Comments

Tim L wrote on 5/13/2007, 9:08 AM
Sony has announced that VMS 8, with a targeted release of July, will support AVCHD. This is from a press release when (full) Vegas 7.0E was recently released:

In July of 2007, Sony will also issue an update to its consumer editing software, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition 8, with support for the AVCHD format, which will allow users to edit files in the new AVCHD camcorder recording format based on the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec for video compression and Dolby® digital audio.

Note that this will be a new version of VMS -- presumably requiring an upgrade fee -- not a free update.

Here's a link to the full press release:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/news/ShowRelease.asp?ReleaseID=662&CatID=0

Note also that with the Vegas 7.0E release, Vegas only supports AVCHD from Sony camcorders. Apparently Panasonic uses a slightly different AVCHD, and it won't work with the current release. I believe I have seen an announcement somewhere that Sony was working on Panasonic support, and does intend to support it soon.

Tim L
Daveco2 wrote on 5/13/2007, 9:23 AM
Great Tim. Thanks for the writeup.

Now the question is, will editing AVCHD give a product that is (a) equivalent, (b) slightly worse, or (c) unacceptable compared to my present DV format?

My only reason for looking at AVCHD is that the SD storage cameras already out there appear to be smaller and lighter than the Sony PC105 I use for mountain climbing. For me, there's no compelling reason yet to go to HD.

Dave
4eyes wrote on 5/19/2007, 10:24 PM
There is no comparison between DV & HDV resolution (color depends on the CCD's). The problem is the format for editing purposes, avchd being still new is highly compressed and right now not natively editable. You should convert it to another format for editing (depends, could use a proxy file then output to hd-mpeg2 HDV video file)..

If you mean natively editing a non-editable format? Good luck, it will be sometime before you can actually edit in the avchd format, it's really to compressed.

But, I've already seen footage that's been converted to hd-mpeg2 from some of these cams, not bad at all, actually excellent shooting in the high quality mode.
At least converting the avchd into hd-mpeg2 will give you somewhat of a chance to edit the footage. You can always downconvert the avchd video to SD using the cams internal downconvert circuitry I think (you will have to check this).

My personnel choice would be a cam that uses hd-mpeg2 which uses tape now. This is because it's easier to edit the videos. But for a mountain climber I would think the Sony cam that records in avchd using the High Quality setting to the 30gig drive would be the practical choice. I don't know how hard it is to carry & change out tapes (considering the harse conditions and all).
I think anyone with a HD cam right now (including me) would love to be able to capture the footage you guys see from these heights in High Definition format..

I don't think you'll be sorry buying a hd cam, in your case a avchd cam. I only climb ladders, it you can workaround using tapes if possible then the tape hd-mpeg2 units are much easier to edit. the videos. I think you have to make a choice here.
But, whatever choice my opinion would be a HDV HighDefintion.

Happy Climbing