AVCHD Project Settings

Robert Smith wrote on 3/8/2010, 11:54 AM
I did a search and couldn't find specific settings so I thought I would ask. I am beginning my 2nd AVCHD project. The first, I treated as a 4:3, adjusting the pan crop on the clips. It came out just fine.

On this project, I want to treat it as HD from beginning to end. Can someone reccomend the settings best for this? ATM, I am using the 1920x1080 30p 60i setting with progressive scan setting.

Is this all there is to setting up the project, appropriately?
Thanks
Rob

Comments

rich__r wrote on 3/8/2010, 12:01 PM
In general, just click the File -> New -> Project and on the dialog select the File Folder icon and browser to your media - select a file and Vegas will setup your project settings to match the media.

Note: You mention 1920x1080 30p 60i. Does that mean 30p over 60i (the Panasonic AVCCAM shoots in that format) or do you mean you have some 30p and some 60i? If the latter, then pick the one you have the most of for your project settings. If the former (Panasonic 30p) then I think you may have some issues with playback speed unless you desample.
Robert Smith wrote on 3/8/2010, 12:34 PM
Rich,
That is a great tip. Thank you very much.

I got ancy and paid for a support ticket. It resulted in some additional informaiton I thought I would share.

Any DVD or Web production is really limited to 720x480. There is no need to produce at higher settings. The only need for them is for producing full HD, as in the case of Blue Ray.



PerroneFord wrote on 3/8/2010, 1:48 PM
You paid for this incorrect information? Can I ask how much?

For DVD this is fundamentally true. For web production, nothing could be further from the truth. Youtube supports 1920x1080 as well as 1280x720. So does Vimeo. And nearly every other web based video sharing site uses at least 1280x720.

Ridiculous.
BudWzr wrote on 3/8/2010, 7:08 PM
"HD" just means anything over 720X480. You're free to do whatever you want. Fer instance, 720X360 is "SD" but has an "HD" look when played on an iPod.

Tip: 720p30 looks the same as 1080p30 on a flat screen, so why go into the higher resolutions right now. You get the same bang for a lot less processor and distribution buck, and 720p is a breeze on the web too.

That's the beauty of it, there are no hard-and-fast rules like SMPTE, NTSC, PAL, and all that. It's just RGB and pixels now.

To answer your question more specifically, there ARE some additional considerations like render quality, audio tempo, autocrop, and things like that in the preferences depending on your target needs.
PeterDuke wrote on 3/8/2010, 10:28 PM
If you have multiple source formats, choose your delivery format (or the highest quality you intend to deliver at if more than one.) For single source format choose that one. Try to avoid unnecessary format conversions.