AVCHD issues with Vegas

[Dan Myers]

Thanks John,

I plan on moving to Vegas 10 regardless of what camera I purchase. Just waiting until I finish up a few projects I am still working on. Still not sold on AVCHD but finding the right camera that meets my specific set of needs is my focus.

I actually got a reply from Sony this morning about the AVCHD issue that stated (and I am paraphrasing) that when using basic cuts and dissolves and not a lot of effects or video streams, Vegas Pro 10 works great. If you need to use a lot of effects or streams of video, it may require using RAM previews to achieve full-frame playback and that some users capture AVCHD files with Cineform? and re-encode them in Cineform’s HD codec. Not exactly the answer I expected and I’m not really sure how difficult this would be or how it would affect workflow efficiency. Seems to me that adding steps like this is workaround that shouldn’t be there. The whole idea behind staying in a family of products is to increase efficiency, not introduce issues that limit capability of the software. Maybe I’m just too old school or naive to understand this.

Let me ask one more thing before I stop my little snowbound rant…what does AVCHD give me or provide me that HDV doesn’t? Is there a significant difference in the final product? Will support for HDV evaporate in the next year or two because of the advent of AVCHD? I’m not sure those are valid questions or ones that can be answered, but it seems to me that they would all factor into any purchase decision.

Thanks again for your feedback John.

[Dan Myers]

Thanks Mike for the camera recommendation. I will check it out.

Dan.

[John Rofrano]

[Dan Myers] “Let me ask one more thing before I stop my little snowbound rant…what does AVCHD give me or provide me that HDV doesn’t? Is there a significant difference in the final product? Will support for HDV evaporate in the next year or two because of the advent of AVCHD? I’m not sure those are valid questions or ones that can be answered, but it seems to me that they would all factor into any purchase decision.”

AVCHD offers smaller file sizes which is why tapeless cameras use it (because flash memory is still relatively expensive). It does that at the cost of much higher compression which is why it’s a bear to edit. It offers no other benefit which is why I don’t use it.

HDV is an industry standard based on MPEG2 which has been around since the dawn of time (ok, maybe not that long). HDV is one of the standards for Blu-ray Disc (along with AVCHD). HDV is not going anywhere and edits smoothly on any modern QuadCore system. Like I said, when my HDV cameras die I will buy another HDV camera. Your mileage may vary. 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Danny Hays]

What is going somewhere is laptops with firewire ports. They are getting very hard to find, and if you do find one, it’ll cost as much or more than the cost of building an i7 that handles AVCHD. Other than JVC HDV camcorders that capture at 720p, their all 1080i I believe. Some AVCHD cameras capture 1080 24p, 30p and even 60p.
Here’s a good examle. A Sony HVR-A1U is $2000 if your lucky to find one at that price. I just had to send mine off to Sony for repair as it ate a tape and blew an internal fuse. I built an i7 for under $1000 and bought a Panasonic TM700 that shoots 1080 60p, 60i 24p and more for $750. The video quality is far superior to the Sony. I would be glad to get you a native 1080 60p clip to play with if you want. So I now have a new super fast computer and a camera that blows away the Sony HVR-A1 for less cost than the Sony camera alone.
I’m not knocking John and HDV as everyone has their preferences. but you do the math. No more tape for me.

[John Rofrano]

[Danny Hays] “I’m not knocking John and HDV as everyone has their preferences. but you do the math. No more tape for me.”

Yea, this is definitely a personal preference thing. Quality wise AVCHD is fine. I just prefer working with HDV media. You might want to download samples of both and test them on your computer.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com