AVCHD editing experience and questions

gogiants wrote on 7/15/2008, 6:02 PM
I captured some short clips on two different AVCHD cameras to test them out with Vegas MS Platinum 8 (latest download). After reading a bunch of posts here, to my surprise I actually made progress with them on my laptop. I thought I'd share the experience and ask a couple questions.

Laptop specs: Lenovo T61 w/ 2GB memory; Windows reports Intel Core Duo @ 2.00 Ghz for the CPU

Canon HF10: Captured a 24 second, 36 MB file @ 1440x1080. I was able to drop the .mts file directly on the timeline. I faded in/out with text, added a color correction effect, and used all 4 video tracks to see how the preview would look. Preview worked passably well at the "Good" level. The panning and zooming was pretty choppy, but after reading horror stories here it was better than I expected.

Panasonic HDC-SD9: Captured a 57 MB file @ 1920x1080. No luck here. Even clicking on the file in the Explorer in Vegas MS caused Vegas to go non-responsive. I even tried downloading Vegas Pro with the same effect.

I rendered out to .wmv successfully. Had problems reading the .avi file I rendered, and for whatever reason rendering to .mov stalled out at 75%.

On to my questions

1) Any thoughts on the problem with the Panasonic file? Could it be the 1920 resolution? (But, that should work in Vegas Pro, right?) Maybe chalk it up to a memory card problem? (It was the second camera I tried things on with the same card, so maybe that was it.)
2) Should I be surprised at the ability to get reasonably good previews on my laptop? Maybe my pain threshold for bad previews is higher than others?

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 7/15/2008, 9:22 PM
1. Known bug. I have already submitted this exact bug to Sony 1.5 months ago. For *now*, avoid using the SD9 with Vegas. Future versions might have this fixed.

2. A Core2Duo PC is 5-6 times faster than a P4, which is what most people use when whining about AVCHD speed.
gogiants wrote on 7/15/2008, 11:02 PM
First question: Can I get a job like yours where you get to try all the different cameras?

But on to the real questions, both about the SD9:

1) Would you happen to know if this happens for all resolutions? I was trying it for what I believe to be the highest possible resolution and bitrate on that camera.

2) I hope it made sense in my post: I got a "hang" in VMS (and in Vegas Pro) just by clicking on the file in the explorer, before I could even drag it onto the timeline. Is that what you saw?

owlsroost wrote on 7/15/2008, 11:15 PM
It might be worth trying the beta-test 'm2tsplug.dll' for Vegas Pro talked about in this thread - [url=http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?Forum=4&MessageID=603219] - quote from one post "Just an FYI for everyone, after installing the new DLL, I am now able to read and edit Panasonic SD9 file"

I haven't tried the new DLL in VMS8, but it may work since VMS8 & VP8 share a lot of code 'under the hood'.

Download instructions for the DLL here - [url=http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=603827]

Tony
Eugenia wrote on 7/15/2008, 11:48 PM
Yes that was the bug I had seen. So yeah, try the new m2tsplug.dll if it works with VMS.
gogiants wrote on 7/16/2008, 9:18 AM
So, I tried the patch. It worked for Vegas Pro, but in Vegas Movie Studio is caused an access violation (elegant crash) when I clicked on the .mts file. This occurred for both the .mts file that worked before (Canon) and the one that crashed before (Panasonic).

So, I guess the .dll needs to be adapted to work with Vegas Movie Studio, but as I said, it did fix the issue in Vegas Pro.
Eugenia wrote on 7/16/2008, 2:08 PM
Then you just need to wait for Sony Vegas Platinum 9 to arrive, /me thinks.
gogiants wrote on 8/11/2008, 9:20 AM
Just tried editing the Panasonic SD9 files in Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, the trial download. And it worked this time, so they fixed it. Nice.
dko wrote on 8/11/2008, 5:05 PM
You seem to have had the same experience that I have been having with my movie rendering. I have a Sony HDR-SR11, however, the movie I created with the software that came with the camera was "choppy" (you could see interlacing that bridged several clips and the movements were jerky). So I upgraded my computer to a AMD quad 2.6gighz system and bought VMS Platinum (because it said on the cover that it could handel AVCHD and it was recommended by Sony). The previews are still choppy unless you look at draft resolution and 320 X 120.

I have only looked at the preview screen (at all the reolutions), if I cut a DVD or Blu ray would the picture be improved?
Sony has offered an upgrade VMS 9, does that versions previewer skip clips also?
Does one have to cut a DVD or Blu ray before he can see the final product quality?

Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
gogiants wrote on 8/13/2008, 9:09 AM
You may be having separate issues with the preview and the output quality.

Preview (i.e. the little window within Vegas itself) quality would be a function of the speed of your PCs CPU(s) and memory available. Compare your specs with what people say here to see what to expect preview-wise. Your PC seems a bit more powerful than mine, and I saw passable results in previewing in a small window. I would not expect to see perfect preview in a large window.

Output quality should be the same regardless of your PCs specs; it would just take longer to render/output on a slower PC. You should be able to check output quality without needing to burn a DVD/Blu Ray. (Results will be different on those formats, but the problems you describe seem like something else.) If you are getting odd artifacts people here might be willing to check out your video (post to Vimeo) and see what's happening. You'll also want to do the "right" output format for Vimeo... do a bit of googling on best output format for vimeo to get some tips.