Working with AVCHD

astar wrote on 9/27/2012, 2:23 PM
Does anyone know good working settings with AVCHD? I have seen stability issues while working with AVCHD@MXP (24mbs) settings. One work around that seems to work is converting the footage to XDCAM, then editing seems to stabilize. I am wondering why this would be, the codecs do not seem that dissimilar other than bit rate and uncompressed audio on the XDCAM side.


Second, does it not seem odd that there are not presets for the the common AVC camera codec levels (MXP,FXP, XP+, SP, LP) or at least some type of Codec match on the render screen? A Match Codec profile creation utility would own. I am all for advanced settings, and picking the right bit rate for the job, but presets for Sony, Cannon and other cameras would be nice. Re-rendering every frame seems like a waste of time when doing cuts only work. I have not been able to find a good render setting that does not cause a complete re-render of footage, which also adds generation loss.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/27/2012, 9:24 PM
MXP, FXP, XP, etc., are not codecs. They are merely quality settings that some camcorders use, and they're not universal.

Standard AVCHD is either 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 at 30i (NTSC) or 25i (PAL), which virtually every AVCHD camcorder can shoot at and which Vegas Movie Studio HD does indeed work very well with. It really doesn't care if it's shot at an MXP or FXP bitrate.
Chienworks wrote on 9/27/2012, 11:44 PM
A true non-recompress editor wouldn't even give you a choice of output formats, much less expect you to pick the right one. It would analyze the source file and choose the output settings to match them. So, wishing for even more varieties of output options wouldn't get you any closer to your goal.
Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/28/2012, 1:15 PM
By the way, if you're using Windows to browse to a storage card to manually copy the MXP and FXP files to your hard drive so that you can import them into your Vegas project, that's probably not going to work. You won't get the whole video file

Instead, leave the card in the camcorder, connect the camcorder to your computer via USB and then use Vegas Movie Studio's Device Explorer (under the View menu) to import the files and move them to your hard drive. The Device Explorer will take the entire files and convert them to MTS files in the process so that they can be edited in the program.
astar wrote on 9/28/2012, 5:39 PM
Steve - I think if you re-read what I wrote you would see that I said "common AVC camera codec levels, " and did not indicate they were separate codecs. I also know they are not universal, hence the part about a codec match function.

Your 2nd suggestion might be the solution, I was never bothering with import wizards. You do get the whole video file with the explorer method, but the container change might make the difference. I will try that and see if there is an improvement.

Chienworks - I think you are failing to see that we are on the same page. What I am saying instead of supplying presets for memory stick which NO ONE uses, instead include the codec you are working with as the 1st selection. This would be done via the software determining this. It could be as simple as match codec check box or even no re-compression.
musicvid10 wrote on 9/28/2012, 7:02 PM
" It could be as simple as match codec check box or even no re-compression. "
Because of technical considerations, I doubt you'll see AVCHD smart rendering in Vegas any time soon.

There are a couple of stitch/split/join utilities that will do this, however. VideoRedo h264 and TSDoctor are two worth checking out.