[Paul Johnson]

I think I finally figured out how to render Sony CX7’s AVCHD files for the web and keep the resulting file size at minimum. The trick is to convert AVCHD files to MPEG-2 using Picture Motion Browser software first. Next, edit MPEG-2’s in Vegas Pro and render the final project as WMV at 1 Mbps. The resulting file is small and quality is almost as good as the source MPEG-2.

I’ve tried working directly with AVCHD files in Vegas then converting them to WMV but the result is horrible IQ. I also tried rendering AVCHD as MPEG-2 in Vegas Pro but I can’t match the quality I get from Picture Motion Browser “Convert to MPEG-2 and Save” option.

The process adds additional overhead to the post processing workflow but I am willing to deal with it — the resulting quality is worth it.

[Paul Johnson]

Does your training video cover working with AVCHD as the source for the web? I have no problem spending the money and time on educating myself but I don’t want to go through all that only to find that I can’t apply it to AVCHD format. I rather shoot S3 :-), because I am pretty happy with the results as they are now.

[Paul Johnson]

I am on DSL and I couldn’t play it through without jitter and sound being broken up with pauses. But I will say that it’s the best one I’ve seen from AVCHD source.

The reason I am interested in web-based medium more than “playable format” is because I view the “playable format” as a print medium in still photography. Yes, there’s a place for it, but lets face it — if it’s on the web, more people will see it, and that’s what we want in this day an age. No one is sending each other DVD’s of their vacation videos and weddings. They post it once on the web and send a link to the video to dozens of friends who then send it to their friends etc.. You just can’t do that with hard medium (DVD).

[Paul Johnson]

Ok lets forget youtube for a moment — here’s the same clip outside of youtube:

https://www.ttljournal.com/shooting-SW-460V.php

What do you think? Can you match this with AVCHD? 1 Mbps?

[Paul Johnson]

Douglas,

You are absolutely correct — I should have used the term “AVI (Image: Motion JPEG; Audio: WAVE (Stereo))” throughout the post to avoid the confusion.

Nevertheless my Canon S3 blows away my CX7 — here’s a clip that was shoot using S3 (rendered in Vegas as WMV 640×480 at 1 Mbps bitrate — total 6mb file):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFHD9IY6Czk

Could you show me a comparable quality that came out of CX7 (on youtube) and hopefully explain how the heck do I get there from AVCHD? I will be the first one to admit that I know very little about video post-production — I shoot DSLR and only recently got into video, so please forgive my ignorance on this subject.

Thank you again for your help.

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