-
AVCHD for editing
Been here before, but now it is looking as though I am going to get an AVCHD camera or two, I will be editing multiple cams that are HDV and AVCHD. I want to convert AVCHD to a better format for editing, but not loose ANY quality. Is HDV good to convert to? My concern is I am in 1920×1080 (24Mbps) video with square pixels…is going to rectangular gonna mess with the quality? If so, what is good to convert to and edit in…we are talking sometimes up to 12-16 camera angles, but most often 2-5….I need to have a relatively smooth workflow and higher preview quality, I am running an AMD hexacore processor and editing HDV is pretty darn good quality in preview….thanks for any input.
RegardsScott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
11 Replies
-
Well… NewBlue FX has a tool called AVCHD UpShift that converts AVCHD to HDV so that is one possibility. If you are concerned about losing resolution going from 1920 to 1440 then get CineForm NeoScene. This will give you a smooth editing experience even with multiple camera angles. It may even perform better than HDV so you might want to convert everything to CineForm and work in one format. This is no different than Apple FCP converting everything to ProRes422 before editing. It keeps the workflow simple and smooth.
Now I know there are people who will tell you to convert the AVCHD to Sony MXF. While MXF is more lossy than CineForm, it is also a viable workflow that doesn’t cost anything extra and edits smoothly.
IMHO, if you can afford to shoot with 12 cameras, you can afford $99 for the right solution (i.e., NeoScene). 😉
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thanks John…I don’t shoot 12 cameras only 5, but often I have 12 or more camera angles….thanks again!!
Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
Thanks for this post! I am getting very close to shooting a similar set up. AVCHD and HDV. How does the NeoScene work? Are the files converted in NeoScene, then pulled into the Vegas timeline for editing?
-
[Mac McGinnis] “How does the NeoScene work? Are the files converted in NeoScene, then pulled into the Vegas timeline for editing?”
Yes, that is most common workflow. NeoScene includes a batch capture/conversion tool and the CineForm codec. For HDV, it will capture from tape and convert to CineForm on-the-fly. For AVCHD you can point it to a folder and it will batch convert for you (of course you can point it to a folder of HDV as well). Then you edit in Vegas and render directly from the CineForm files.
If you do plan to buy it, I would recommend getting it from Videoguys.com. They are a Creative COW sponsor and they give COW members a 5% discount on top of the $99 price (it is $129 if you buy directly from CineForm). To get the 5% discount code, look for the Vudeoguys advertisements on the sides of the forum and it should pop up there.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Have you tried editing AVCHD with your 6 core? My friend has one and I can edit 1080 60p with it. I don’t get that framerate in my preview window but I get more than I need to edit.
I have an i7 and I don’t see much difference with AVCHD in Vegas or playing the native 60p.mts videos with Media Player Classic. -
[Scott Francis] “Been here before, but now it is looking as though I am going to get an AVCHD camera or two, I will be editing multiple cams that are HDV and AVCHD. I want to convert AVCHD to a better format for editing, but not loose ANY quality. Is HDV good to convert to?”
You can’t. Any time you recompress to anything, you technically lose some quality. And going from AVCHD to HDV, you will absolutely lose quality, since properly encoded AVCHD is a higher quality format.
You can, however, convert with very minimal loss. And, based on what you’re doing, that conversion can result in less loss of quality out to the final render.
Going to a high bitrate format such as MPEG-2/MXF, Cineform, or DNxHD will result in a very small loss in quality — possibly not even visible. Cineform in particular is a good format, because the nature of the compression is entirely different (wavelet vs. DCT) than any of the MPEG family (including AVC and MPEG-2), so you don’t “stack” compression artifacts.
The reason this can produce better video on output is that, in the conversion process, you can upconvert 4:2:0 video from the camcorder to 4:2:2. That adds no information, of course, but it can prevent color issues as you manipulate video. Not really an issue if you’re just doing simple cut edits (of course, if you’re doing that, why convert at all?), but with heavy manipulation or compositing, it can be a win.
[Scott Francis] “My concern is I am in 1920×1080 (24Mbps) video with square pixels…is going to rectangular gonna mess with the quality?”
Most HD delivery is in square pixels these days, so it “messes” with the quality in the same way a better camera or higher bit rate “messes” with quality. In short, you MAY get a higher quality result from the AVCHD camera than the HDVs, that’s actually visible in the final product. I’ve had that happen before, and just lived with it. If it’s a big problem, you could in theory transcode your AVCHD to HDV, thus “crapifying” it down to HDV levels.
-Dave
-
Thanks Dave, love the “crapifiying” line!!! This supports what I thought and gives me formats to try….as does John’s reply…I tried just working with avchd and hdv as a test and it does loose some preview quality so I am looking to convert to a better format…
Many Regards,
Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
When archiving, do you tend to archive the converted to cineform files or archive the originals”?
-
-
You’ve talked me into the advantages of Cineform and I’m trying it out. I like to break my project up into small individual projects to reduce rendering times when making small changes. I think I asked earlier if it was possible to apply effects, then render out in the cineform format and then pull into another project to possibly apply more effects. I’m pretty sure the answer is yes but I don’t see a cineform render option in vegas.
I do allot of green screen work and like to apply the backgrounds in one workflow, then pull out the results of that into another project to apply slight zooms, pans and rotations. I was hoping this would provide a high quality intermediate intermediate file to avoid loosing quality after my chroma key stuff has been rendered out.
Is there an option to render out to a high quality format for another round of adding effects?
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up