AVC conversion, Widescreen frame size, editing with Prem Pro CS3

[Soul_Survivor]

Hi All

Great forum, have been searching and reading as much as I can for the last few days but I'm stuck with a few things and hoped someone could help.

Firstly, I have a Sony Handycam HDR/TG3E and am editting videos in Adobe Premeire Pro CS3

So the first problem I have is I can't edit the AVCHD (M2TS) in Prem CS3, am currently running the MainConcept MPEG Pro HD4 trial which has allowed to me to bring the videos in but this leads me to problem 1...

1. When I output a video, I get the sound but just a blank grey screen in Windows Media Player, Real Player and VLC - any ideas why or how to fix this?

Second problem and the main reason for posting, is assuming I don't want to pay the 280 euros to get the full version of the Main Concept add on, so I use use the program that comes with the Sony camera, convert to MPEG2 but this takes the resolution down to 720x540

I then bring this into Prem and it has no sound!!!! (BTW I'm getting sound now I have the main concepts add-on but this will have to go)

So anyway to bring the MPEG2 format into Prem and get sound? I can live with it at 720 if I have to, these are mainly being done for web presentation videos.

Thirdly, what widescreen format should I use? Prem suggest 720x576 but the video doesn’t fill this. If I set it to 720x480 and Prem suggest the clip is, the final video crops off the sides, if I set it to 720x405 (16:9) the resolution is aweful!

And finally, should I just give up with Prem Pro CS3 and Get Vegas Pro 9???

Many thanks
Dan

[poisondeathray]

1) What were your export settings? Use mediainfo on your encoded file and post the text results back here

2) I would avoid importing the SD lossy intermediate if possible

One option to import is the premiere avisynth import plugin. This involves basic scripting, but it's fairly simple if you are just importing

Another option is to convert it to a digital intermediate that PP CS3 "likes". MJPG in avi might work, for example - but this too is lossy

3) You might just need a codec for the audio (use mediainfo on the MPEG2 and post the results) , it might work if you installed AC3Filter, for example if the audio was AC3

4) You can conform the file to whatever you want (for aspect ratio), right click it in the clip bin. But I would set sequence settings should to the actual frame dimensions were , and conform the file to 4:3 aspect ratio

5) With the avisynth import plugin, you should be able to import anything. But PP CS4 works with everything, and Vegas 9 pretty much does as well.