Blu-Ray player.

I'm still curious why your XDisc feature is greyed out. Unless it's just a bad screenshot, or when the top selection "Do Not Convert Compliant"
is NOT checked ON then the XDisc becomes greyed out (I think I just answered my own question ) That's probably why,
the top selection "Do Not Convert" is always ON for my projects. Thanks - I've taken note of this setting for the future.

Also if your source videos are High Quality and they do need to be re-encoded then I would use CBR (Constant Bit Rate) either 15MBS or 16MBS. They were the highest the Sony SR1 settings would allow, so I think they are "High Quality" by that definition.
The VBR (Variable Bit Rate) setting of 18MBS actually ends up at apprx 12MBS (this is normal for this encoder). If you do use VBR then I also would not use 2 pass encoding unless the source video is other than[//b]avc/h264 like hd-mpeg2, even at that I've only been using single pass and the videos like fine. I tried playing with this earlier, but in later attempts just took the defaults.

Check to see if there's also any other software that may interfere with burning the dvd, like other packet writing software (Roxio Drag2Disk etc).
(In my case nothing else was running; I shut off "default" and "automatic" loading of nearly everything I can on my machines.)

-----------------------------

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply. Good pointers, and I'm saving the information for future projects.