Terrible results with Elecard -- suggestions?

[Mylriahd]

I am trying to figure out the best settings inside Elecard to convert the AVCHD files from my Panasonic SD-5. I found a clip on a bright sunny day with my father-in-law wearing a bright orange jacket. I've found this scene to challenge encoders, so it's perfect to test quality. I tried the AVCHD version of Elecard, and the results are relatively blocky. I thought that was bad until I installed and used the full Converter Studio (not pro). That was TERRIBLE blocky. I figured there must be some codec issue, because on another machine I had a pretty clear image. So I restored my system back a few days before I had any of this stuff installed, and reinstalled the full version. Tried again, and while it was much better, it's still horrible:



Elecard settings:
Stream: MPEG-2 Program
Video: MPEG-2 (6000 kbps, VBR, Two Pass)
Resize: No (1920x1080)
Deinterlacing: Yes
Frame rate conversion: No
Resampling: No

Now, this is where I'm confused. Seeing that some people are using Nero to convert to MPEG, I decided to use their Vision product. This was my output; relatively close to the original AVCHD image:



I'm not sure if Nero will use CoreAVC if I have it, but thats before I reinstalled that.


Anyway, I would LIKE to use Elecard, simply because it does batches. These M2TS files add up, and while I could pile them all into Nero in one huge long movie and then clip them apart in Premier, thats still not as fun as just feeding a folder to Elecard and getting pristine MPEG files.

Can someone tell me why my results are so wild with Elecard? I'm not sure I would get any support from then unless I bought the product, and I'm not interested in doing that until I am sure I can get good results.

Thanks!
-Dan

[lordsmurf]

Elecard sucks, it always has. It's a really horrible encoder, and the decoder is more like a virus than anything else, it's well known for hosing systems.

[racer-x]

Your bitrate (6000 kbps) is way too low for 1920 x 1080, try 25000 kbps CBR. That's HDV standard bitrate.............

[Mylriahd]

That fixed it!! Thank you SO much. I was going nuts! Now I'm getting near perfect video; that 26 second clip took about 3 minutes to render on my laptop, and its ALMOST indistinguishable from the original source material. BUT, i'll probably be downconverting everything into DVD size anyway, so it'll still look great anyway.

Thanks again!

-Dan