Kairosmatt, I appreciate the link and it is helpful for those who don't know how to create slow motion, but this is information that I already knew. I know how to get 60p footage onto a 30p timeline and how to get it to render out to 30p slow motion. The problem is that the rendered output from 60p footage that originated on the HMC150 comes out looking like it has been electrocuted. I believe that this problem has to do with how Vegas handles AVCHD 60p footage and that there is a bug that needs fixed. So I guess I am looking for a cheaper alternative than Cineform to convert my 60p AVCHD into 60p AVI. Anyone know of any other free or inexpensive utilities?

I ran across this.
I know NOTHING about it and have never used it, but it does claim to convert mts to avi.

http://www.mtsconverter.com/

The cost is $53

Musician, as you know from our discussion over on DVXuser I have had the same problem with HMC150 and Vegas 8.0c, but have resolved it (knocking on wood). Sometimes it is easy to miss a setting when trying to describe workflows through the forums. If you can upload your clip and veg and post the link I will be happy to see if I can get yours to work here.

Jerry

Hi Jerry. I appreciate your comments both here and over at DVXuser. I am posting over here to get specific comments directly from Vegas users. Unfortunately, I do not have any server access to provide links to original footage(but will post if someone has something available). All I can do is reiterate my process in detail. I am using four clips between 30 - 50 seconds in length shot at 720 60p. I have Vegas 8.0c on both computers. I disable all virus software. Here is the process I have been using:

- Start a new project with the HDV 720-30p template.
- Verify and change the project properties so that the de-interlace method is set to none(mine always defaults to blend)
- import 720 60p footage from HMC150 and put it on the timeline(at this point I have tried both setting the properties to no resampling and have tried trimming the first and last second off of each clip)
- Now I render out using the preset AVI HDV 720-30p intermediate template, but click on "Custom" and change the frame rate to 59.94. This should render out a 60p cineform intermediate AVI file.
- I now create a new project using the HDV 720-30p template, verify that the blend mode is set to none, import my new AVI intermediate and place it on the timeline.
- At this point I have tried two different approaches. One is to set the playback properties to .5, and the other is to insert a velocity envelope and set it to 50%, and then I drag the clip to its new final length. At this point I have also tried trimming off the first and last second of the clips.
- Now I right-click on each clip, go down to switches, and disable resample.
- At this point, I render the final output to MPEG-2 using the HDV 720-30p template and click custom and set the video quality to "highest

Result - final seconds of each clip start to jitter violently. Jerry, I am wondering if it just does this towards the tail of a clip and since yours was like 25 minutes, maybe you just didn't catch it somewhere over that longer time. Maybe you could try several shorter clips. Thanks for following this, and let me know if I am not doing something correctly according to the procedure that you have gotten to work for you.

I don't have any 60p, so can't try this. But what if:

you apply the 50% velocity to the original AVCHD clip before you rendered to cineform AVI? Then when you render to Cineform, render as 30p. Maybe you would get a slow mo intermediate...

kairosmatt

Kairosmatt, thanks again for your input. The original plan was to just put the AVCHD 60p clip on a 30p timeline, slow it down to 50%, and no intermediate would be necessary. But Vegas couldn't do it without horrible results. So the feeling by everyone was to try and get an intermediate in a format that Vegas has been using for years and will work with nicely(AVI), but so far all the errors have been translated from theAVCHD clips to the AVI intermediate as well. So now I am just trying all different types of options to find a workaround. Cineform's NEO HD works like a charm with no errors, but it costs $500 and I would like a cheaper alternative. TeeTime has supposedly found a workaround which is why I posted my process so that he could see if I was doing something differently than what he is doing. Time will tell.

Musician, I've posted a line by line response to this over in DVXuser. There are a few differences but they seem rather minor. As I noted in my other post, I will be working tomorrow on a bunch of clips I shot this weekend. I'll try a timeline with multiple short clips and let you know what I learn.

Jerry

I bought an HMC150 the first day they were available. It's a fantastic camera. The image quality is sweet. Low light capability is excellent for a 1/3 chip cam.

Personally I transcode to dvcprohd with the tool that comes with the cam, then use raylight and Vegas. No problems with that workflow. BTW, I do much of my editing on my new laptop. Its just a dual-core running vista home premium 32. Editing is fine.

Hi Kurtmo,

I looked at dvcprohd before but I think I am remembering correctly that it reduced the resolution from that of the native HMC150. Is that the case for you? Have you tried the Cineform intermediate, and if so do you find that dvcprohd/raylight gives you a better quality?

Jerry

No, the resolution is not reduced. The 720p24 stays 720p24. 720p60 remains 720p60. The color information is expanded from 4:2:0 (avchd) to 4:2:2 (dvcpro hd). The data size is increased roughly by 4.5x (21mbps to 100mbps). The dvcpro to raylight is solid. That is why I like it. Vegas doesn't like 24p AVCHD and it sometimes can't play all 24p AVCHD clips correctly. It doesn't like 60p AVCHD clips that much either. Once I'm using raylight, those same frame rates work great and the color is excellent. I would consider cineform, but I can't always render to cineform when I have 24p files.