[Ht Davis]

That sounds about right. Also, some cameras have a variable frame rate that has caused issues with ffmbc as well as adobe software in the past. You may want to make sure your AVCHD folder structure is intact.

With one camera, I rarely have a problem. I do two conversions and I’m done. But with multiple cameras and long recordings, this is dreadful slow. I’ve started using MTS joiner software, That just combines the files, then I edit them in Adobe while I convert a copy for output (note that the converted copy is usually huge prores). When I finish editing, I move on.

When I cannot edit the file capably, I have to convert first. When I do that, I usually go to Prores Proxy for working files, then to the full format for output.

[Ht Davis]

I just read through this and Thought I’d add something…

mpeg2 some have said means an mpeg file, while mpeg2dvd is a preset. For those who like everything to be spelled out perfectly (i.e. the anal OCD sufferers who think they’re the best at everything and just have to try and prove it), go in the other room for a bit and let the grown ups talk. For the rest of you, whom I cherish as friends (though I’ve never met you and I’m not asking to):

Mpeg2 encodings for DVD and H264 both get transcoded by encore as separated files of video and audio, but it will only list one of them, and will only allow you to pick the video as an asset from within cs6 encore after you transcode with presets in encore or AME. Here are a few tips I’ve put together as I’ve seen the issues in my recent work:

1. If you’re going from your raw video stream, try to match the bit rate as close as possible. This will cut down on reencoding time. First, rip the audio in an uncompressed WAV file, and find out all you can about it. I usually save it as a PCM MOV format, and then use any player with an advanced inspection window to grab the audio file info. This lets me adjust for audio bitrate.
2. AME doesn’t separate the video encodings as well on its own. I usually pass it out as a full format, then compress. I’ve used AVC and prores. Remember that your bit rate adjusts how much information will move through the system every second, and this will also adjust the JPEG quality of your frames. JPEG is a compressed image. Top that off with the fact that only the changes are tracked, and even those are compressed down, you will be dropping some data in favor of speed. When the data is moved, the pieces are put back together on the fly, and even with the loss of some quality in the frames, it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tell. That said, you can use any encoder that will allow you to make an MPEG2 m2v stream to encode for dvd or bluray, just make it as a separated video stream (no audio), and make an ec3 or ac3 audio file for audio. When you are in encore, right click the asset and click “Locate Transcode” if you are using a sequence or a standard video, and then pick the video, then it will ask for audio. By separating their encodes, you don’t link the files within one another the way encore does, and it will allow you to pick both separately.
3. IF you are using the same format for either disc, remember, DVD has a max rate of about 15mbps. Blu-ray AVCHD encoded to dvd will use this maximum. Standard DVD is defined as 8-10mbps, with audio. If you are in full res and fullest quality when you start, then the encoding will have better quality at lower bitrates, because it will be more accurate. In such instances, you can settle for a single pass VBR.
4. If you are encoding from raw streams, you may want to use a 2 pass algorithm with VBR, and also, you may want to set aside some serious time… …it will take a while. Set your DVD at 9mpbs max, 8mbps target in AME, and in others, you can set the min to 5, giving you a wide area to encode, and maintain quality. Set your audio to AC3 encoding at 512bps or less. With H264 you can go 25mbps max with 15mbps at the low end. If you want to use the same encoding for both, set your mpeg2 for your blu-ray to 15-25, which will increase quality unless you also bump the resolution up one step. They will both look similar when played back on smaller screens, but on larger screens there will be a difference.

My encodings:
Raw– I use FCP for raw encodes and simple clips. It allows me to just make a quick cut and spit out something for the web. Other than that, it’s useless. I usually do multi cam, and when I spit out a clip for a preview, it’s just one cam. I archive everything and back it up. I always use VBR, with standard quality settings on the encoding. When I use a single cam, and just want to output to a disc, I encode to avchd using compressor if I go bluray, and separate the task among several computers ( i do similar with m2v for dvd and just use the preset boundaries in compressor with DVD). With RAW I always set a 2 pass encoding, which scans each frame with a second algorithm to define changes, and find areas where it can compress the frame. This increases file size (in my experience) and increases quality. Just remember, the encoding uses 2 passes. The playback uses 1. Playback usually reverses the original single pass algorithm (again with some loss) to rebuild each frame on the fly.

full edit–
I use Premiere pro for editing larger multi cam projects. There have been complaints about sync issues with sound. Let me clarify this for you… …Premiere doesn’t crash like all the others when you try to synchronize the sound. If the sound slips away from the video, it’s because the source has a variable frame rate (most cameras do this by default to combat camera shake, but the algorithm does make mistakes). To combat this, adobe lets you fix smaller problems with this phenomena by transcoding your video to a full format, and if you turn on frame blending, it will fix the missing frames for you, keeping sync. CC will also try to sync by audio on it’s own now. It does well, I’ve only used CC twice, but I like the workflow well enough to call it one of the better features. The bulk of my work is in cs5 or 6, and I rent out the studio space as needed. I render out the full files to RAID drives, then create proxies if I deem necessary, and go from there. I always transcode before an edit. Let me say that again: I ALWAYS TRANSCODE BEFORE EDITING LARGER PROJECTS ESPECIALLY IF THE CAMERAS ARE:
1. MIXED BRAND
2. PROSUMER OR CONSUMER GRADE OR PHONE OR DEVICE
3. UNKNOWN

I just wish that there was a way to get the video into a machine using the AVCHD folder as a file, that way it would see it as a whole video. The transport streams are all separated…
PRELUDE:
When I have to put them together, the transport streams can be a big pain in the butt. However, Prelude is a big help. Since I probably need to transcode anyway, I use it to tie them together. First, create presets for the work in AME and turn on frame blending before saving the preset. Go to prelude, set it up to grab all the files, select the first one, hold shift and select the last; now click on concatenate box, and give the new file a name, pick your transcode preset and let it go. With RAID drives, this is a little faster. With faster gfx cards and processors, it flies. Now the stream will be transcoded as a single file, and with the frame blending on, dropped frames that occur in some camera transport streams are repaired (since it’s usually a small 1-2frame drop, it really doesn’t show). Audio becomes a problem at this point. Some cameras drop audio in between stream points when recording to cards instead of discs or tapes. The reason is that the file system, processor and amount of active memory in the camera are not fast or resilient enough to buffer the data properly. With a disc, the data is written in blocks and the next block is queued such that it’s max size is always the same; when that pushes beyond the stream transport buffer size, a new chunk is created, on the fly, preventing the drop in data transport.

Prelude is a great place to create your clips for log-and transport operations, but it lacks the same kick that FCP has. It’s more of a file prep than it is a logging app. You can transport the rough cuts to premiere as sequences, and use them like clips, but it still lacks that metadata connection. Personally, I’d love to take a class that taught metadata tagging and logging. I haven’t been able to find one. I’d be happy to hear of any you find online, though I usually prefer local campus and interaction with people over the cold interpolated calculation of a computer screen.

Hope this is useful to you.

[Ht Davis]

When a drive is considered “Busy” it is write protected. Turn off anything that monitors it. Then try again. Make sure your external drive has no Permissions on it by using a format without the permissions structure (FAT formats usually do the trick), and you can tell the system to ignore permissions.

[Ht Davis]

Jeff is right about the preset. Ue the one that came with AME, but adjust your bit rate settings as necessary.

Compressor 3 had a bad implementation until 3.5 and the updated components in the codec, just before compressor 4 came out.

By the way sorry about the rant. At 3 am, I get a little punchy. Especially since I have to be up at 5 or 6 am, alternating, including weekends.

As for the comment about older machines… …I do my work on varying arrays of machines. My workflow is designed to remove all problems that MIGHT occur with ANY FOOTAGE. I get clips from everywhere and anywhere. I remove any Frame rate and sync issues early, and get everything into a single format so I can color grade and apply it at the best quality, with a short render (only a few seconds worth in each clip) that allows me to gauge the color balance. You call it slow, I call it complete. I get pro quality, and exceptional quality on a 2008 MBP with a 2.16ghz core 2 duo and 4gb ram. I do my output to a full format, then carry that over to a lab to compress it, cost is usually about 4 hours of render time in compressor with one machine and down to an hour per hour of video with a set of machines all running compressor with the right settings. On top of that, I archive the entire project to disks (excluding the full format blow ups) so I can revisit it later. It’s easy because I place it al in the same folder structure on disk images. I set the size the project should take, and grow it when I need to. I still get quality that makes video guys wet themselves laughing at the joke when I tell them I got it from an ’08 mbp with 4gb ram. It’s no joke. It works. Adobe CC is great, but I prefer my cs6. That said, I’ve tested alterations to just about every setting I can think of for speed hikes. My findings on this issue are thus:
Cache files can be tricky–on mac they need the mac permissions structure and disks that conform to it; on windows they are less permission dependent in cs6, but in CC, there have been stories of mishaps outside of the NT file system.
Previews can go anywhere, but keep them together (audio and video in same location), and it will index them faster. Keep them with your project file location, and it will default to checking the top level folder when looking for resources (a relative path) that is less likely to break when moving between operating systems.
Other files can be placed anywhere, but I like to keep my proxies and original video in the same volume as my project because it will find them faster when searching for them to relink when moving between machines.
I can put the output from premiere anywhere, so long as the other machines I use to compress it can read that location. I place the compressed file I get from compressor into an output folder on the disk image, and link that to encore as a transcode of the premiere sequence, and I also place the audio next to it. When linking, Premiere and Encore will seek the top level folder, then seek the other files from there by matching the relative path.
At the end, I close the image, I RAR the image to split it into pieces of set size, then burn to discs and wipe my drives with a quick wipe and start fresh. I can output for youtube, dvd, blu-ray… Not just for slow machines. For a complete workflow…
I get rid of any possible problems first, I don’t waste time checking for them. On top of that, I provide archival. I can rar, and burn at any time to make a backup. I already have an incremental imaging program handling that by backing up to 2 externals, slowly, but it happens every other night. Knowing that, I get my files ready the first day, start work, and do an initial backup, then update only the changed files every other night after. No whoops moments.
My working drives are all firewire and esata. My backup drives are usb and firewire. I use almost every port on my MBP for drives. Of course, I image all the cards\cameras first, and then transcode, but that’s all usb. Takes about 3 hours for 4 cameras with 2-3 hours of footage each (17-25gb per card). Then it takes a lot less time to get the transcodes from faster drives, and I get to keep a copy of the original card, freeing up my cameras for more usage and footage. A complete workflow for craziness and constant work. My minimum deadline is a week to 10 days, to allow for basic editing and output. With added 3d effects and such, 2 weeks. Most are in line with that.

[Ht Davis]

Run FAR FAR AWAY.

No, jk. A clean install will get it all back, but with Yosemite, there are still a lot of issues. Be prepared to contend with those. If you want your prores back, you’ll have to install your apple codecs first, then install the preset that matches the codecs. For compressor 3 and below, use the cs6 set, for compressor 4 and above, use the CC set.

As for time machine… …useless for anything but your documents. Unfortunately, there aren’t as many useful options for moving on the mac as there are for pc. Use to be that I you could use firewire to move the files and profile without disturbing the system, even some of the apps. Not anymore. Truly unfortunate.

Acronis has an imaging software, but I haven’t tried it. You might check with them. They might be able to do their imaging and recover all the drivers and such into place much like with their windows software. Their windows software allows you to upgrade to a newer machine, keeping the same software and locations, but allows you to upgrade and replace drivers first.

[Ht Davis]

If you are getting a problem on export, it would seem to be that the frame rate of your export doesn’t match your project.

Possibilities:
1. Bandicam has recorded a video with a Variable FRAME rate, causing the audio to go slightly out of sync in your sequence. Test: Play through your video in the sequence where the audio misaligns
2. Your audio from bandicam may have a few seconds tagged on to the front or rear (perhaps a few samples of audio) or may have dropped them for one reason or another. In that case you’ll have to align the audio yourself. Time consuming but the only way.
3. Your sequence settings may be NTSC 30p DF, which means drop frame 30, or more accurately, 29.97 frames per second. If you set your output to NTSC 30p at exactly 30 frames per second, you’ll get sync issues. If you want to fix that but keep the 30, turn on USE FRAME BLENDING. IF you want to match your sequence settings, just check and set them correctly.

Check your playback program and make sure the audio delay or sync counter is set to 0. Some try to “Fix” the audio by adjusting it about .05-.5 seconds. Make sure it’s at zero also.

[Ht Davis]

Matchframe does exist in premiere.

From Adobe Site:
Match a frame with its source

While editing in a Timeline panel, you can find the source frame for any frame in a sequence clip and display it in the Source Monitor. Also, you can find the source frame for any frame in a nested sequence, display it in the Source Monitor, and jump to its location in the source sequence.

Click the header of the track where the sequence clip is located, to target the track.
If more than one track is targeted, Premiere Pro will match the frame in the highest targeted track.

In a Timeline panel, position the playhead over the desired frame in a clip.
Note:
If the source clip for the frame in the sequence clip is already open in the Source Monitor or listed in the Source menu, the Source Monitor will display the last frame you viewed in the clip. To match the frame, close the clip in the Source Monitor before typing the Match Frame or Reveal Nested Sequence keyboard shortcut.

Do one of the following:
Press the F key.

Choose Sequence > Match Frame.

For a clip in a nested sequence, type the keyboard shortcut for Reveal Nested Sequence, Ctrl-Shift-T (Windows), or Shift-T (Mac OS) by default.

Basically, you can do this in premiere. Unfortunately they are still working on the “Reverse Match Frame” or the logical reversal of this function. It will let you currently see where in a source clip you are at a particular frame, so set the frame to the first frame of your clip, do a match frame, write the frame timecode down, do it again for the end frame. Now you can use those to create your desired sub clip, which premiere sees as it’s own clip. Some ask why this is useful, and I may agree with that on some levels, but, ultimately, I like having sub clips I can render out independently of my source and main sequence. When I need just a short teaser or even a highlight reel, the source clips can be uber useful if they’re properly named and organized. Better still… …the GAG reel… A million laughs when I catch an intern or some no name picking their nose just before or after a shoot.

[Ht Davis]

What is your output for? Where will it be used?
IF you are up converting your sd to HD already, why couldn’t you just capture it in that fashion to begin with?
I have used a usb input to capture video from an old sony CCD analog SD camcorder to a 720 x 480 p video at 29.97, even though the video was originally shot at 24 frames. The camera does have 16×9 cinema mode, and that allows me to get a wide-screen view, without stretching the frame. I can shoot 24p and input into 29.97. After that, just up convert the video to your proper resolution, clean it a little, output.

In short, capture at the max resolution direct from source if possible, then pulldown. After you have your video in your desired frame rate, do your up conversion to HD and clean it up. You’ll be able to see the effects more clearly, and they will stay more true throughout. Doing the up conversion to hd first wouldn’t be logical. You’d clean it up only to add frames\fields, and then have to clean those up again. You’ll get a better quality doing your pull first.

[Ht Davis]

What is your screen resolution? Are you playing it at full size (actual size) or Fit To Screen size? I haven’t faced this personally, but I might hazard a guess.

1. It’s showing you what the video is currently playing at for resolution.

2. Your aspect ratio is off (most use square pixels, but some will use other ratios to cut the size or shape of the viewing area around the video to drop the amount of border black is shown during playback.

Play it. If it isn’t stretched, check your screen resolution. You may be playing it back at that resolution instead of at it’s native. 1880 is actually the double of 1440. My own screen is 1440 x 900, which is not a perfect 16:9 aspect setting (square pixels), and when I play back 1920 video, it plays outside my screen size, so I set it to my screen size by using fit to screen. I’ve never checked if this puts any info in the inspector window, but that may be your culprit.

[Ht Davis]

The In out section is the highlight. The light blue indicator is the highlighted area (or selected area). Does that make sense? You can have the source window open and then use the clip menu or markers menu to make a sub clip from the in out mark. If you want multiple sub clips, you can create them in the project panel from the project panel or from the source monitor. You can also create different clip variations on a timeline, but this I don’t think will show up as a sub clip properly in the source monitor. Using in out marks creates a light blue highlighted section you can use to define a sub clip, and place that set in the project panel as if it were a separate file or clip.