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Hi Dave,
I've done some testing with the Aunsoft converter, and it isn't good. There is a significant quality loss in the converted video - so much in fact that even compressing the final output to DVD quality is noticably poor. I tried a few options and settings but I don't believe this is a workable solution. The results definately aren't good enough for me, so I expect if you bought the TM700/PowerDirector combo with a view to using this tool for interim conversion you would be disappointed.
I have decided to only do basic editing and do no stabilisation or position/resize edits for now - this does give me excellent results from PowerDirector, and whilst I want the flexibility to do such positional editing at some point, I would rather get the smoother video at present so am willing to compromise on the flexibility - it is definately a consideration to make if you are planning to buy the Panasonic TM700 and use PowerDirector though as it may be at present that a different camera or different editing package will be a better combination.
Hope this info helps.
Tim
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Hi Dave,
I haven't found a work around I am happy with (Yet), however I am interested in your suggestion. I had a look at the Aunsoft converter when I first ran into problems and I installed the trial, but I hadn't found an output profile that matched full HD, widescreen, PAL, and interlaced, so I gave up - a little too early as it seems because having read your post and the Aunsoft details on the link you provided, there is an output profile - MPEG2 video for NLE. I hadn't seen this as you have to scroll down on the list and as there are only arrows and no scrollbar I didn't realise there were options below the visible screen. Having re-installed it I have now found the profile and will start experimenting with converting video.
There will clearly be a quality reduction by doing this as the video is being re-encoded and as the output is MPEG2 I expect the filesize will be much larger than the AVCHD, however it might be an option for the occasional clip that needs some stabilisation or cropping. I see this as a temporary workaround if it does work as I would prefer my end to end workflow to work with the original footage, however for my current circumstances it might be acceptable - I don't have an HD telly or blu-ray equipment yet so although I am recording HD footage, my output will be DVD, so any quality loss in this added step will be irrelevant compared to the quality loss going down to DVD, however longer term I will want to use HD end to end. My needs at the moment are for smooth motion more than full HD quality so this might work.
Although I am having these difficulties at the moment, I still think the TM700 is a fantastic camcorder, and am more than happy with the features and the quality of the footage (although very dissapointed with the still picture capabilities - with 3CCDs and a claim of 14 megapixel stills I thought the 'smile shot' feature would be good, but in reality I have an old 2megapixel digital camera that produces far superior stills - my kids can draw more detailed pictures in crayola wax crayons than the stills from the TM700 so don't even consider it for stills, the quality of them is appalling!).
I am hopeful that Panasonic's version of AVCHD is included in future PowerDirector versions so I see these issues as temporary. Knowing what I know now, I think I would have still bought the TM700 but would have unfortunately bought a different video editing package, however I still think PowerDirector is the best consumer level video editing package (compared to the others I have tried and researched) due to it's flexibility, speed, responsiveness, and ease of use without sacrificing features. With PD I can accurately control the video as I need (such as frame accurate timing and edits), preview realtime, and very quickly produce a pleasing result, whereas the other editors I have tried all seem to think they know better than I do what I want to do and won't allow me the accuracy and flexibility I need.
Just to clarify - your observation that the combination of the TM700 and PD8 'might not work very well' only appears to be with interlaced video when the position of the video is to change - I have had no issues with progressive video, or with interlaced video if my final edit includes cross fades, audio replacement, trimming, fixed position effects etc, however if I crop the image area (producing a static or moving zoom effect), or use an effect that moves the video position (such as stabilisation) the resultant video is not smooth. I still intend to use PD8 for the bulk of my editing, and only use a workaround or alternative package for the clips that need positional changes or stabilisation.
I will do some experimentation with this workaround and let you know the result as I suspect it could be useful for your decision on which camcorder to buy.
Thanks
Tim
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Thank you again Kevin for your help, and thank you Dafydd for your input.
I am hopeful the Panasonic format will be included in future updates or versions of PowerDirector, but for the moment it appears I will need to find a temorary work around. I guess my options are:
1. Only do basic edits making sure there is no video cropping or resizing (the quality of this is ok for my current needs).
2. Add a step into my workflow that converts the non-standard Panasonic AVCHD into something more compatible (need to experiment with this - hopefully I can find a way that does not reduce quality too much.)
3. Use an alternative package (I tried Vegas and the output quality was good, but I really dislike the application and found it almost impossible to do frame accurate edits and basic fades.)
4. Revert to progressive footage only (25p should be fine but will not be as smooth).
As it happens I will be off on a week long family holiday tomorrow morning so will undoubtedly come back with a couple of hours of video - I may use the 25p option for this holiday.
Thanks again for the help so far...
Tim
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Hi Robert,
Thanks for your response.
Most of my videos are for TV playback - mainly as DVD at present but with my new setup I will eventually want to do BluRay (currently don't have a HD TV, BluRay player or BluRay writer so this will be a while off). Out of choice I would prefer to use interlaced video, but as you point out, due to the way the interlaced video works, I need my entire workflow to retain the fields (footage, editing, and output).
It may be that I have to use progressive in the short term, and I might consider it for the next time I use the camera, although I currently have 4.5 hours of footage that I am trying to edit which was recorded last month and is all recorded at 50i.
I was under the impression that the TM700 would only record 50i or 50p - eventually I would like to use 50p for everything as this gives me the option at the production stage to use 50i for TV output and 25p for PC/YouTube/iPod output all from the same source without any degradation, however as this is proprietary to Panasonic's version of AVCHD it isn't yet supported (and may never be!), so I have chosen to stick to 50i. Having clicked on the link you supplied, although I have seen this page before (did plenty of research before buying the camcorder) I did notice that it says the camcorder will record 25p if set to Digital Cinema mode, so I might use that for the next batch of footage, however though I still see that as a temorary measure to prevent the quality issues I am having, 25p doesn't provide smooth motion when panning or zooming.
I am in agreement regarding my quality issues here - the effect I am getting from my 50i footage is that it is reduced to 25p and each frame is blurred, but if my footage was 25p in the first place, whilst it wouldn't be as smooth as the 50i footage, it would be better final output - it would still be 25p but wouldn't be blurred.
Up to now, any editing I have done in the past has been on footage that is of the same resolution as my output (8mm to DVD and DV to DVD) so I have had little scope to crop or manipulate the clips without a serious loss in quality, so having bought the kit to record and edit at HD resolutions, I hoped to have more freedom at the edit stage as my output would still be DVD so a much lower resolution than the source - this would allow me to zoom in on parts of the original footage but still maintain a resolution higher than 720 * 576 so my final output wouldn't suffer. This is why I am not too worried about quality loss on the re-encoding the source (due to SVRT not working on Panasonic footage), however the effect on the frames and motion I am seeing IS very apparent on the lower quality DVD output. Of course, long term when I use HD throughout (source to final output) then I may be more keen to retain the original quality.
Thanks for you help so far...
Tim
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Hi,
I previously posted my problems on the DirectorZone forum and Captain Kevin offered some advice and suggested I post my problems here along with some example footage.
I have a Panasonic TM700 and am shooting HD footage which the camcorder compresses in AVCHD. The camera settings for the footage are Full HD 1920 * 1080 50i and the bitrate is 17Mb/s.
When I play back the footage on the PC it is excellent quality.
When I do basic editing in PD8 the quality remains at a high level (high enough for me anyway), but if I do any editing that involves resizing or repositioning of the video clip, the output is poor. I understand that Panasonic's version of AVCHD is not compatible with PD8's SVRT technology, so any editing is subject to a re-encode with subsequent quality loss, and this I can accept (and the results are high enough quality for me). When I do a basic edit, the re-encoding of the video retains the framerate (or more importantly the interlaced fields) and the quality is acceptable, but if there is any video repositioning or resizing, PD seems to de-interlace the video by blending the fields into a single frame, which it cannot separate back after the resizing is done, so the result is effectively a reduction inthe framerate and a lack of smooth motion - I am now suspecting it is a combination of the Panasonic AVCHD format and PowerDirector 8 but hopefully someone can try to replicate the problem to help prove or disprove my hardware or setup.
My original post on the DirectorZone forum is here:
http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/posts/list/2142.page;jsessionid=77C2F9AC6012A761E47EE16D0F27EF6F.web2
The clips I have included hopefully demonstrate the problem. There are three clips:
The first is the original source taken straight from the camcorder. This is the best quality (as expected).
The second has been imported into PD8 and has had some basic editing done, including a couple of fades and the audio changed. This was output as AVCHD at 24Mbps - as SVRT isn't supported for the Panasonic footage, this was re-encoded so I chose 24Mbps to keep the quality as high as possible (there is bound to be some degradation with it being encoded but the higher bitrate should help minimise quality loss). The quality is acceptable and the motion is smooth.
The third clip shows the problem - the only editing done is to use the PowerTools crop feature to zoom in slightly. This alone should reduce quality slightly as the resolution is being reduced, and SVRT still can't be used (and wouldn't on any footage due to the modified resolution) so a quality drop on each frame is expected, but it is the motion degradation that I want to avoid - the movement is no longer smooth and the video blurry.
I hope someone can try to replicate this form me and confirm if it is a limitation of the combination of camera and software or if it is something in my setup.
Many thanks in advance...
Tim
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