AVCHD advice for Sony Vegas 7

Jeff Waters wrote on 5/29/2009, 4:10 AM
Hello,
I have access to a new Canon Vixia camcorder at work, but currently only have Sony Vegas 7 at home. I'd like to take some nice footage, edit it in Vegas, and export it for delivery on the web.

My end result does not need to be HD.

What is the best way to handle this? Is there some format other than AVCHD that I should try to record to in the Vixia? Or, if that's not possible, what is the best way to convert the AVCHD .mts files into a form that will be easy to work with in Vegas 7?

Thanks so much in advance!
Jeff

Comments

blink3times wrote on 5/29/2009, 4:54 AM
Vegas 7e was when they first introduced avchd editing and if I remember correctly it was a bit of a disaster. You're better off converting to and intermediate with Cineform Neo Scene or using Gearshift or Upshift to convert before editing.
Jeff Waters wrote on 5/29/2009, 5:05 AM
So, it looks like those solutions run between $50-$150.

Is there a free solution out there?

What is the best intermediate form to shoot for?

Thanks!
Jeff
dibbkd wrote on 5/29/2009, 6:35 AM
My Sony HDR-CX12 came with included software to convert the AVCHD files to MPG2, the camera you're using might have came with similar software.

For $150 though, I'd just upgrade to Vegas 9, converting the files takes forever, which kinda kills the love of just being able to copy the files to your PC and start editing quickly vs importing real-time from tape.
ritsmer wrote on 5/29/2009, 8:19 AM
I really wonder for what purpose the camera manufacturers make their cameras?
Any way they seem to think that the cameras will never be used for editing - and also they seem not to know that a SD stick costs some 100 US for 32 GB.

Consequently they do anything possible in order to squeeze the video into the unusable.
Kind of funny that they include a conversion program to mpeg2 in the camera box. Obviously they have guessed that "AVCHD III Extra Squeezed" can not be used for editing and therefore they propose that we decompress/compress our videos to mpeg 2 - where the decompress/compress ceartainly gives some quality loss to our video....

Good Lord. Please give us cameras that deliver proper and editable video on the SD cards - even if it takes up 50 percent more place (at 100 US for 32 GB...)
dibbkd wrote on 5/29/2009, 10:26 AM
I can edit my AVCHD just fine with Vegas 8 or 9. I had Vegas 7 at the time I bought my camera, which didn't work at all with my AVCHD, so back then I was glad to at least be able to convert it to something usable.

I bought my camera at a time when AVCHD was fairly new, and new I'd have issues editing it at first, but bet (correctly) that I'd be able to edit it just fine in the near future. That near future came for me with V8.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 5/29/2009, 10:28 AM
> For $150 though, I'd just upgrade to Vegas 9, converting the files takes forever, which kinda kills the love of just being able to copy the files to your PC and start editing quickly vs importing real-time from tape.

I couldn't agree more. AVCHD advice for Sony Vegas 7... Upgrade to Vegas Pro 9.0! ;-)

Honestly, if you are going to convert the files you would be better off selling the camera and getting a tape-based HDV camera. It will only take 1 hour to capture 1 hour HDV tape but it may take 3 hrs to convert 1 hr of AVCHD files. What's the point?

~jr