AVCHD or MP4?

Arthur.S wrote on 9/15/2013, 8:04 AM
The cameras that I've just bought (Canon XA20) can record in AVCHD or MP4. Disregarding which can produce the highest quality (I don't get asked for HD often enough to worry about a small difference) Which would be better A: to work with on the Vegas timeline. B: Be better to down size to DVD quality? (which is what the majority of my output ends up as).

Also, how does the Vegas 12 proxy files work? I don't see any reference to how you activate it. Does it work automatically depending on preview setting?

Edit: Found this:

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/15/2013, 8:25 AM
1920x1080 AVCHD is a more standard format for video editing and Vegas is optimized for it. So I'd recommend you shoot in it and then ensure that your Vegas project properties match your source video. This will give you the best performance and the best all around results. The program will give you a really nice-looking DVD-ready MPEG from this video source.
OldSmoke wrote on 9/15/2013, 10:10 AM
Athur.S
I recently bought a HF G30 which is basically the same camera as yours without the handle and XLR. I love the camera and almost regret not having spent the extra for the XLR but at the time I found it was just too much of a price difference for it.
Anyway; I shoot in AVCHD at max bit rate and only use MP4 if I know it will end up on the internet only. I love the fact that I can shoot at a low MP4 bit rate and transfer it straight onto Youtube via WiFi; what a cool feature.

Proud owner of Sony Vegas Pro 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13 and now Magix VP15&16.

System Spec.:
Motherboard: ASUS X299 Prime-A

Ram: G.Skill 4x8GB DDR4 2666 XMP

CPU: i7-9800x @ 4.6GHz (custom water cooling system)
GPU: 1x AMD Vega Pro Frontier Edition (water cooled)
Hard drives: System Samsung 970Pro NVME, AV-Projects 1TB (4x Intel P7600 512GB VROC), 4x 2.5" Hotswap bays, 1x 3.5" Hotswap Bay, 1x LG BluRay Burner

PSU: Corsair 1200W
Monitor: 2x Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM (2560x1440)

NormanPCN wrote on 9/15/2013, 10:34 AM
AVCHD is a fully defined format. AVC/H.264 video encode, uncompressed audio.

MP4 is just a container format. No definition of contents. However defacto in this world MP4 files normally contain AVC/H.264 video.

So the video quality between the two output options from the same camera really only depends on the bitrate as the same codec and encoder are being used.

As for VP12 proxy files. Right click the media in the project media window and select create video proxy. The proxy is used in draft and preview modes.
Open the Vegas help file, select the index tab and enter the word, proxy.
Arthur.S wrote on 9/15/2013, 12:36 PM
Thanks all for the advice. Duly noted. :-)
Arthur.S wrote on 9/16/2013, 1:59 PM
@ Oldsmoke. Do you use the Canon software to transfer the files onto your PC, or use Vegas directly? Also, what audio settings do you use? I've found a LOT of handling noise at the defaults. Better via the XLR inputs, but I've dropped the onboard audio down to 20 to get
that acceptable.