Help rendering playable HD video for SDHC card

Blucheez wrote on 3/22/2011, 1:12 AM
I have an Sony HDR-SR11. I have been rendering and burning AVCHD discs, but I'd like to move to to saving the rendered file on my hard drive and then transfering it to a SDHC card. My BD player and display are Panasonics which have a card reader that supports SDHC.

I've tried all kinds of ways to render but none of them have resulted in a movie file that is recognized by my display or player. I should add that I want HD quality video like I had when I rendered and burned an AVCHD disc (if I can't get HD there would be no point in owning a HD camcorder!).

Please help! Thanks.

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 3/22/2011, 1:33 AM
Export using Main Concept, customize it, MP4, h.264/AAC, with 720p, about 7 mbps average, 12 mpbs max. You should read the manuals of these devices to see what exactly they support btw.
Blucheez wrote on 3/22/2011, 2:08 AM
Thanks. The manuals only say that "playable content" on the SD card an be MPEG2 and AVCHD. I have indeed been scouring the manuals. :)

I am unclear about your instructions. There are 3 different Main Concept choices. Only Main Concept MPEG-1 allows me to go into Custom, so I can't follow through with the rest of your instructions. BTW, what is h.264?

I'm assuming when you say "export" you mean "render as"?

I should add that I am running Vegas Movie Studio 9b Platinum.

One more thing. The AVCHD disc that I rendered and burned played well on my former Sony BD player, but are not recognized by my Pansonic player. Why is that and how can I fix it?
Eugenia wrote on 3/22/2011, 2:58 AM
Try this way:
http://eugenia.queru.com/2007/11/09/exporting-with-vegas-for-vimeo-hd/

To customize mpeg2 and MainConcept you need Platinum 10. h.264 is the same format AVCHD uses.

>not recognized by my Pansonic player. Why is that and how can I fix it?

You can't. Some BD players support AVCHD disks, others don't. These BD players only support real Blu-Ray disks, not AVCHD disks, which are actually a hack (DVD disks with HD video on them).
TOG62 wrote on 3/22/2011, 4:10 AM
One more thing. The AVCHD disc that I rendered and burned played well on my former Sony BD player, but are not recognized by my Pansonic player. Why is that and how can I fix it?

I had a similar problem and managed to produce playable AVCHD discs using MultiAVCHD, which can be downloaded and used free.

Despite what is often said on this forum Sony does not claim that its software can produce AVCHD discs. What it can produce is BD5 and BD9 discs that use the AVCHD container. There are several threads on the DVDA forum that discuss this.
Blucheez wrote on 3/22/2011, 10:05 AM
Is MultiAVCHD video editting software?
Blucheez wrote on 3/22/2011, 10:38 AM
Thanks for the reply. I looked at your link and read it through. The focus is uploading to vimeo. Just to be clear, my focus is to do the following: 1) shoot HD video on my camcorder, 2) download the files onto my hard drive, 3) create an edited "movie" with Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9, 4) render that movie so that I can copy it onto a blank SDHC card so that the movie file will be recognized and play on through the BD player or display (both of which have a SD card slot).

It seems that the card reader was intended for something more basic: a video is originally captured via the camcorder on a SDHC card. The card is taken out of the camcorder, and without editing, is placed in the player for viewing.

I ran into similar problems with still photos. If I photo-shopped a photo and then uploaded it back onto my card, the photo was not recognized.

The bottom line is how do I get my display or player to recognize the editted file that I have uploaded onto my card? Is this even possible? If so, I need specific instructions on how to render the Vegas project. I have spent a lot of hours creating "movies" of my video clips on Vegas and would hate to see that time wasted. Once again, any help is deeply appreciated.

I should again emphasize that I wouldn't be having this conversation if my Panny BD player was able to play the AVCHD discs (as stated in their manual!) that I burned from Vegas. I would continue to go that route, but I feel like trapped: discs won't work and SD cards won't work! How can I view my videos in the 1080i HD on my 1080p display??
TOG62 wrote on 3/22/2011, 11:26 AM
Is MultiAVCHD video editting software?

No. you do the editing in Vegas and output an m2ts file. You then import this into multiAVCHD and it will allow you to create a compatible AVCHD DVD.
Eugenia wrote on 3/22/2011, 2:47 PM
>The focus is uploading to vimeo

It doesn't matter what the header of the article says. If your devices support HD h.264 MP4, then that's the tutorial you need.

You mentioned also mpeg2, in which case try to export as M2T mpeg2 MainConcept.
Markk655 wrote on 3/22/2011, 7:10 PM
This has been successful for me too (Taking AVCHD footage from Panasonic or Sony camcorders/cameras), editing the video using VMS, rendering as m2ts and then running it through multiAVCHD. Essentially, I think it fixes headers, or something in the renderedfile... My TV has an SDHC slot, so as long as the directories are correct on the card (see multiavchd help for that), you should be all set.
Mike M. wrote on 3/23/2011, 12:11 AM
I did a bit of playing around with this, but never finished. What I did was go down to my local camera store with my SDHD card and recorded from an Panasonic and Sony camera. Then, I brought the SDHD card back home and tried it in my Panasonic Blu-Ray player and it worked. They didn't have an HD camera so I just got SD.

But, what I found out is it seems to be playable based on the directory structure (that's what mulitavchd does from what i see). Contained in the directory (SD_VIDEO/PRG001) are three files: MOV001.MOD (the actual movie file), MOV001.MOI and PRG001.PGI.

The MOV001.MOD file will play using VLC..etc and has these specs:

General
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 38.1 MiB
Duration : 34s 48ms
Overall bit rate : 9 380 Kbps

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15
Duration : 33s 967ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 9 286 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.897
Stream size : 36.2 MiB (95%)

Audio
ID : 128 (0x80)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Duration : 34s 48ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Video delay : -66ms
Stream size : 1.04 MiB (3%)

I need to find a store now with a HD Panasonic camera