AVCHD Conversion

[twfmike]

Hiya,

I'm not a video specialist - I do firework shows (theworldfamous.co.uk), so I have no idea what I'm talking about - please be gentle with me
Just bought a Panasonic hard drive video camera to document the shows. Apparently, it saves the video in AVCHD format.
I need to move it onto a PC hard drive in a viewable format, without losing quality, that I can then edit / reformat into quicktime / burn to DVD / make FLV's for my website.

CAn anyone suggest a simple bit of software to do the conversion quickly and efficiently?
(Did I mention it needs to be simple?)

Cheers,

Mike

[edDV]

Hiya,

I'm not a video specialist - I do firework shows (theworldfamous.co.uk), so I have no idea what I'm talking about - please be gentle with me
Just bought a Panasonic hard drive video camera to document the shows. Apparently, it saves the video in AVCHD format.
I need to move it onto a PC hard drive in a viewable format, without losing quality, that I can then edit / reformat into quicktime / burn to DVD / make FLV's for my website.

CAn anyone suggest a simple bit of software to do the conversion quickly and efficiently?
(Did I mention it needs to be simple?)

Cheers,

Mike

The camcorder should have come with software to move the AVCHD clips to your hard drive over USB2 as a data transfer. This in effect, creates a first generation copy to your hard drive. Are you asking for an editor? Then it gets more complicated and/or expensive. What are your budget vs. quality preferences?

If your budget is flush, go for Vegas Pro or Adobe Premiere CS4. If you don't like the performance, spend another $129 for the Cineform Neoscene digital intermediate codec which will speed things up.
http://www.cineform.com/neoscene/

[edDV]

OOps I see you are on OSX.

iMovie will convert AVCHD to 960x540/30p which will deminish a fire works display in both resolution and motion increments.

You should capture to the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) at 1080i and edit in Final Cut Express or Pro at 1080i.

[twfmike]

Thanks for your replies edDV.
Some clarification: I'm on OSX on my macbook, but have a couple of XP machines in the office so can go either way.
The software supplied by panasonic changes AVCHD into some other weird format. What I'm after initially is to archive the full res footage on a hard disc as something I can look at - MPEG or quicktime (or AVI or WAV?) that is then easy to burn to dvd or reformat for web, etc.

Editing is a secondary thing, which i can do with imovie or premiere (I have quite an old windows version) once I have the right format....

[twfmike]

also, looking for CHEAP options.....

[edDV]

If that is true, I'd call Panasonic and ask how you can get your clips over USB2 in full quality.

I've edited a fireworks sequence that I shot as a test in 1080i HDV format. I noticed that any change in resolution or use of deinterlacers caused most of the point flash detail to be lost. Resizing was even worse. You will probably see a heavy loss using iMovie 960x540 vs the original.

[Soopafresh]

What's the model number of the camcorder

[MJ Peg]

It depends upon your definition of "without losing quality".

Prism converter (free) will convert to mp4 ok, with enough quality to make DVD and FLV, but if you don't want the slight quality loss of a conversion from one codec to another then you'll need a lossless format but the files will be huge compared to the highly compressed originals.

[twfmike]

It depends upon your definition of "without losing quality".

Prism converter (free) will convert to mp4 ok, with enough quality to make DVD and FLV, but if you don't want the slight quality loss of a conversion from one codec to another then you'll need a lossless format but the files will be huge compared to the highly compressed originals.

Thanks for that, but Just looked at the Prism site and it doesnt list AVCHD as a format it can decompress. Any other suggestions?

[MJ Peg]

Prism converts my AVCHD Lite files (movie mode 1280x720 from a superzoom stills camera) into MP4 AVI files which edit well in the editor VideoPad (from the same NCH people) - so I guess it's possible it might do Full AVCHD too