[Phil Lochner]

I kind of gave up on it after I couldn’t find any combination of MP4 encoding that would universally work with VLC, WMP, my PS3, my X360, and now my Popcorn Hour.

I made 8mb bitrate preset based on a the MPEG2/Blu-Ray preset in Media Encoder CS4. I rename the file to .mpg and it works great, so far, but it does generate a larger file.

[Phil Lochner]

Thanks for your help. I’m currently trying out the H264 Blu-Ray preset from Media Encoder CS4, and muxing them to .m4v.

I’m not sure if this will help me out in my quest to create a H264 file that can be played by all my devices, but I figure I’ll give it a shot.

[Phil Lochner]

Hmm, I think I may be ahead of myself with H264 then. I was under the impression that H264 was kind of a magic bullet type of codec, which I could run all my videos through and produce great looking (and smaller file sized), cross platform output.

I didn’t realize that MP4 / H264 was still “Quicktime” as far as the Windows world thinks, and I’m well aware of the problems years ago that I’ve had getting MOV files to play in anything other than Quicktime Player.

My end goal for this project is to get all of my home movies (shot on various sources, such as DV cam, little 30-second MOV and AVIs taken by digital cameras, my new AVCHD camera, etc) into a universal format that I can play on my PC, my Macbook Pro, streamed to my PS3, and/or Popcorn Hour A110.

Perhaps the better question would be to ask what high quality formats I should be examining other than H264?

[Phil Lochner]

Thanks for the quick response. However:

I don’t see how downgrading quicktime will make a difference? Quicktime plays the resulting MP4 file just fine. It’s VLC and WMP11 that won’t play the resulting MP4 file.

PP CS4 handles and edits the original footage fine and without problems. I can edit my AVIs, DIVX, whatever, and output them using Media Encoder to MPEG2, AVI, MOV, etc – those all play perfectly in VLC, WMP11, and Quicktime player.

Regardless of the original source encoding, Media Encoder just won’t make a MP4 that VLC or WMP11 will play.

[Phil Lochner]

I have a HDR-SR11 and had to come up with a bit of a workflow to get the footage from my camera to a format that I could edit with CS3.

First step is getting the footage off your camera and onto your computer. Connect the camera to the computer via USB, use the camera menus to enable the USB connect, and you should be able to browse it using Explorer (I assume you’re on Windows). There will be several folders in there – dig into them and find your STREAM folder, which should have .MTS files in there. Copy those MTS files to your computer – each time you record a scene, it generates a MTS file.

You can purchase Cineform NeoScene to convert AVCHD files to .AVI files for $129. This creates AVI files using the Cineform HD Intermediate Codec.

If you want to do it another way, here’s a general description of what I did when I didn’t have the Cineform NeoScene. Find and install these programs:

VirtualDub 1.9.0
AVISynth 2.57
AVCHD_CONVERT v6 at https://forum.videohelp.com/images/guides/p1814962/avchd_convert_v9.zip
Lagarith Lossless Video Codec

You’ll have alot of files that may not have a “Setup.exe” installer, so save yourself a headache and unzip those files into individual directories.

Move your MTS files in the AVCHD_Convert folder.
Run the appropriate batch file in the AVCHD Convert folder, depending on your footage and desired output resolution. The batch file will scan it’s folder for MTS folders and process them.
Your system will grind away and convert those MTS files. The batch file will generate (among other things) a bunch of .avc files.
Open up VirtualDub and load those .avc files. You should be able to preview the footage. Note that there is a 45 frame “Fade in”, so scrub your footage to see the results.
In VirtualDub, go up to the Video Menu and select Compression. Change it from Uncompressed to Lagarith.
From the File Menu, choose Save as AVI, and let it generate your AVI file using the Lagarith Lossless Codec.

There are other lossless codecs you can install other than Lagarith. Why bother with Lagarith? Because using “uncompressed” with generate MASSIVE AVI files that will bring your system to a crawl when you try to edit them. You will probably have similar problems with Lagarith AVIs but it won’t be as bad as Uncompressed. Ideally, using Neo Scene and the Cineform codec is the way to go.

[Phil Lochner]

My new system has 8GB of ram and those dual Xeons at 2.5ghz along with the Quadro FX 1700. It was about $3000 at Dell.com if I remember – it’s a Precision Workstation T7400 and it’s running Vista 64 Ultimate.

It’s a great system! I am very happy with it so far. Unfortunately, I gain nothing extra by running CS3 with the Quadro FX 1700. I was under the impression that I would have some sort of GPU acceleration with CS3 and the Quadro. It’s not a huge deal because we’re going to be transitioning the system to a CAD/GIS system after the video project is complete, so the card won’t go to “waste”.

Plus, the dual Xeons just scream and with the 8GB of RAM, and After Effects opens 6 instances of itself during renders to speed things along.

One more thing: the T7400 is a huge full size case and weighs about 80lbs. I had no idea it would be that massive. It is whisper quiet however. The mouse and keyboard shipped with it are garbage.

[Phil Lochner]

We’ve decided to go with my original specc’ed machine, which is the dual Quad Core Xeons at 2.50ghz. We are planning to re-purpose this machine after the video project is complete and I have not been pleased with the limited configuration options available to Dell’s i7 Studio XPS line.

As soon as it arrives I’ll let you know how it runs!

[Phil Lochner]

Thanks for the tips. I actually went with the Cineform codec. Neo-Scene was only $129 and it converted the files without a problem. Naturally I have some Cineform related followup questions but it looks like their forums are pretty active so I’ll check them out.

[Phil Lochner]

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, we’re locked into buying a Dell machine, and Dell doesn’t make any i7 workstations – only gaming rigs which are deficient in other areas. That being said, we also can’t go piecemeal with building a system consisting of different mobos and video cards.. we’re just locked into the various options available when configuring a Dell system. I’ll check my video card options when I reconfigure the system as well, maybe I can save a few bucks by not getting the Quadro.

Edit: I see now that Dell has an i7 XPS Studio line. I’ll see if I can configure a system comparable to the one I listed above!

[Phil Lochner]

After looking into this a little bit more, it sounds like my hardware setup will be sufficient.

However, I am curious about my OS choice. I currently have CS3 and plan on (at least initially) using my new rig with CS3. Should I get 64bit XP or 64bit Vista?

If I decide to upgrade to CS4, will I be better off running it on 64bit XP or 64bit Vista?

Any thoughts?