MainConcept MPEG-2 vs. Sony AVCHD

Ian Schwartz wrote on 6/3/2009, 10:29 AM
I've had nothing but grief for weeks trying to render my original AVCHD clips using pretty much any setting of the Sony AVCHD codec. I had crashes and Out of memory errors, using both Vegas 8C and even in desperation trying Windows 7 64 with Vegas 9-64.

Last night I tried rendering using the MainConcept MPEG-2--and it worked everytime. I couldn't break it!

I am creating AVCHD DVDs to play on my Blu-ray player. Since Vegas is a Sony product and I'm using a Sony camera to produce AVCHD clips, I assumed that using the Sony AVCHD codec is the way to go. Obviously I was wrong.

Can anyone see a downside to using the MainConcept MPEG-2 codec? Is my picture quality going to be worse then using Sony AVCHD?

Comments

blink3times wrote on 6/3/2009, 11:06 AM
I have the sr11 and although I can do avhd without any crashing at all... I still prefer mpeg2 as a final delivery. It comes out cleaner and nicer... even with the conversion from avc to mpeg2..... ALMOST can't tell the difference from the original

As stated before in another post, I have not played with the avc encoder in PP... but from what I have seen in other encoders, avc encoding is still not ready for prime time. The avc encoding with sony seems to produce some artifacting and macro blocking especially in low light (but appears to be the best of the bunch I have played with).... the edius encoder is simply horrid... Ulead's encoder stinks (although it does do a good job at smart rendering).... they're all flawed in some way

The short and long (for me anyway).... I'll be using main concept (mpeg2 at least for the foreseeable future.
Ian Schwartz wrote on 6/8/2009, 6:14 AM
Thanks very much blink. The bottom line for me is the Sony AVC crashes anyway, so it's nice to know it's not even the preferable option.
srode wrote on 6/8/2009, 6:13 PM
"
I have the sr11 and although I can do avhd without any crashing at all... I still prefer mpeg2 as a final delivery. It comes out cleaner and nicer... even with the conversion from avc to mpeg2..... ALMOST can't tell the difference from the original "

Interesting - I think AVCHD is much better - source is an SR11 also - there's many more compression artifacts (color banding in the sky etc) with mpeg2. The picture is softer too.

No problems rendering to AVCHD either - I've used 8 and both 32 bit pixel formats with not a single crash.

Terje wrote on 6/9/2009, 11:16 AM
>> Can anyone see a downside to using the
>> MainConcept MPEG-2 codec?

Given that you are transcoding, and to a less efficient encoder, I would expect to see some degradation, but I have not tried it since my camcorder does HDV and I try to stay MPEG-2 all the way.

You might try to give the MainConcept AVC encoder a shot, but I have not had more success with that than you have with the Sony one.