AVC-HD versus HDV editing in X2 Pro

[pwholzel]

.. which is where I am! But I can't report yet on whether there is any visible quality loss but wouod be grateful for others experience.

I can confirm no noticable quality loss - I convert AVCHD footing from an SD card (HF100) to HD (using Upshift - highest setting) - edit and record an AVCHD disk (CBR 18000). To test that I also used two scenes which were not converted (I did not use transitions to avoid glitches) and recorded 42 minutes on a single layer disk - it worked perfectly . The quality is excellent, however, I must admit that I can just notice slight loss of contrast (I'm a purist, but I'm happy with the result).

hope it helps,

Hi Przemek, when you say "highest setting" with Upshift, are you using 60 mbps? I tried it, then edited in VSX2, and rendered to AVCHD, but it stutters on playback.

[mitchell65]

I have just read through this thread with great interest if a bit confused! I have a Canon HG10 which saves to MTS files. I edit those direct in VS Pro x2 and then burn a standard DVD without problems. That's fine for now but in the future I anticipate burning to HD and or Blue Ray. I thought I would try to save to a AVCHD file but after rendering the resultant mpg file will not playback in any player, in fact it crashes them. Should I really be converting the original MTS files to MPEG as a standard practice? If so which option in the Save file as box should I choose for best rsults?

[mitchell65]

Sorry nearly posted the same post twice

[Przemek]

Hi Przemek, when you say "highest setting" with Upshift, are you using 60 mbps? I tried it, then edited in VSX2, and rendered to AVCHD, but it stutters on playback.

Yes, I use 60mbps and do not change any other default settings. I get no stutters or glitches. I'm pretty sure that your problems are related to X2 and not Upshift. Make sure that you get proper settings in X2 (burning module) - check the original ones (right click on the clip on the timeline). Try few other other things as well:
- If the camera is NTSC - create an AVCHD disk in NTSC (PAL in PAL)
- update DirectX !
- make the November update to X2,
- if the above don't help make a clean install of Windows.
- if nothing helps - post the settings from the Burning Module

Przemek

[qtrim]

So, is the only benefit of converting to HDV first just the smoothness of editing in VSX2?

I'm using VSX2 to edit AVCHD files (720p and 1080p from Sanyo and DXG camcorders) and I have no problems at all. Granted, the rendered file in 1920x1080 AVCHD does not play back in the VS preview window smoothly, but it plays fine on my PS3 and my PC using VLC media player.

In March I upgraded the guts of my computer, for $417 (detailed below), so that probably helps. That fact that VSX2 uses a proxy I think helps too.

ASUS P5QL PRO - $87
Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB - $54
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 - $276
Total = $417

[Ken Berry]

From my point of view, that's about it. However, there is one more thing -- HDV does not produce the same glitches around transitions that occur in edited AVCHD. Otherwise I too find that AVCHD produced on my computer and played either directly (from the networked computer or US stick or external hard drive formatted in FAT32) via my PS3 onto my HDTV or even in the form of AVCHD hybrid discs (burned from HDV) play perfectly (and with no blips) on my PS3.

[PeterMilliken]

FWIW guys, Jerry Jones has been "playing" with mechanisms to edit AVCHD files and has recently posted his "solution" (which may or may not change as it if very, very recent! ) in the MSP forums. I have verified the tool (and bow to his greater knowledge re the quality of the conversion ). Since it is spread over several posts, I will summarise it (the way I understand it ):

He has decided to use Cineform's Neoscene product (I believe he actually uses their NeoHD - which is much more expensive, but AFAIK the cheaper Neoscene product is doing the job for me) to convert from .m2ts (I use a Panasonic TM200-K - which has .mts AVCHD files) to .avi then imports the .avi files into his editor of choice i.e. MSP 8, Magix ME Pro 14 etc (the MSP forum is becoming a 50/50 split of MSP and Magix ME Pro these days as many users realise that MSP 8 is dead in the water and have found Magix ME Pro a viable alternative). You can set Neoscene for batch convert - so it appears quite convenient to use.

The downside is that it is $129 US from their web-site, not sure if you can pick it up more cheaply elsewhere - probably, since Jerry mentions paying $320 for their NeoHD - which is listed as $499 on the web-site.

His main aim appeared to be finding a way to edit his AVCHD files on a "slower" laptop computer - which is what my aim is as well

You can download Neoscene as a trial - IF YOUR INSTALLATION DOES NOT TELL YOU OF A MISSING AC3 filter then it is has probably detected a filter from one of your other editing products and used that - Jerry stubbed his toe on this one, Cineform products seem to need an AC3 filter from http://ac3filter.net/projects/ac3filter to work properly. So make sure you have that filter installed - it is freeware.

So for those of you experiencing problems with editing AVCHD files this *may* be a viable solution (although I am not that impressed with having to fork out another $129 UD!) But after experiencing the convenience of recording directly to SD cards and then copying the files directly to my computer - like an earlier poster in this thread, I will never go back to tape units

Peter