Who is editing AVCHD? (computer specs?)

Robert Smith wrote on 9/24/2009, 1:51 PM
I have seen a couple of people speak up but in the midst of my transition, I am a bit concerned.

Are many of you editing AVCHD on PC?
And if so, What is your machine like?
Are you doing multicam or just one track?

i understand that different cameras use it differently, what brand and/or model are you using?

Thanks for the input
Rob

Comments

Jim H wrote on 9/24/2009, 2:31 PM
I'm using AVCHD UpShift. It's simple and fast and I don't see any down side.
wikksmith wrote on 9/24/2009, 3:23 PM
I've had no trouble importing AVCHD files directly to Vegas Pro 9.0b from a Canon HF-10 and editing with a quad core (Q9550, 2.8 GHz), EVGA 9800GT (1GB), 4GB RAM, XT Pro 32-bit.

The problem is how best to render it for burning to DVD media: interlaced or progressive? frame size?, bit rate? format?
srode wrote on 9/24/2009, 3:48 PM
No problem editting from my Sony SR11 to any format - Q6600 at 3.33Ghz, 8GB RAM, XP64 and Veg 9b
ushere wrote on 9/24/2009, 3:54 PM
no prob on i7/64 6gb - but to make sure i don't have any, i always convert to mxf. better safe than sorry.
DGates wrote on 9/24/2009, 4:46 PM
I have a new quad core and AVCHD will edit decent on it (much better than my Core 2 Duo HP). The footage by itself will edit ok as long as I don't put any filters on it. That's why I still prefer to transcode because AVCHD is just too quirky to be relied on for all the things I'm going to throw at the footage (filters, slo-mo effects, etc)

Acer Core 2 Quad 2.66
Vista 64
8 DDR3 Ram
Nvidia GeForce GT230


othersteve wrote on 9/24/2009, 5:54 PM
Editing AVCHD 1920x1080 17Mbps from a Canon HF-S100 on:

Dell M1330 Laptop
Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit RTM
Core 2 Duo T8600 2.4 GHz
Intel X3100 Integrated Graphics
7200 RPM Hard Drive
8 GB RAM

Honest to God, it's easy as heck and pretty much problem-free. I even leave Vegas 32 and 64-bit open at all times along with Photoshop CS4, Batch Image Processor, DVD Architect Pro, CuteFTP Professional, Firefox w/ 20+ tabs, and a number of other programs with no slowdown whatsoever.

I'm not kidding. Been a computer tech for a very long time now... and everything other than CPU and RAM specs are practically unimportant when editing AVCHD. Hard Drive speed matters too, of course, but video cards really mean very little. And even my processor is more than powerful enough to handle it; I just get fairly choppy previews here and there. No biggie.

Steve
warriorking wrote on 9/24/2009, 6:38 PM
No problems on my end as well, I7Core 920, 12Gig DDR3, EVGA 295GTX, 2-Blu-ray Burners, 3-1TB 7200 32Mb Cache Hds...
Do lots of editing from My HG21 and HG10 Canon Camcorders, use Neoscene to convert my AVCHD footage when doing multi camera work, makes for smoother workflow while editing over raw AVCHD footage....
TeetimeNC wrote on 9/24/2009, 9:25 PM
I just finished a 10 minute project built from about 3 hours of footage. I used the media library extensively for organizing my footage. I have the main veg and 2 nested vegs, and in places have up to 10 tracks of footage. There are several places in the video where I have 4 tracks on screen at a time. It took 46 minutes to render the project. Previewing during editing was sometimes tedius, but not that bad. For simple projects I definitely stay in AVCHD, but for more complex ones I will probably go to MXF if it smooths out the editing multi-track editing.

I am running Vegas 9.0b 64 bit on Vista. During this project I kept three Vegas instances up most of the time, and at times also had After Effects running to stabilize footage, and Photoshop for some image work. I had one crash during this multi-day project: Protitler causes a crash if you are scrolling through the fonts and it encounters a bad font. But other than that, I'm having no problems. I had lots of problems with 9.0a.

My computer is an i7 940 with 6 GB DDR3. I shoot with a Panasonic HMC150.

Jerry
wikksmith wrote on 9/25/2009, 6:13 AM
Is anyone rendering AVCHD to Blu-ray (or any other high def format) and buring to DVD media? Do I need to udgrade to a Blu-ray burner to get anything more than 720x480 resolution out of my AVCHD files?
UlfLaursen wrote on 9/25/2009, 6:28 AM
Hi Jerry

Do you use Vegas to convert to MXF - just as a timeline export of all clips?

Thanks

/Ulf
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 9/25/2009, 12:49 PM
Howdy,

Don't know if you are aware, but VASST released a new training DVD for AVCHD ( Mailer came last night ). I am willing to bet that the DVD would be able to help you out in general with stuff about it.

Certainly worth having a look - it's the second DVD down on the list.

Dave
MTuggy wrote on 9/25/2009, 6:58 PM
I am editing AVCHD files native in Vegas without converting them. I have rendered them out to Blu-Ray (25mbps stream) and the video looks great. Not convinced that the time it takes to convert the files to an avi intermediate files is worth it, even though the playback in the preview window MIGHT be a little smoother.

I do burn short (<15 min) Blu-ray (m2v) videos to regular DVD discs and it works just fine. No hiccups with DVD Architect so far.

So far so good. Blu-ray is orgasmic...

Mike
wikksmith wrote on 9/25/2009, 8:23 PM
MTuggy: re Blu-ray on DVD media,
What are your project settings?
Your DVD Arch. settings?
DVD -R or +R?
Playback on DVD up converting player or Blu-ray player?
Thanks wikksmith
reberclark wrote on 9/25/2009, 8:30 PM
Howdy,

I'm thinking of buying Spot's DVD on this. Anybody seen it? I bought his Vegas 8 book and it was GREAT.
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 9/26/2009, 12:41 AM
haven't got my hands on it yet, but if you check their vimeo page and the product page, you should be able to get your hands on a couple of excerpts that give you input. (dunno if it's up on the youtube page)

I do various work for these guys so I'm probably a little biased, but for 40 bux I can't see a real downside.

Dave
UlfLaursen wrote on 9/26/2009, 9:29 AM
I have several of Spot's DVD's and they are all very well done He is an excellent teacher and knows tons of stuff reg. videoproduction..

I am for sure going to order this one too.

/Ulf
TeetimeNC wrote on 9/26/2009, 1:53 PM
Ulf, so far I have edited straight AVCHD, but if I am going to transcode I'll be trying MXF. I think I will use Production Assistant to do a batch conversion.

Actually now that I think about it, I did transcode my first large AVCHD project because I had to deliver it as raw footage to someone that didn't want to use AVCHD. In that case I placed all the AVCHD on the timeline, made each clip a region, and used the free batch conversion script to render the regions to Cineform AVI (using Vegas 8.0). I'm on 9.0b now.

Jerry
UlfLaursen wrote on 9/27/2009, 7:43 AM
Thanks Jerry - I think to get PA too :-)

/Ulf
MozartMan wrote on 9/27/2009, 1:33 PM
wikksmith wrote:
================================
RE: Blu-ray on DVD media,
================================

Hi wikksmith,

I will try to answer your question.

I use AVCHD to Blu-ray and burn to DVD media. But I DON'T (re-)render my footage, I don't have to. It is compatible with Blu-ray directly out of AVCHD camera (at least from my Sony HDR-XR500V, which makes beautiful videos and the best consumer cam of 2009 for low light conditions).
If you have AVCHD camcorder, DVD burner, and Blu-ray player (yes, you do need BD player to play your AVCHD video in high definition) you are all set. And you can author BD5/9 (AVCHD on DVD) with all free tools.

Tools I use for process without any editing:

1. Camcorder, USB cable to copy files to PC.
2. multiAVCHD
3. ImgBurn and DVD burner and DVD+R or DVD+R DL disk.

I also use Paint Shop Pro to make custom menus for multiAVCHD.

If you need to edit your videos then you will need to use Vegas. Vegas 9, as far as I heard, suppose to "smart" render AVCHD (from Sony AVCHD camcorders).
wikksmith wrote on 9/29/2009, 1:10 PM
Thanks for the info.
wikksmith
Chris N wrote on 9/29/2009, 9:33 PM
My setup is
I7 920 processor, 6GB Ram, Windows Vista 64 (soon to be windows7)

Editing the timeline is no problem with the MTS files, nor is the trimmer a problem. I had issues with Vegas 8(same computer) but 9 64bit is fairly stable. There are some problems with a minor timelag in the preview. Rendering is fine and fairly quick. I do dual cam editing and this does not appear to make any difference in speed.

My only issue is that Vegas does not read the timecode associated with my Panasonic AVCHD footage. (HMC 150). I have contacted support on this issue, but I don't think there is a current solution.
rendernow wrote on 9/30/2009, 9:44 AM
i7 920@3.8 GHz, 6 GB DDR3 RAM, Radeon X1650, Windows 7 Enterprise Trial and Vegas 9.0b. Like Chris N said, it seems as if preview needs to get up to speed, but it eventually runs smoothly. Add effects/transitions and it starts to stutter :-(

Raz
Jeff9329 wrote on 9/30/2009, 11:14 AM
Camera: HMC-150 1080P30 24Mbps

PC: Q9650 on XP SP3

Vegas 8.0c

Editing natively, no problems at all for wedding and event shoots. All shoots are two or 3 camera. Sometimes mix in HDV footage off a XH-A1 with no problem either. Im doing so well Im not fixing what isnt broke until 9.0c comes out.

hazydave wrote on 10/10/2009, 1:41 AM
I have done both native editing and transcoded editing, from two different AVC camcorders (a Hitachi AVCHD Blu-Ray model and the Sanyo VPC-FH1, which uses MPEG-4 rather than MPEG-2 transport streams, but has similar issues).

Transcoding is a good idea, even with HDV files, if you have lots of editing to do. A couple of weeks ago I was scanning through hours and hours of soccer footage for highlights to use in a 20 minute video. If the video can't keep up with my jog shuttle, that's a problem, so Cineform was a good idea (maybe MXF would work as fast,. I dunno).

For the Hitachi, I did several projects with direct AVC editing, and it worked fine, if a bit slower than I'd like. Certainly, if there's not much editing to do, transcoding is probably not worth the time, no matter what.

I had been transcoding all of my Sanyo 1080/60p video, based largely on the fact it crashes Vegas, a bit also based on the idea that it should be about twice as slow as 1080/60i when it comes to editing response. I recently discovered that the crashing is not due to 1080/60p video per se, but something in the Sanyo MP4 structure (could be every clip seems to start with a negative timecode, I don't know).. if you re-mux the video, and correct for the negative timecode, Vegas handles the direct MP4 files just dandy.. if slow.

I have a Q9550-based PC, 4GB DRAM, nVidia 9800GT graphics board, etc. So, not an i7, but not a slower machine, either.

Another issue comes along when you're editing complex layers of Cineform or lossless HD (which I have used in a few short music videos).. hard drive speed becomes a significant factor. Cineform transcoded from 1080/60p MP4 comes out at around 28MB/s (that's 100GB per hour), which is a significant bit of data to stream from a hard drive. Now consider a few channels of that all at once, and you can see where this becomes a problem. The demands would be half of that, or less, for 1080/60i-30p-24p or 720/60p, etc.