CS4 AVCHD Playback problems

[Jiri Fiala]

You cannot really compare AVCHD playback performance of Avid vs Premiere, since Avid transcodes everything into its own highly optimized MXF (or OMF) media files (AVCHD file transcoded to Avid must be really HUGE), whereas Premiere plays the original AVCHD media. I think Adobe should add some intermediate codec too, but that’s another story.

AVCHD and MPEG4 in general is optimized for distribution, and I scratch my head what lead camera manufacturers to use it as an acquisition format.

[Tom Ballister]

Well, I tried to make it clear that there was no AVCHD footage involved in my comparison(s); sorry that didn’t come through.

I did my testing with just (a) the Universal Counting Leader (right-click the Project Window -> New Item -> Universal Counting Leader), and (b) a piece of HDV (.mpeg) footage captured under PPro 2.0 from an older Sony MiniDV (1440×1080) camera. Again, no AVCHD involved.

You are right though, a common workflow I see socialized for AVCHD on Media Composer is to use the Panasonic AVCHD to P2 DVCPRO HD Transcoder software (by Main Concept), and that does take time, and the files do get large. (https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/desk/e/download.htm )

However, I recently came across a program called the “AVS Video Convertor 6” that can convert AVCHD to MPEG-2 (.m2t) files. I’ve just started playing, but conversion seems pretty quick and the footage looks just fine.

[Josh Townsend]

“While tinkering I discovered another disappointment. I used to be able (under 2.0) to just Export -> Frame and be able to quickly grab frames of interest. Under CS4 attempting to Export kicks off the separate Adobe Encore process (10 – 15 seconds), and then you need to drill through a handful of options, (another 10 – 15 seconds). Grossly less efficient from a work flow perspective than 2.0. ”

Totally agree. Video’s like this are totally misleading. https://www.mbsdirect.com/current/News/Video-Production-News/adobe-cs4-production-premium.html

There are as many missing/broken features as there are new broken ones in CS4.

[Jeff Adams]

Can anyone say that AVCHD is editable without problems on a good PC with PP4??? I’ve been very excited for the day when I can edit AVCHD in a Premiere workflow. I hope that I can!!! I also would like to know, has anyone has edited AVCHD from a Sony HDR SR1 in PP4? How did it go?

[Tom Ballister]

I can say that I gave up. In the course of discussions with Adobe support trying to resolve my own problems (no AVCHD files don’t play),
the guy told me they had replaced a lot of their proprietary driver code with OpenGL. My observation: in the effort to “standardize” Premiere sacrificed performance.

What I can also say is that I have found an extremely fast turn around for watching raw AVCHD footage. I do football games, and typically wind up with about 45-50 minutes of footage. My Panasonic AG-HSC1U came with a cute little battery powered 40Gb drive for copying its SDHC media onto.
1) At end of game I pop SDHC chip out of camera and into HD and press “Copy”. By the time I’m done packing up I’ve got a back up copy. Time: 5 Min.
2) I get home and connect the HD to my computer, and do a copy to its HD. Time: 3 Min.
3) I run Nero8, and generate an AVCHD-DVD. (I.e, the same files that would go onto a Blu-Ray, but on a standard $.43 DVD-R (and without cost of the Blu-Ray burner). Time: 6 Min.

E.g., in less than 15 minutes I’m sitting in front of my
50″ screen and Blu-Ray plater watching the game at 1080i !!

I do not need Premiere for this. When I need to edit, as in putting together highlight tapes, I convert the AVCHD clips and use Media Composer; it actually works.

[Jeff Adams]

That’s great, but I need to do more advance editing and I love Premiers workflow! So, if Premiere CS4 can NOW edit AVCHD then this would be AWESOME! I’m just wondering if anyone has achieved this with good results?

[Adam Chesbrough]

I have a computer with the following specs and the playback of AVCHD is choppy. If this computer can’t stream AVCHD in CS4 then I’m not sure what will. I am a PC and adobe user but am thinking of switching to a macbook pro and final cut; this is extremely frustrating.

# Intel Core2 Extreme Processor QX9650 (3.00 GHz Overclocked to 3.67Hz) w/QuadCore Technology and 12 MB cache
# 4 GB DDR SDRAM at 1067MHz
# Blu-Ray Drive & 16x DVD+/-RW Drive
# DUAL CARDS: Dual 1024MB Radeon ATI HD 3870X2 video cards
# X-Fi PCI Sound Card
# SATA 2 RAID 1 with Dual 1TB Hard Drives
# Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit
# CPU liquid/TEC Cooling-ATX

[Jeff Adams]

Man, that sounds like a SMOKING processor, 12 Megabyte Cache? I want that!!!! I have a Core 2 E6700 I don’t know the Cache size though, but it does great!

What I’m tripping on is, you’ve got all this killer hardware but you’re running on Vista 32 Bit??? Maybe that’s the reason you’re experiencing hiccups… I don’t know, but I imagine that 64 bit XP Pro or vista 64 bit would be SIGNIFICANTLY better and probably would enable you to actualize your systems true performance. I believe there’s limitations on 32 bit compared 64, like not being able to read more than a certain amount of RAM, (3 gig limit I think).

[Adam Chesbrough]

I agree with the 64 vs 32 bit OS, but I don’t think that Adobe has a different version for 64 bit OS. I know that they have photoshop for 64 bit but but I dont think there is a premiere 64 bit.

How does Adobe premiere run on the top of the line macbook pro, mac claims that editing AVCHD is no problem on the macbook pro (2.8 GHZ)

[Jeff Adams]

I actually edited AVCHD with Sony Vegas on my PC with no problems. Accept, I hated using Vegas, premiere is way better.

I have a friend with a Mac and Final Cut and they’ve been able to edit with no problems. I like final cut, it seems about the same as premiere to me. I just fear switching to mac because

1. I’ve invested so much in my pc
2. the amount i’ve invested in my pc wouldn’t have built quite the same size mac
3. the mac tends to have some compatibility issues with some programs i do like to use
4. most of my clients use a pc and when i get that occasional mac person to send me something it doesn’t seem to work right, display right, doesn’t open, or just has some type of problem on the pc.

CS3 ran great. HD was very easy to edit on my PC too. I’ve actually ran it side by side with final cut/Mac and there appeared to be no difference. But, I’m running on XP Pro. And, I don’t have a clue yet what CS4 will be like.