AVCHD 1920×1080 Quality

[Andrew Kimery]

[Guy McLoughlin] “If you are filming very high speed events, then you would see a quality difference between the 60/50 fps video and the 24/25 fps video.

Bottom Line: for most normal speed video subjects the lower data-rate is fine for 50/60 fps recording.”

Even on ‘low speed’ events the visual information can change drastically from frame to frame. A flash going off, for example, will change the frame dramatically and can give interframe codecs (like AVCHD) fits.

[Roger Martin]

Un Scietific, I know, but when I compare the footage from my Nikon D5300,
The Picture looks much better at 1080P 60 than it does at 1080P 30

These were all recorded to the in-camera SD card, here is the MediaInfo:

1080P 60

Complete name : K:DCIM100D5300DSC_0381.MOV
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt
File size : 137 MiB
Duration : 30s 30ms
Overall bit rate : 38.4 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:36:23
Tagged date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:36:23
NCDT : NCTG

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=30
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 30s 30ms
Bit rate : 36.8 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.296
Stream size : 132 MiB (96%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:36:23
Tagged date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:36:23
Color primaries : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
colour_primaries_Original : BT.709
transfer_characteristics_Original : BT.470 System M
matrix_coefficients_Original : BT.601

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : sowt
Duration : 30s 30ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 5.50 MiB (4%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:36:23
Tagged date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:36:23

and at 1080P 30

Complete name : K:DCIM100D5300DSC_0382.MOV
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt
File size : 86.3 MiB
Duration : 30s 931ms
Overall bit rate : 23.4 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:37:18
Tagged date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:37:18
NCDT : NCTG

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 30s 931ms
Bit rate : 21.8 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.351
Stream size : 80.4 MiB (93%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:37:18
Tagged date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:37:18
Color primaries : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
colour_primaries_Original : BT.709
transfer_characteristics_Original : BT.470 System M
matrix_coefficients_Original : BT.601

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : sowt
Duration : 30s 888ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 5.66 MiB (7%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:37:18
Tagged date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:37:18

and at 720P 60 just for comparison

Complete name : K:DCIM100D5300DSC_0383.MOV
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt
File size : 89.6 MiB
Duration : 34s 134ms
Overall bit rate : 22.0 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:39:23
Tagged date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:39:23
NCDT : NCTG

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=30
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 34s 134ms
Bit rate : 20.4 Mbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.370
Stream size : 83.2 MiB (93%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:39:23
Tagged date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:39:23
Color primaries : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
colour_primaries_Original : BT.709
transfer_characteristics_Original : BT.470 System M
matrix_coefficients_Original : BT.601

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : sowt
Duration : 34s 34ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 6.23 MiB (7%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:39:23
Tagged date : UTC 2014-01-03 07:39:23