"Long time Vegas user for DV wants to step up to HD"
Welcome to the 21st Century.

I can't speak for that camera, but since you didn't post your system specs in your profile, I'll speak in general terms.
Vegas 10 will handle AVCHD, but Version 11 does it more efficiently.
Vegas 10 did add GPU support for AVCHD.

AVCHD files are very compressed. The only bulwark against the massive compression in AVCHD is sheer bone crushing-processor power and blazing fast disk throughput.

(I stole that last line from whom I don't recall.)

12coyote, I don't have a Panasonic camera but I have a .mts file here that allegedly came straight from a Panasonic GH2. It was an "original file" download from Gordon Laing's Vimeo channel. It opens and plays smoothly (25fps) in VP10e. I don't know how similar this is to the TM900K format, and obviously the framerate is different, but it's a good indication. Here's the specs of the file.

Looking into this further, Gordon Laing's Vimeo channel is actually an excellent resource. You can go back through all his camera tests, and if you click on "download", you have the option to download the file in original format. I thought those original format downloads expired after a week, but apparently not (perhaps because he has a "plus" account?). He's tested tons of different cameras, although most of them seem to be stills-first cameras rather than video-first cameras.

Steve's facetious recommendation has some truth to it in that you will need a powerful computer to edit AVCHD. However, 1080i AVCHD has about the same data rate (13 GB per hour) as DV AVI. Therefore the hard disks that you have been using for SD will do fine for HD as well. Of course if you go for 1080p then the data rate will be higher, but probably not twice as high.

If you can find original files somewhere and try it out?

I have the Panasonic GH2. I have no idea whether AVCHD files it produces are the same as those from that other camera, but GH2's files dropped into vegas11 play at full frame rate, no issues at all. This is on a laptop with i7 2760QM, sort of a mid to upper range CPU for laptops.

I have no idea what people are talking about when saying how difficult AVCHD is to edit. They play at full frame speed even with previews on best/half.

I have the a Panasonic TM700 (the predecessor to the TM900), and edit 1080 60p on my i7 720Q laptop daily (no GPU accel) - Vegas 11 64bit. Footage w/o FX plays from the timeline at full 59.94 fps at Best/Full. Of course, as you add FX that can slow down considerably. However, imho, it's very workable. Vegas 10e works fine as well.

Want some footage to test? Download Parrots.zip

Good Luck! imo the TM900 is a good choice,
...Jerry

PS: You'll need to use the "Match Media Settings" wizard to create project properties as there is not a built in 1080 60p template.

"Vegas 10 will handle AVCHD, but Version 11 does it more efficiently.If that statement is qualified with "if one has GPU acceleration", then I can't refute that statement as I don't have computer with a good GPU processor to test with.

Howerver, if one does not have GPU acceleration, according to my tests, render times are actually longer with Vegas 11 64bit when compared to Vegas 10 64 bit. See: Render Time Strangeness

As far as timeline performance, my tests indicate there is very little difference between Vegas 11 & Vegas 10. (again w/o GPU acceleration).

...Jerry

The fact that AVCHD is a high compression format negates the need for a RAID drive array or anything crazy. Just about any drive made in the last 7 or 8 years will do. You need a fast drive subsystem when you are dealing with multiple tracks of uncompressed HD video. And even then it's debate IMO as most current mechanical drives will sustain nearly 100MB/sec.

The myth of the "fast drive system" for video goes back about 15 years to when drives could barely hit 10MB/sec and you needed to tweak Windows to not "hit" the drive or risk screwing up a capture.

Anyway with an AVCHD camera you don't need to worry about your hard drive. It's all about processor power.

Thanks for the replies. I feel better about making the jump to the new camera. Nobody mentioned a proprietary difference in Panasonic vs. Sony AVCHD. That was my main concern. I have no concerns about my I7 PC being strong enough.

"Nobody mentioned a proprietary difference in Panasonic vs. Sony AVCHD"The AVCHD standard was developed jointly by Panasonic & Sony. 1080 60p was added in the AVCHD 2.0 addendum. While there are no guarantees in life & video, I would feel comfortable with this fact. Read about it here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD#Specification_addendum_.28AVCHD_2.0.29

Furthermore, I've been using Panasonic 1080 60p with Sony Vegas for some 18 months now, and have not seen any problems associated with the format.

...Jerry

Thanks Jerry that's even better to read. Word of mouth first hand expereince is exactly what I was looking for! What version of Vegas are you using?

I forgot to mention, my smooth playback of 1080-25p Panasonic .mts is in 10.0e on an old Q6600 machine running XP x64.

"Thanks Jerry that's even better to read. Word of mouth first hand expereince is exactly what I was looking for! What version of Vegas are you using?See my post 7 up - timestamp 3/10/2012 5:44:00 AM (the short answer is both Vegas 11 - all 64 bit builds & 10.0e 64bit.) I understand it's difficult to miss some posts when several come in.

...Jerry

I used the parrots.zip file to import into my Vegas 10. I then burned it to a Blu-Ray disc. Using my PC's Blu-ray burner I then played the disc back and it was 99% of the original's quality. Georgous! I say 99% because Vegas' AVC burn template would only go as high as 24 fps. I had to look twice to see it, but it was not as smooth as the original's 59.94 fps. Does anyone know if upgrading to Vegas 11 will allow me to burn to a Blu-Ray disc at the original's 59.94 fps? I know this is outside of Blu-Ray's spec, but some players will play a Blu-Ray disc encoded @ 1080p 60.

Does anyone know if upgrading to Vegas 11 will allow me to burn to a Blu-Ray disc at the original's 59.94 fps?No, it won't.

Blu-Ray doesn't support this format:

Blu-Ray Format

From that article (which is probably correct), here are the supported formats:

Resolution 	Frame rate[a] 	Aspect ratio

1920×1080 	29.97-i 	16:9

1920×1080 	25-i 	16:9

1920×1080 	24-p 	16:9

1920×1080 	23.976-p 	16:9

1440×1080[b] 	29.97-i 	16:9 (anamorphic)

1440×1080[b] 	25-i 	16:9 (anamorphic)

1440×1080[b] 	24-p 	16:9 (anamorphic)

1440×1080[b] 	23.976-p 	16:9 (anamorphic)

1280×720 	59.94-p 	16:9

1280×720 	50-p 	16:9

1280×720 	24-p 	16:9

1280×720 	23.976-p 	16:9

720×480 	29.97-i 	4:3/16:9 (anamorphic)

720×576 	25-i 	4:3/16:9 (anamorphic)

Yes, as I said I know it's out of spec, but a lot of players do things out of spec. For example since I asked the question I found out my Samsung Blu-Ray player does play a 1080p 60 encoded disc! I followed these steps (not all of them) to create a 1080p 60 disc. Sorry I don't know how to make a hyperlink on this forum?

The reference makes an AVCHD disc, that is, AVCHD video on standard red-ray DVD disc. Such a disc is limited to 20 to 40 minutes only, depending on data rate chosen. And the warning that not all Blu-ray players will play it is well founded.

I want to know if my Vegas Pro 10C will edit the .mts files WITHOUT converting them to something else first? I've read that Panasonic's AVCHD is proprietary and won't import, or capture like Sony's AVCHD.I think the TM900 video format is essentially the same as the TM700. Here is a link to a page with lots of TM700 video that you can download and then answer your own question, using your own version of Vegas, on your computer:

raw HD videos of Panasonic TM700 HD camcorder

I just dropped the tiger video onto Vegas 8.0c and it played just fine. I didn't do anything more with it other than to make sure it could play at 59.94 fps. It also works on Vegas 10 and Vegas 11.

I guess you didn't read higher up in the thread, but that's exactly what I did. I eventually answered all my own questions. However, I very much appreciate the guidance I received here.

Sorry to be redundant: I missed that earlier post.

That's quite alright I used some other .mts files from your link in order to prove to myself that my first attempt wasn't a fluke. Nope, they all imported to my Vegas 10 just fine and rendered beautifully. I just wish DVDA would allow me to make a disc at 60 fps even though it's outside of spec. My player plays a disc at 60 fps even though it's outside of spec. I guess the 60 fps choice is for Vegas 12?