AVCHD Rendering

[Paul Congdon]

Douglas,

I’m trying to get my Panasonic SD5 AVCHD video into Vegas 7.0e. It doesn’t recognize the files and also isn’t importing the MPEG-2 that the goofy Panasonic software generated. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Paul

[Nathan Smith]

Just wanted to make sure people know DSE/Spot doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Maybe back in Nov ’07 there were no true 1920×1080 cams, but there are now. Canon’s newer AVCHD cams and Sony’s I know for a fact are 1920×1080 and 1.0 pixel aspect ratio.

Hopefully he’s not going around still trying to argue those cams are the same as HDV.

[Leo Murphy]

What is the module that allows for AVCHD output?

I’ve been trying to do this for some time as all the conversion settings degrade color and sharpness too much.

[Sebastian Alvarez]

[Leo Murphy] “What is the module that allows for AVCHD output?”

It’s in the Sony AVC module in the system tab, you can output either an AVC elementary stream, a MP4 file or an AVCHD file. In none of them you can go higher than 1440×1080 at 15 Mbps, and in 8.0c you can also get 1920×1080 at 16 Mbps, which doesn’t look bad, but it’s still pathetic that DVDA 5 allows you to encode AVC at any size and rate you want within specs, and Vegas does not.

[Leo Murphy]

Thanks, I actually just upgraded to version 8.0c.

[Rob Ka]

Hey Guys,

I’m having trouble getting Panasonic AVCHD files to open in Vegas.
I’m using Vegas 8.0d and trying to get files from a Panasonic HDC SD-100 into it. I’ve been searching for the solution for a while, but can’t get a definitive answer. Dose Vegas 8.0d support Panasonic AVCHD or not? Sony says it dose but when I try to import a file, I get a “non supported file format” error message.
Any ideas what I could do to solve this problem? Do I need to get a plugin or codec for Vegas?
The software that came with the camera is installed on my computer and it plays the files, and I also have Pinnacle studio and that has no problem either. But they are not really what I would call editing programs.
Please help if you can.
Oh yeah, Happy Holidays!

[Sebastian Alvarez]

If you have 8.0d you can only have the Platinum version, and while I have not used any other than Pro 8,it has to an incompatibility between the camera and Vegas, because I have thrown AVCHD footage from a Panasonic SD5 to Vegas with no problems. Or, maybe you have some kind of systemwide problem that you can spend hours trying to investigate, or you can opt for making a good backup and then re-installing the OS again from scratch.

[Rob Ka]

Yes I have Platinum, and it’s most likely an incompatibility between the camera and Vegas, because I have the same software on 2 different machines and get the same error message.
Dose anyone know of a list out there on the internet of supported cameras by Vegas 8.0d Platinum?
It would help knowing if I’m missing something or my camera isn’t even supported.

THX

[Sebastian Alvarez]

If you do a very short take of about ten seconds and you can post that somewhere online for me to download, I can throw it to Vegas Pro 8 and tell you if it works.

I had no idea that Panasonic had released an update to the SD9, and looking up your camera online I can tell it’s an excellent update. I would get one right now if I could, having had the SD5 I know their picture quality is great, and now they put a focus ring on this model, which addresses one of my pet peeves when it comes to electronics design nowadays, that most companies put almost every single function, downright to the focus, through the use of menus, which drives me insane. I have a Canon HF-100 and I have to operate the stupid little joystick just to make focus.

I wonder if this new camera has something changed in its format design that makes it incompatible with older Vegas. Perhaps you could try downloading the latest trial of Platinum Pro 9 and see if it works in the same computer.

[Rob Ka]

I will try to get a 9.0 version of Vegas.
In the meantime, I’ve uploaded a small file on Rapidshare for you to test. Here is the link:
https://rapidshare.de/files/41204245/00040.MTS.html

The camera is great by the way. There is some noise in low light situations, but I still have to get used to the settings, and how they affect picture quality.
In normal lighting the camera is really awesome.
The whole thing is very small size and light.

Without even testing it I bought a Raynox HD semi fisheye lens for it, link here:
https://raynox.co.jp/english/video/hd3032pro/index.htm
It’s great, and encompasses the whole zoom range, so you don’t have to take it off. Highly recommended for close and indoor shooting.

I bought this camera exactly for those reasons you brought up. The multifunction ring is great, and makes the camera semi-pro. Navigation in some of the menus are still done with a tiny joypad which is too small for my fingers.

I’m a pro photographer, but relatively new to the motion picture field 🙂 The main concepts of light, depth of field and composition are the same, but need some getting used to.

Please get back to me if the file worked on your end. HD Writer, Pnnacle, Edius play it by the way…

THX