Main Profile 4.0 AVCHD vs. High Profile 4.1 AVCHD

Brad C. wrote on 1/9/2009, 6:13 PM
Is there much of a difference that anyone has noticed in terms of being easier to edit/work with.

To date, Sony has still been using Main Profile, while Panasonic and Canon have been using High Profile.

Wiki says - "The High-Profile mode of H264 is more difficult to create and playback than main-profile. Consequently, recordings made by one vendor's camcorder or editing software may be unplayable on another vendor's equipment, leading to a frustrating user experience."

So would using Sony's AVCHD be a little more user friendly to work with in Vegas than others?
Just curious.

Comments

srode wrote on 1/9/2009, 7:24 PM
haven't tried anything but the Sony raw material but my understanding is the big difference is the bit rate - up to 24 in high profile and 16 in main - I've rendered my raw material from the Sony to high profile with 20mbps and not had any problems rendering or viewing the bluray in my player - Panny BD35 with the firmware it shipped with.
Brad C. wrote on 1/9/2009, 10:37 PM
Ok, cool.

I know and understand the ceiling with main and high. I just didnt know if 16Mps High profile was any different than 16Mbps Main profile when messing with the files in Vegas. Like maybe main profile was a little less intense to preview, manipulate, and render.

This isn't a big issue, I was just curious.
AtomicGreymon wrote on 1/9/2009, 10:56 PM
High Profile is the one being used for the AVC video on commercial Blu-Ray discs; for that reason it's the one I'd prefer using, personally.

Wikipedia lists the differences between the various profiles and levels of AVC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

As the others have said, it looks like the difference is in bitrate.

Main Profile @ 4.0 - 20Mbps; @ 4.1 - 50Mbps
High Profile @ 4.0 - 25Mbps; @ 4.1 - 62.5Mbps
JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/10/2009, 9:01 AM
> So would using Sony's AVCHD be a little more user friendly to work with in Vegas than others?

I can only speak from my experience but I believe the answer to your question is YES. The Sony AVCHD cameras seem to have no problems in Vegas. I just picked up an HDR-CX12 and I can edit and playback at full frame rates before adding any FX. No problems at all.

~jr