Editing AVCHD files

pjc

Senior Member Location: Aus Joined: Sep 12, 2008 03:48 Messages: 262 Offline

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Oct 02, 2008 01:59

Just a bit of info on my experience with AVCHD specifically from Panasonic SD9.
I thought I had a reasonable computer: Core2duo E6300 running at just over 2GHz, 2 GB RAM & on board audio/video.
I could edit with the clips very slowly and and playback was jumpy. CPU was maxing out.

Installed a GT8600 video card to off load the processor.

Improved the HD MPEG2 video playback but no real improvement on the AVCHD (doesn't support atm)

It was picked up that the Panasonic SD9 was causing specific issues with PD7 and a fix was found. Please click http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/3730.page for info on this issue.
(edit latest patch fixes problem)
Editing was now faster but playback still a problem.

I swapped PD to my second computer: a Pentium D at 3GHz and 1GB RAM and to my amazement it was smoother playback although still a little jumpy.

I was going to upgrade the E6300 to a Q6600 but as I was unsure whether clock speed or core number was more important I considered the E8500 at 3.16 GHz. After getting mixed reports from my searching the forums I decided to cover all bases and ended up getting a Q9550 and extra RAM up to 4GB (3.2 available on 32bit XP).

Happy to report playback is smooth with CPU utilisation at about 20%!!!!

My message : not sure whether you need the combo above but the ACVHD camera was much more expensive than the $600 I paid for it .

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 23. 2008 16:28

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Oct 02, 2008 04:16

pjc,

That was an excellent bit of information. Thank you for your input. I think Bruce Forman (Bif) put out something similar regarding the need to quad core edit AVCHD.

You made a very valid point on the cost of computers compared to the camera's - yep I enjoyed that one.

Dafydd

pjc

Senior Member Location: Aus Joined: Sep 12, 2008 03:48 Messages: 262 Offline

Oct 24, 2008 20:52

Reporting back from much testing.

I was unhappy with the rendering of PD for AVCHD and after taking several snapshots (using PD) I have good reason.

Here is the original frame from an .MTS file (Panasonic SD9)
http://www.4shared.com/file/68297578/3e24e248/Original.html

Here it is rendered with PD using AVCHD default profile
http://www.4shared.com/file/68297588/b9bcfe87/AVCHD_1080i.html

Here it is using mpeg HD profile
http://www.4shared.com/file/68297595/de16b37b/HD_1080i.html

And here it is using an opposition software set to a profile "same as original clip" (see other post on SVRT)
http://www.4shared.com/file/68298322/ff6893f7
/Ulead_AVCHD_1080i.html

The mpeg HD shows some interlacing artifact on the spapshot which is not evident when viewing the video but the blurring in the AVCHD clip is very noticeable. There was no advantage to use the Blu-ray profile - it just upped the bit rate for no real gain in clarity.

So I have decided to render using the mpeg HD 1080i profile to maintain video quality. This is a bit of a shame as I thought AVCHD was the way to go. Only real problem is storage capacity and GBs are cheap now-a-day.

Hope this helps others using the Panasonic SD9 or AVCHD in general.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 26. 2008 06:48