H.264 AVC only produces in .m2ts format??? WTF?

Mergen

Newbie Joined: Nov 20, 2012 23:44 Messages: 20 Offline

Solved by

Dec 13, 2012 22:57

I was looking forward to producing my AVCHD videos in H.264, since it is regarded as the best Full HD compression format. But when I click on the option, they could only be saved as .m2ts format. Now this format is not as easy to playback on TVs without built-in USB/SDHC slots, without connecting the camcorder. Few cheap external media players support this file extension.

So, with much regret, I produced the videoos in MP4 format instead. Larger file size but longer encoding times. I was told the quality wouldn't be as good as H.264 as well. But what choice do I have? At least MP4 offers playback compatibility with ALL external media players.

I can't understand why PowerDirector 10 Ultra restricts H.264 output to only the .m2ts container/extension? Even on PC playback, it takes less resources for the PC to playback MP4 than m2ts files. My laptop would chug along playing .m2ts files with stutters and jerkiness. But with MP4, it's super smooth.

Unfortunately, I won't upgrade to PowerDirector 11 after hearing all sorts of problems with the software on this forum. But the MKV option is nice.

Here's hoping Cyberlink delivers a patch to include more H.264 container formats/extensions and include MKV support for version 10. Intel i7 3770 CPU
Asrock H77 Pro4/MVP Motherboard
16 GB Kingston DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz RAM
EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked 2GB Video Card
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 7200rpm SATA2 Harddisk
ANTEC EarthWatts 500W Power Supply
Windows 10 Home 64-bit OS

Julien Pierre

Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline

Dec 17, 2012 21:25

Quote: I was looking forward to producing my AVCHD videos in H.264, since it is regarded as the best Full HD
So, with much regret, I produced the videoos in MP4 format instead. Larger file size but longer encoding times. I was told the quality wouldn't be as good as H.264 as well. But what choice do I have? At least MP4 offers playback compatibility with ALL external media players.

Strange that you would see a difference in file size and encoding time. I have looked at the MP4 files produced by PD10 files and they are H264.

SVRT even works on the H264 clips from my DSLR so PD doesn't even re-encode the video either for outputting M2TS or MP4 files .

The main difference between the two as far as I can tell is the container file format, and the audio encoding options. Everything else seems to be the same.

I can't understand why PowerDirector 10 Ultra restricts H.264 output to only the .m2ts container/extension? Even on PC playback, it takes less resources for the PC to playback MP4 than m2ts files. My laptop would chug along playing .m2ts files with stutters and jerkiness. But with MP4, it's super smooth.

You should review the output profiles and compare all the bitrate options for MP4 and H264 that you are using.
I bet if you make them all the same, you will have equal encoding times and very similar file sizes.
And both types of files should stress your PC the same.
MSI X99A Raider
Intel i7-5820k @ 4.4 GHz
32GB DDR4 RAM
Gigabyte nVidia GTX 960 4GB
480 GB Patriot Ignite SSD (boot)
2 x 480 GB Sandisk Ultra II SSD (striped)
6 x 1 TB Samsung 860 SSD (striped)

2 x LG 32UD59-B 32" 4K
Asus PB238 23" HD (portrait)

Mergen

Newbie Joined: Nov 20, 2012 23:44 Messages: 20 Offline

Dec 18, 2012 00:05

I have looked at the MP4 files produced by PD10 files and they are H264.

Thanks for your comments. Jeez, I didn't know the MP4 files were also H.264

When producing, I clicked on the box marked "AVC H.264" and was disappointed that no matter what resolution/quality I chose, the file could only be saved as .m2ts. As I playback on HDTV with media player, I didn't want to run into complications with M2TS files and preferred to output as MP4.

Anyway, the created MP4 files played flawlessly. The Full HD version (24mbps) took 5.5 hours to render (purely software rendering, no hardware acceleration). The HD version (18mbps) took 3 hours to render. My PC specs are slow, that's why the long rendering time. But end result is worth the wait. Although I must say, the edited final result (still pretty) doesn't look as good as the original unedited MTS files from my camcorder.

Intel i7 3770 CPU
Asrock H77 Pro4/MVP Motherboard
16 GB Kingston DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz RAM
EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked 2GB Video Card
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 7200rpm SATA2 Harddisk
ANTEC EarthWatts 500W Power Supply
Windows 10 Home 64-bit OS

Julien Pierre

Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline

Dec 18, 2012 00:40

Quote: The HD version (18mbps) took 3 hours to render. My PC specs are slow, that's why the long rendering time. But end result is worth the wait. Although I must say, the edited final result (still pretty) doesn't look as good as the original unedited MTS files from my camcorder.

3 - 5.5 hours seems like a long time. How long is the project ?
When making modifications and re-encoding, there is always a loss of quality compared to the original footage.
Even though it's all digital, the lossily compressed video from the camcorder has to be decoded then lossily re-encoded. Possibly with a different algorithm that will add its own compression artifacts ...

Unfortunately, lossless video compression is not practical in terms of storage and bandwidth required, like it is with audio. I don't know of any video recorders that record without compression or with lossless compression.

MSI X99A Raider
Intel i7-5820k @ 4.4 GHz
32GB DDR4 RAM
Gigabyte nVidia GTX 960 4GB
480 GB Patriot Ignite SSD (boot)
2 x 480 GB Sandisk Ultra II SSD (striped)
6 x 1 TB Samsung 860 SSD (striped)

2 x LG 32UD59-B 32" 4K
Asus PB238 23" HD (portrait)

Mergen

Newbie Joined: Nov 20, 2012 23:44 Messages: 20 Offline

Dec 18, 2012 01:58

3 - 5.5 hours seems like a long time. How long is the project ?

The project lasts 2hrs 10mins. It was originally recorded in 1080/60i at 24mbps. I converted into 2 MP4 files: 1080p 24mps (5.5hrs) and 720p 18mbps (3hrs). No SVRT or hardware encoding used. I was worried, reading on this forum about slight playback lag/jerkiness in the transition between SVRT unrendered footage and rendered footage. That's why I avoided SVRT, even though it might have reduced my rendering times.
Intel i7 3770 CPU
Asrock H77 Pro4/MVP Motherboard
16 GB Kingston DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz RAM
EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked 2GB Video Card
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 7200rpm SATA2 Harddisk
ANTEC EarthWatts 500W Power Supply
Windows 10 Home 64-bit OS