Simply, AVCHD to PS3???

gshock999 wrote on 10/21/2007, 4:15 PM
Hello, I am new to HD video.

This is my setup...
Sony HDR-SR7 HD video camera.
Sony motion picture browser, Sony movie studio platinum 8.0b.
Intel core2 duo 3ghz, 2gb ram, 3 hard drives 200gb boot drive, 30gb temp/page file drive, 500gb data drive. NO Bluray burner
Sony ps3, 1080p projector HDMI connection

I have recently purchased a Sony HDR-SR7, and I need to know the most effective workflow for me to use, so I can play my edited home videos in maximum resolution on my playstation 3.
I have read Eugenia Loli guide, but from my understanding I don't have to convert to H.264 as I am playing my videos on a PS3.

This is what I am doing now...
Open a new project, and select under video tab, HDV 1080-60i (1440x1080, 29.970 fps) template, rendering quality best, none progressive scan, interpolate fields.
under audio tab, 5.1 surround.
Edit my video as per normal.
Render as, main concept mpeg2, and template HDV1080i-60i
Then after rendering, burn it to a DVD-DL as long as it is less than 8.5GB
And now I can take it to my PS3 and play it.
This method should give me a visually identical (or close to) experience, the same as playing it off of my camera directly?

File size or compression does not matter to me, but I do have a question on files over 2gb, people say I have to burn to UDF??
How do I do that... Nero, Sony utilities?

Also, when H.264 becomes available for Movie studio, I should be getting smaller file sizes, but the same video quality... Correct?

Thanks

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 10/21/2007, 4:32 PM
Quality is almost the same for 10mbps h.264 and 25mbps .m2t, yes. I don't know about a potential 2GB file limit -- this only exists on 16bit filesystems only.
gshock999 wrote on 10/21/2007, 4:52 PM
Do those setting look okay?
Eugenia wrote on 10/21/2007, 5:19 PM
They do look ok, assuming that the Sony Blu-Ray player can read the DVD-DL filesystem at 25mbps. When you burn a CD you see, if your video is more than 8 mbps, it stutters, because the drive goes into CD mode. Not sure if that will be enough for the DVD mode.
4eyes wrote on 10/21/2007, 6:36 PM
Your settings are perfect.
When using Nero to burn your hdmpeg2.m2t files you select DVD and then UDF file system, don't worry if you do something wrong, Nero won't let your burn the disk. Just use the automatic udf file system that Nero selects (it's probably 1.2), it you manually select a higher udf setting the disk may not be viewable on the computer (depends, Vista yes, XP needs packet reading software). Whatever udf file system you burn the PS3 will read.
I have many DVD's DL that play 1440x1080i upper field first @ 25MBS CBR, Mpeg audio @ 384kbs on the PS3 just fine.

Another tip for the PS3, I don't have your camcorder but any files that it creates, either the *.m2ts or *.MTS H264 video files, copy them to any media that the PS3 has access to and they will play.

Depending on the directory structure after you put the media into the PS3 to read all the directories highlight the media (dvd, sd_card or harddisk), press the triangle key and select "Display All" to read all the directories.
Tips:
By default the PS3 looks in the following directories for media.
\VIDEO (put your video files here)
\PICTURE (put your pictures here)
\MUSIC (put your music files here)
If you use the above method you won't have to use the "Display All" feature.
When playing back media on the PS3 hit the "Select" key to display video/audio parameters (bit-rates) of the file being played, handy tool.
When playing back media on the PS3 hit the "Triangle" button to display "Options" for playback.

When NOT playing back the file, highlight the video file, hit the "Triangle" key and you can select to "Copy the video" the the PS3's harddisk, same with pictures (including multiple copy).

The extra "Bluetooth Remote" is nice for playing back Blu-Ray Disks. Nice not having to point the controller at the device.

You don't need to convert your videos, they will play directly as is, MTS / M2TS or M2T
gshock999 wrote on 10/21/2007, 9:05 PM
<Quote>
I have many DVD's DL that play 1440x1080i upper field first @ 25MBS CBR, Mpeg audio @ 384kbs on the PS3 just fine<Quote>

I just finished trying it and it worked fine for me as well.

I have tried to play the m2ts files, with not much luck... I will give it another try, as described.

Also, am I assuming correctly that movie studio will not take edited M2ts files and render them into m2ts files to be burned directly back to recordable media?

If so, why not? It seems as if there are extra steps ( converting to MPEG 2) being done needlessly.
gshock999 wrote on 10/22/2007, 2:27 PM
I tried to burn a unedited m2ts file directly to a dvd, and it worked like a charm!
So I tried some different renders...

results using the same video file about 3mins long...
m2ts file... unedited, right off of the camera, ~350MB, great video quality, played on PS3
m2t file... unedited, rendered from movie studion 8 to mpeg2 hd template, ~550MB, visually identical to above, played on PS3
wmv file... un edited, rendered from movie studion 8 to WMV hd template, ~180MB, and of course won't play on the PS3

I tried doing a simple edit using the software included with the camera, Sony motion picture browser software, and it will trim m2ts files and save the edit as a m2ts file.
So why won't movie studio 8 do it?
gshock999 wrote on 10/22/2007, 2:59 PM
Retraction...
Under closer inspection on my computer monitor, the rendered m2t file is not quite as clear and detailed as the m2ts file off of my camera.

Originally, I was looking at it on my projector's screen, and there might of been some conversions or something being done on my PS3, or projector.

So this also asks the question... why must we convert to something other than m2ts in Movie studio?
4eyes wrote on 10/22/2007, 7:15 PM
So this also asks the question... why must we convert to something other than m2ts in Movie studio?You don't have to convert to play the videos, as posted the PS3 will play these files directly. Editing the AVCHD/H264 video is another story. I think Vegas Pro can edit them if you have a very fast processor (or use a proxy file).
gshock999 wrote on 10/22/2007, 9:02 PM
<quote>You don't have to convert to play the videos, as posted the PS3 will play these files directly<quote>

But you do have to convert them if you want to play edited videos, and live with a slightly degraded image... correct?

Thanks again for your advice 4eyes

gshock999
4eyes wrote on 10/23/2007, 8:47 AM
gshock999,
Make sure your "Project Properties" are set correctly using the correct HDV template and also the Quality setting is set to "BEST" (downdrop box). I think this does make a difference when you render to a new HDV file. This is the only drawback of having a AVCHD cam, you need to convert the videos into a more editable format. Computers & software will eventually catch up. I remember when editing mpeg2 video was a task.

Actually my choice would be to convert to the CineformHD Codec using BEST as the rendering selection if you want to do extensive editing. This will produce a frame accurate editing platform for your project. Expect very large file sizes though for this frame accurate codec. You can repeatedly edit the cineform video without noticeable loss. Then when you finish the project you export to the final HDV file. Using Vegas Pro 8 you can export to a new AVC/H264 file.