Crikey, I have a little more time now to type a little slower and more accurateley now, where do I start, I can see I'm doing something wrong so here goes.
The little Sony HDR-AS15 sports I set at 1080 30p and also 1080 60p eithar at 120 or 170 degrees both setting can be set as PALs, these are Mp4s
My Sony Alpha 580 DSLR can be set as either Mp4s or AVCHD.
My Panasonic is standard AVCHD Progressive.
My Panasonic HC-V500 I set at either 1080/50p or HA1920 1080/50i (for better quality). MTS files.
All equipment when played through the HD telly directly through a HDMI lead are HD sharp as a pencil, lovely......
Don't go to just sleep yet :
I load my video footage via the PCs card reader and they go into 'My Pictures', I'll use the Panasonic HC-V500 in my explanation and save the video once finished back into 'My Pictures'
- Open PD10 in full edit.
- Click 'Import Media Files'
- (Opens in 'My Pictures) Click on MTS video file, click open and this take the file into PD.
- Drag MTS file onto timeline.
- Multi trim video.
- Click produce.
- Click MPEG-4. (Standard 2D, Fast Video Rendering Technology (Ticked) Hardware Video Encoder (Blue Highlighted) Enable Preview During Production (Ticked)
- Click 'Start'. (I have just rendered a short video of a Cicada on a branch whilst in France 2 years ago. It is 26.22 seconds long, time taken to render = 15 seconds dead.) Click play whilst still in PD and the quality is super, great colours, contrast, no pixelation, no jumping, super smooth and lovely as would be expected.
- I would normally press the 'X' upper right hand side of the screen and save it as EG: CicadaInFrance (I will do this right now)PowerDirector Script *PDS
- Click save. I can now either upload to Youtube or put the file back into PD and burn as a DVD (I do not have a Blue Ray Burner - maybe this is the problem) One thing that I have noticed a box comes up saying: Cyberlink CLQTKernalClient32 has stopped working. I will now make a DVD using the original MTS file.
- I have now clicked 'Create Disc', Title 1, My Video, 00:00:26, disc used is Maxwell DVD+R DATA/VIDEO, 106MB/4700MB, Click: Burn In 2D. Recording Drive BDDVDRW CH20L - Recording Speed 16.0. OK - Start Burning. Authoring and burning until ejection 2:43secs.
- Tested video in front room on a DVD player (not a cheapo model + Panasonic HD telly) and does not look bad to be honest but at 16:9 the little Cicada has put on weight (he's fat) and the top and bottom has become cropped. It seems to me that it is the length of the video as 5 minute video is terrible, a 12+ minute video turns into a psychedelic colour extravaganza drug induced party.
Do you suggest buying a Blue Ray burner to get better quality?
It amazes me that even though I've spent hundreds and hundreds of pounds on quality cameras, video gear, decent software, tripods, fast cards, etc, the video quality is dare I say it, complete crap, I don't understand and I hope that you can help me.
Many thanks and kind regards.
Rob