Does Vegas support AVCHD from non-Sony cameras?

jmk396 wrote on 4/7/2009, 4:46 AM
I'm thinking about purchasing Vegas 8 Pro but I'm going to be using either a Canon HF11 or Canon HF20.

Will Vegas 8 Pro work with the AVCHD files from these camcorders?

Also, I'm new to video editting but when I edit AVCHD and save it again will it be recompressed and then lose quality? If so, how could I edit the files and not really lose any quality?

Thanks for any help!

Comments

FilmingPhotoGuy wrote on 4/7/2009, 6:04 AM
Yep! I have the Canon HF10 and the Canon HG10 and both work wonderfully and will soon be buying for the Canon HF S10

You won't be able to save it back to AVCHD because it's an aquisition codec but you will be able to render out to just about anything via Vegas Pro 8.

Craig
jmk396 wrote on 4/7/2009, 6:10 AM
Good to know. Thanks!

What format do you typically render to in order to keep the highest quality possible?

The most important thing for me is keeping the highest quality throughout the editing chain...

For example, if you render from AVCHD to H.264 (BluRay) what kind of quality is lost?
MilesCrew wrote on 4/7/2009, 7:09 AM
I'll second the support. I just bought the new Canon HF S100 and it works beautifully....and phenomenal quality by the way. Can't say as to your question of render format. I usually archive my stuff in the original MTS format and only render something if I'm rendering for web....which is usually MP4 for Vimeo. I have no need to convert my originals as I can stream them in native MTS format to my PS3 to my TV.
blink3times wrote on 4/7/2009, 9:37 AM
i HAVE THE sr11 (mts files)

I usually render over to mpeg2 at 28Mb/s for Blu Ray. There is a slight bit of quality loss but not significant enough for me to be concerned with.
VanLazarus wrote on 4/8/2009, 1:33 PM
I use Cineform for all intermediate work as it maintains quality, without the massive file sizes of uncompressed, and can be edited realtime within Vegas. For backup, I store the original MP4 files that my Sanyo HD2000 produces. For output, that depends on on what I'm doing... If the video is for the web, I output in H.264 or DivX. For a DVD, I render to the DVD Architect NTSC MPG. I haven't authoured any Blueray DVDs yet.
Jerry K wrote on 4/15/2009, 7:02 PM
I edit with Vegas Pro 8.0c I just purchased a Sony SR12. When I try editing .Mts files the preview window looks blurry, the playback hesitates and skips frames. Any idea on a fix?

It seems like no one on this posting is having any issues with .Mts files. Maybe some one could help me out getting .Mts files to work properly.

I have no problem with DV .avi files, .Mov files or .jpeg.

I'm editing with windows XP Professional.
Intel® Core™2 Quad Processors Q6600 2.4GHz,
Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Memory w/ Heat Spreader 2GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
10,000 rpm Sata drive W/D
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express

Thanks, JK
FilmingPhotoGuy wrote on 4/16/2009, 3:19 AM
Jerry,

Don't worry about playback quality. Vegas doesn't or can't playback at the actual quality even at "Best Full".

Does Vegas skip frames in the final render?

- Craig
blink3times wrote on 4/16/2009, 3:51 AM
Vegas will play the time line back smoothly until I start adding transitions/effects then it starts to skip. If you want to see a section playback smoothly then use dynamic ram playback. (do a search on it if you don't know how to use it).

For best results on playback though, your preview window should be set in preview mode and you should not use "scale to fit" in the preferences setup.

The preview quality admittedly is not that great... but it does not come though on your final render. It's just a viewer so you can have a rough idea of what you are doing on the time line.

You can also have a look here to make sure you have the multi core playback option running:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=647837&Replies=15