Edit & Render AVCHD 1080-60-ps from HDR-CX

PRGonzalez wrote on 4/21/2014, 2:44 PM

I am editing and rendering video clips taken with my HDR-CX380 in HD 1080-60fps-progressive scan. So far, I uderstand that I just need to copy the m2ts clips from the SD memory into my PC and project explorer in Vegas. I have project settings to match source video settings, wich is 1920x1080 59.94 fps progressive.

The problem I am having with the final rendered video. Right now, I am just using simple fadding in-out from clip to clip. To render, I modified one of the AVCHD 1080p profiles to double NTSC (59.94fps). Playing the final rendering is choppy. I guess the final rendering process skipped or droped some frames. However, I do not know a way to check for errors or frame drops in the redering process.

I see Vegas is using my Video GPU using OpenCL and the CPU remains between 80% to 90% utilization. Also, as a good reference, I have redered the benchmark clip used with Vegas 12 and all works perfect, software, PC, and player.

Playing the clips directly from the camera into the TV all looks good. My players are two WD-Live-TV boxes that are wired with Ethernet using 10/100/1000 Mbps enterprise grade switches. The PC is connected at 1000 Mbps and the the final video is stored in the same space as all of my DVD and BR library. I have no problems with my library at all.

I hope I have explained myself correctly for someone to help me out in understanding Vegas Pro and/or setting it up correctly.

Thanks
Pedro

Comments

wwaag wrote on 4/21/2014, 5:06 PM

You need to specify your exact render template. By chance, if you did render to 1080 60P using the Sony AVC encoder, your WD-Live-TV will stutter.

wwaag

NormanPCN wrote on 4/21/2014, 5:09 PM

Playing the final rendering is choppy. I guess the final rendering process skipped or droped some frames.

The render is probably good. The player on playback is probably the one dropping the frames. 1080p60 can be tough to play back depending the the speed of the PC.

PRGonzalez wrote on 4/21/2014, 7:06 PM

The profile I am using for rendering is a modified version from Sony AVC/MVC. I took the 1920x1080-60i as a based and changed frame rate to 59.940 Double NTSC and Bit Rate to 25,999,360. Other parameters: Video Format = AVCHD, Frame Sze = 1920x1080, Profile = HIGH, Entropic Coding = CABAC, Pixel Aspect Ratio = 1.0, Number of Slices = 1, and Encode mode = Automatic. No changes to Audio tab. Changed Video Rendering Quality = Best in Project tab.

I also tried to render in 1920x1080-60i and the final video is even more stutter.

As of WD-Live-TV, it supports H.264 MP@L4.1 and HP@4.1 up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution. The only information I found about Sony AVCHD for my CX380 camera is AVCHD format Ver 2.0, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264.

If Sony and WD-Live-TV are not compatible, what would it be my best rendering format with my source being 1920x1080-60p?

Pedro

wwaag wrote on 4/21/2014, 7:37 PM

I also tried to render in 1920x1080-60i and the final video is even more stutter.

1080-60i should work with your WD-Live-TV. Make sure that your frame rate is set to 29.97. You might also try using a hard drive directly attached to your WD, thus avoiding any potential network problems.

Incidentally, I use the same profile that you described in detail (Sony AVC 1080-60P, same bit rate). One of the newer (2013 or 2014) Sony 3D Bluray players will play these files without any problem. I have a couple Sony BDP-BX510's (2013 model) that I use that really work well. You can stream over your network using Windows Media Player or attach a USB drive. As I said before, these files will not play in your WD without stutter. Hope this helps. Good luck.

wwaag

OldSmoke wrote on 4/21/2014, 8:52 PM

If you would like to retain the smoothness of 60p video you should render it as 1280x720 @ 60p, try Sony AVC or even one of the XDCAM templates. The difference in resolution isn't as noticeable as you might think and you get all the benefits of 60p.

Rob Franks wrote on 4/21/2014, 11:08 PM

I have no issues with my Sony PJ790 (1080p60) and WD TV Live.

I use a sony AVC template set to 59.94 PROGRESSIVE.

I render the separate video file (AVC) and audio file (AC3) and use TSmuxer (free program) to mux the ausio/video over to M2TS

This also works fine on my Mede8er 800x3d and boxee box streamers

PRGonzalez wrote on 4/22/2014, 11:41 AM

Thank you guys for giving me your suggestions.

Hi wwaag,

I will try (again) your suggestion of rendering @ 1080-60i with frame rate of 29.97 to be played by WD TV Live.

Hi OldSmoke,

I will try your suggestion of rendering @ 1280x720-60p using Sony AVC profile.

Hi Rob,

Are there any special rendering parameters that I should know to remux with TSMuxer?

What about synchronizing video and audio?

Thanks
Pedro

Rob Franks wrote on 4/22/2014, 4:25 PM

"What about synchronizing video and audio?"

Tsmuxer syncs it for you. It's fast and easy. It does not re-encode. Just add your video, then audio, choose "M2TS" and hit the go button. It takes about 4 minutes to mux a 2 hour, 20 gig video.

PRGonzalez wrote on 4/30/2014, 8:44 AM

Here are some quick-tests results I have (I hope this information can help others).

1920x1080p @ 60-fps plays smoothly and correctly in my Win7 x 64 Pro when using PowerDVD v9.0 player without hardware acceleration. I have ordered PowerDVD Ultra v13.0 (Newegg sale) to keep it more current. VLC player and MSMediaPlayer stutter with the video 1920x1080p @ 60-fps no matter what.

I did use TsMuxer and I like it. In my PC, rendering with out audio makes loads the CPU between 68 to 85% while rendering with audio the load is from 80% to 90%. I forgot to capture and compare the total rendering time though between the two (w/audio and w/o audio)

Pedro

I will be doing additional tests at different fps rates and down grading the resolution to 720p this weekend.

PRGonzalez wrote on 5/8/2014, 10:30 AM

Here is my final report...

I found out that I have two different versions of WD-TV-Live boxes. One is older WD-TV-Live-Plus and the most recent WD-TV-Live. Both have the same interfaces, 1-Ethernet, 1-HDMI, 2-USB2.0, and 1-composite.

The firmware is different on both and their capabilities as players are also different. While the most recent WD-TV-Live can play the AVCHD-1080-60p, the older model cannot. The older model can play up-to 720 @ 60p.

Both WD-TV-Live boxes play 1080-24p. However, we do not like how fast scenes play at 24p. I am not sure if it is the nature of the poor taken video, or how 60p really compares to 24p, or if it just the downgrading of 60p to 24p in Vegas. So, my wife and I decided that we will render the two resolutions of the video 1080-60p and 720-60p and keep then in the server until we ran out of the 6TB space we have. Which today is 25% used.

Thank you guys for your help...Now it is time for me to continue learning effects and other video/audio mixing with Vegas.

Pedro