Using proxy files for AVCHD editing - conversion software

[sterankin]

Going to try a bit of editing using proxy files. i.e. convert the AVCHD to something like dv avi or mpeg 2 - then edit with the converted files and finally swap in the original AVCHD files.

Question is - what software should I use to batch convert the AVCHD to e.g. DV AVI or MPEG2? Are there any free ones which work well and would preserve the aspect ratio etc?

Also the audio on the AVCHD is 5.1 surround, so will this b an issue when converting?

Many Thanks

[aedipuss]

i don't think there's anything free that will help you. DVavi can only be 720x480/576 and mpeg-2 is not a lossless choice. since you are already dealing with a lossy format your best bet is a lossless intermediate. cineform's neoscene seems to be the one favored right now.

[poisondeathray]

i don't think there's anything free that will help you. DVavi can only be 720x480/576 and mpeg-2 is not a lossless choice. since you are already dealing with a lossy format your best bet is a lossless intermediate. cineform's neoscene seems to be the one favored right now.

aedipuss - he's doing a proxy edit ; the whole point is to use something smaller and lossy for ease of editing , then swap on final render for full quality

sterankin - why not use your editor to convert to the proxy format?

[sterankin]

I want it to be lossy though - so its easy to edit. Then I will replace the lossy files with the HD originals - and all the edits should in theory stay the same.

Or so I have read

Just saw the second reply! I could use the editor but I was looking for something to bacth convert a lot of files, and keep the same files name - just change the extension.

[poisondeathray]

Which NLE are you using? The proxy swap works with PP CS4 , but not so well with vegas without 3d party apps like gearshift

[sterankin]

I'm using PP CS4.

This is what I'm trying to do here:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/2222621#2222621

They mention a couple of encoders - Free AVCHD Converter for example.

Just wondering of there was anything better to batch convert these files.

[poisondeathray]

Why not use adobe media encoder and queue the files up?

[sterankin]

Will try that, was always lead to believe media encoder didnt do a great job - but in this case I guess it doesnt matter Just looking for something that would be fast I guess

[poisondeathray]

The quality doesn't really matter for the proxy files; they're meant to be lower bitrate, lower resolution so encoding to the proxy will be fast. You just want something "quick and dirty"

[greymalkin]

hmmm...this interests me greatly...I just got an hf10 and wanted to edit in CS4 but didn't want to have to do 2 encode steps on the original video..I'll have to look into this!

[edDV]

Proxy editing has mostly been replaced with digital intermediates but would still be productive if you have large amounts of material to search through.

[sterankin]

Just a quick question, when setting up a new project what AVCHD preset should I use (camcorder footage is from a uk PAL Panasonic TM300):

1080i25 (50i) anamorphic
1080i25 (50i)
1080i30 (60i) anamorphic
1080i30 (60i)

Any ideas??

Also - the TM300 produces 5.1 audio. Converting to DV AVI will change this to stereo? Therefore, when I swap the AVCHD files back in - will the 5.1 audio be preserved.

I tried this and tried exporting to H.264 1080p but media encoder gave and error when I selected 5.1 audio for export (something like you cant export more channels than the video has).

Any ideas on this>?

Thanks again

[Khaver]

Take a look at my Batch Intermediate Creator software. Specifically the AVS-BIC program. It can create a dummy avi file that will frameserve your original footage into your editor. At the same time it will create fast editing proxy files with the same name. Included in the zip file is my proxy swapping program that you can use for swapping the proxy files for the dummy (frame served original) avi files. Using this setup I'm able to edit my HD footage with Premiere 6.5 (I don't have the funds to upgrade to Pro).

Hope this helps.

[sterankin]

Thanks Khaver - will def take a look at that!

Any one able to answer my questions re: presets and export format (for ps3 preferably)?

Thanks

[sterankin]

Guys the prxoy editing seems to work well so far with one exception - the 5.1 audio.

I convert the MTS files to DV AVI.
Create a 1080i project in PPCS4 and choose 5.1 as the audio.
Import the DV AVI files and edit.
Save and close.
Open the project file n notepad and replace the .avi with .mts.
Load project.


When I right-click on afile in the timeline, and choose poperties - its says this:

Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - compressed - 6 channels
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - 6 channels

But when I export to e.g. MPEG2-Bluray, the 5.1 audio is not there, it is listed as Stereo! Is there any way to preserve the 5.1 audio at all? When exporting in the audio format - I choose Dolby Digital, but the output format is listed as Dolby Digital stereo. There is no way to change to 5.1 anywhere.



Thanks

[poisondeathray]

To my knowledge, AME doesn't export 5.1 audio without 3rd party plugins like the surcode plugin

[sterankin]

Ok - thanks will look into a plugin..

[poisondeathray]

Hold on, there might be some workarounds . I meant natively exporting 5.1 AC3 audio. I think there are licensing fees for "Dolby" that's why the unlimited version isn't bundled with Adobe software. I think you have 3 or 4 "free uses" until it expires for the bundled Surcode Dolby encoder in AME

You can export the audio separately as 5.1 PCM wav. Use the "uncompressed microsoft AVI" format template, uncheckmark video, checkmark audio only, channels to 5.1

From there, you can use a free AC3 encoder like Aften , audacity , avisynth + soundout, etc.. then add this elementary audio stream to your video in our authoring application

[sterankin]

Thanks for the help here.

I opened my project and tried to export the audio via the umcompressed avi option. AME opened and the 'green tick' appeared almost instantly. But the avi was not exported and no audio was exported.

Could this be because Premiere does not see the audio on the audio track as 5.1. As if I try to use an audio effect from the effect bin, and choose the subfolder '5.1' - it will not let me drag these onto the audio files on the timeline.

If I just import an MTS file and put it on the timeline, it WILL let me add a 5.1 audio effect to the file. But of course the problem here is that I cannot edit a MTS file, hence I am converting to DV AVI and swapping the orignal back in.

But for some reason the audio does not get swapped back in

[poisondeathray]

If you have 5.1 sequence settings, and your assets are matching 5.1 audio it should work

EDIT: I just tested it, that's a weird bug, but for some reason you need to render video with the audio. Resize it small as possible to make it go faster, but it does export 6-ch uncompressed audio.

EDIT#2: Even better, you can also use the AIF (audio interchange file format) preset, much faster than having to render video as well.

[aedipuss]

are your project properties/tracks/audio set to 5.1 and to have a 5.1 track?

[sterankin]

when I import the DV AVI - it goes on a basic stereo audio track and will not go and a 5.1 track.

This could be because when I converted the MTS to DV AVI - I may have forgotten to keep the audio as 5.1 in AME (is this possible).

I assumed that when the MTS files were swapped back in, that the 5.1 audio from the MTS files would be used.

I will try using the AIF format to export and see how that works.

Thanks

[aedipuss]

dvavi can't have 5.1 at all, only 2ch pcm.

but the project settings themselves could still have 5.1 audio. was it edited that way so that there is a 5.1 track available after the swap?

weird the original video would import after the swap and not demux to the original audio also.

[poisondeathray]

While "normal" DV-AVI is stereo only, you can encode the DV-AVI with 5.1 audio , and AME can do this

The sequence settings must be changed from the preset to include 5.1 audio

[aedipuss]

wow. 6 ch. would be just a bit out of spec..

For audio, DV allows either two PCM channels (usually stereo) at 16-bit resolution and 48 kHz sampling rate, or four channels at 12-bit resolution and 32 kHz sampling rate.

i'd like to see 6 ch. printed back to tape

[poisondeathray]

Yeah it's totally out of spec but it seems to work ok without red render bar on the little test I did

[sterankin]

So when I set up my project at the start - I need to make sure there are 5.1 tracks available, so when I swap the MTS files back in - they should be layed down on the 5.1 track, and no the stereo track?

I will have to test this later to see if it works.

[crockysam]

Take a look at my Batch Intermediate Creator software. Specifically the AVS-BIC program. It can create a dummy avi file that will frameserve your original footage into your editor. At the same time it will create fast editing proxy files with the same name. Included in the zip file is my proxy swapping program that you can use for swapping the proxy files for the dummy (frame served original) avi files. Using this setup I'm able to edit my HD footage with Premiere 6.5 (I don't have the funds to upgrade to Pro).

Hope this helps.

Nice, I've been looking for something like this for months. But how do you finally render your movie? You need to have Premiere Pro for the final HD render?