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Assist with Proper 24Mbps Render Settings
In recording AVCHD 24Mbps with a Sony camcorder, what are the recommended render settings for the following applications? Which file type and settings should I use to keep on my computer for playing back on the monitor or the television that is connected to the computer? I suppose this would also be the format used for storing the videos as well which should be the highest resolution. Which file type for rendering to Blu-ray? Should I just use MPEG-2 Blu-ray 1920x1080i, 25Mbps video stream for both? I understand that Sony AVC Blu-ray 1920×1080-60i only goes as high as 16 Mbps. Thanks.
-Mark
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10 Replies
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I keep all my footage in the original format in case I need to further edit. But just to watch, I render to a high bitrate .WMV file. I have a Panasonic HDC-Tm700 that shoots 1080p60 and That’s the only format I can find that Vegas can render to at 1920 x 1080 60p. I make a custom project settings to accomidate the 60p and a custom render for the same, but up the bitrate to 25k. It’s the best looking video I’ve seen from a camcorder, but it takes a fast (i7) computer to play. Even my i7 wont play back the original .mts files without stuttering, they’re so compressed.
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Thanks for the reply.
‘I keep all my footage in the original format in case I need to further edit.’
Right, but if the original format is 24Mbps AVCHD, it looks like it is not possible to edit the video and then render back to the original format since Vegas does AVCHD via AVC file type and it only goes as high as 16 Mbps. So what is the best way to accomplish this? Thanks.
-Mark
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Another couple of questions:
Vegas help menu states: A 25 GB single-layer BD recordable disc can store approximately 3 hours, 42 minutes of AVC video (15 Mbps) or 2 hours, 15 minutes of MPEG-2 video (25 Mbps). Is there a noticable difference in quality between the two? If there is not much of a difference then why would one ever record AVCHD higher than 16 Mbps in the first place? Why does Vegas not allow one to do 24/25 Mbps AVC? Thanks again.
-Mark
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Q:If there is not much of a difference then why would one ever record AVCHD higher than 16 Mbps in the first place?
Best Reason = Tracks with a lot of motion benefit noticeably from a higher bitrate the better the noticeable results. It’s even more relevant when you use velocity envelopes.
A Reason = Because you can and there is a perception of a higher production value with higher bitrates.
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Those TM700 1080/60p AVC files will play smoothly on my aging laptop.. Core2 Duo at 2.4GHz. The trick is to use GPU acceleration: the laptop has a nVidia 8600M GPU, and that’s a big help… in fact, the only reason it can play such. On my desktop (Q9550 CPU, Core2 Quad at 2.83GHz, plus nVidia 8800GT) the 1080/60p files play, in Windows Media Player even, using only 12% CPU.
The trick here is that, under Windows 7, Microsoft themselves has provided an AVC decoder that uses the DXVA 2.0 API… GPU acceleration specifically for video playback.
Without that, I can play these, very smoothly, on my desktop, so you should too. But it’s very dependent on the player. VLC is pretty horrible, WMP too without the video acceleration. The Nero media player (Showtime, or something like that) did it, and before I upgraded to Windows 7, Splash Lite was another that could play these. AVC is a complex CODEC, but stuttering on these on an i7 indicates a poor playback program.
And yeah, Vegas is one of those, too. Smooth playback of 1080/60p also depends on a multithreaded player. Vegas 10 does this, but I’m pretty sure Vegas didn’t always.
-Dave
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Dave, that is some good info. The manual for my TM700 says the original .mts 1080 60p files will only play from the camera via HDMI or with the HD Writer software software that came with the camera. I won’t load that on my i7 as I loaded it on another machine and it wouldn’t allow it to be seen as a hard drive when plugged in via USB but launched the HD Writer software that would only allow me to convert it and not just transfer the files to my computer. Beside the editor is very basic and I would never use it. My i7 has an nvidea card but without GPU acceleration. I built it before Vegas announced Ver 10 would use it where all previous versions were CPU based only. I have yet been able to find any thing that’ll play them on Windows 7. Do you know of a player that will do this for me on Windows 7 without an expensive nvideo GPU accelerated card?
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Re: Assist with Proper 24Mbps Render Settings
by Mark Prebonich on Oct 21, 2010 at 11:46:40 pmThanks for the reply.
‘I keep all my footage in the original format in case I need to further edit.’
Right, but if the original format is 24Mbps AVCHD, it looks like it is not possible to edit the video and then render back to the original format since Vegas does AVCHD via AVC file type and it only goes as high as 16 Mbps. So what is the best way to accomplish this? Thanks.
Mark, My original format files are .mts and I cannot find any render setting in Vegas that’ll make them. I bet Sony doesn’t make a camera that uses that format like Panasonic. Out of curiosity, Why do you want to render to that? Bluray doesn’t support 1080 60p yet.
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Well, there are a couple different issues.
Certainly, camcorders are recording at 24Mb/s … that TM700 1080/60p video is actually 28Mb/s AVC. But consider the camcorder’s problem: it has to not only record AVC, it has to do this in realtime, at very lower power. It may be using a simple AVC profile (Main rather than High, etc) in order to deliver, too.
It is not necessarily the case that lower bitrates encoded on a PC will be worse quality. A PC has all day to do the encoding, it can run a multi-pass encode, etc. With that said, I also agree that I want the best possible video on my Blu-Rays, and I’d prefer to use the highest bitrate that allows all the video and audio I need to fit on a BD25. I don’t know why Sony’s not allowing higher bitrates, particularly after all these years. Oddly, the Main Concept AVC CODEC will produce video up to at least 20Mb/s, even though everyone seems to use Sony’s for HD video and Main Concept for iPods and Smartphones.
-Dave
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Hmm… I never pay attention to the things the camera manufacturer tells me :-). Of course, they’re just telling what’s known to work, not attempting to provide an inclusive list.
For PC playback, get “Splash Lite”. I just did… they seem to have fixed the problems it had with 64-bit Windows 7. I’m playing a 1080/60p file right now… it’s using about 50-60% CPU on my Q9550 @ 2.83GHz, on a full 1920×1080 monitor. That’s with GPU acceleration switched off… if I switch it on, it’s bouncing between 5% and 10% CPU. Not too shabby.
Also, the kind of GPU acceleration supported in Vegas now is different than what you want here. Vegas is using CUDA, which is nVidia’s proprietary “Native GPU Computing” API — it’s designed for “GPGPU” computing… general purpose math acceleration on a GPU. Video acceleration under Windows has its own API — DXVA: Direct X Video Acceleration. This is part of what nVidia calls “Pure Video”, check it out here: https://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html. In short, you may have some level of DVXA support even on nVidia devices that don’t do CUDA.
As for “expensive”.. you can get video acceleration on nVidia GeForce 8400 and 9400 class cards, maybe even lower-spec. That’s starting at about $40. But with an i7, you should be just dandy doing it SW-only. Definitely give Splash Lite a try.
-Dave
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I know this is kind of an old post, but can somebody that knows the answer reply to the original question of this post with a very specific dumbed down answer(i.e. step 1 you…then step 2 you…)? I am having the hardest time trying to figuring out the best way to get my AVCHD content shot in 24 mbps 1080i off my camcorder onto blu-ray. I have done some searching around online and I thought I would find a specific answer to my question because it seems it should be a very common question, but I haven’t really found anywhere that simiply gives a straight forward specific answer to this question. If I can’t find it, I guess I will just shoot sample footage and render in every possible way imaginable and compare the results. But please, if somebody out there can save me hours and hours of work you would be a wonderful help to me!!! Thanks!
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