• VEGAS Pro

  AVCHD Project Set-Up Wackiness

  Posted by Edan Cohen on January 5, 2011 at 3:53 am

  I am confused and hope someone can sort me out.

  I own both Adobe Premiere CS5 and Sony Vegas 10 Pro. I have a Core i7 desktop machine with 8gigs of RAM.

  I recently shot two projects on a Panasonic HMC-150, one of them was 720/30 the other was 720/24.

  Unlike Adobe Premiere CS5, there are no AVCHD templates, so I create the template myself with the proper frame size and frame rate. I make sure both are progressive and then 1.0000 for the pixel aspect ratio.

  Using these settings I get a fuzzy preview. If I switch the pixel aspect ratio to 0.9091 (NTSC DV) the image is as sharp as it was when I shot it — but I have black bars on the top and bottom of the image.

  Now, back to Premiere CS5 — when I load the same footage into Premiere and use the same settings, the preview is tack sharp.

  Does anyone know what is going on with Vegas?

  I really like editing AVCHD with Vegas since the performance is way better. I find Premiere stutters and lags a ton with AVCHD. However, I need the video to be sharp.

  I welcome all suggestion and advice.

  Thanks!

  Edan Cohen replied 15 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 9 Replies
• 9 Replies

• 

  Edan Cohen

  January 5, 2011 at 3:36 pm

  Anyone? I am really trying to figure this out here.
• 

  Jeff Schroeder

  January 5, 2011 at 7:00 pm

  No need for more templates, you should try the match media button on the new project dialog.

  
  And check your preview quality on the video preview box.
  
  I use a lot of AVCHD and have had no problems.

  Jeff

  http://www.narrowroadmedia.com
• 

  Edan Cohen

  January 5, 2011 at 7:52 pm

  Thanks, Jeff. I should have mentioned that I’ve already tried that — with the same results. The only thing that makes the video sharp is changing the pixels as I describe above.
• 

  Mike Kujbida

  January 5, 2011 at 7:56 pm

  Set the Preview window to Best/Full and you’ll see the picture quality you’re expecting.
  Most users edit in Preview/Auto mode because AVCHD can be a strain on their computer.
• 

  Edan Cohen

  January 5, 2011 at 8:09 pm

  I tried that as well – to no avail.
• 

  Mike Kujbida

  January 5, 2011 at 8:19 pm

  Edan, that makes no sense at all.
  I’ve played a bit with AVCHD clips that I’ve found on the net and they look great on my 24″ Dell PC monitor (coming from the Vegas timeline).
• 

  Edan Cohen

  January 5, 2011 at 8:23 pm

  I agree with you. I’ve been editing for years and can’t make heads or tails of it. I’ll try and do a screenshot comparison when I get home tonight.

  Trust me, it isn’t an issue with preview monitor quality.

  Even in Premiere, for example, the preview video can be a bit soft when you’re playing through the timeline, but once you hit pause, it gets sharp on the paused frame.

  That’s not happening here.
• 

  Jeff Schroeder

  January 5, 2011 at 8:37 pm

  Edan,

  Maybe you could put up a small veg file (and events) in a zip file that we can look at.

  Jeff

  http://www.narrowroadmedia.com
• 

  Edan Cohen

  January 5, 2011 at 8:38 pm

  Great idea. I’ll look into it tonight when I’m in front of the computer.

  Thanks for all of the advice thus far – it’s greatly appreciated.

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