new to AVCHD

[coeng73]

I have been editing SD video from numerous camcorder footage over several years now, using various versions of Pinnacle and Premiere, so I'm not a newbie in that respect. However, I now need to transition my mindset to the world of HD.

I just ordered the Panny 300TM HD camcorder so I will need to prepare myself for the necessary tools I need to support editing and authoring media using this new format.

From what I understand, the files will be MTS format. Are these similar to the AVIs that I'm used to working with? Do I just drag and drop them onto a timeline, edit, and then burn?

Speaking of burning, I don't have a Blu Ray burner, nor a Blu Ray player, only a Samsung upconverting DVD player connected to my sweet new Samsung 40-in A650 120Hz HDTV. Is it possible to burn the footage to standard DVD-R? Will I be losing much quality in the process? Or is it the case that I can fit less footage on a DVD-R.

I think that getting a BluRay burner and player will have to wait since I just plunked down $1150 for the camcorder.

Well I guess this is all for now. I suppose I'm just scratching the surface.

[minidv2dvd]

well the avchd is long gop mpeg-4. not as editor friendly and already compressed. premiere pro cs4 or vegas pro 9 are your best bets. you will have to render to mpeg-2 for dvd.

[poisondeathray]

Speaking of burning, I don't have a Blu Ray burner, nor a Blu Ray player, only a Samsung upconverting DVD player connected to my sweet new Samsung 40-in A650 120Hz HDTV. Is it possible to burn the footage to standard DVD-R? Will I be losing much quality in the process? Or is it the case that I can fit less footage on a DVD-R.

Yep, lose a lot of quality. HD=>SD for DVD-Video. 1920x1080=>720x480 conversion you reduce 6x pixels. It's a shame to have nice TV and camcorder, but not be able to enjoy it

You can put AVCHD format on a DVD5 if you had a blu-ray player, or PS3.

[coeng73]

Speaking of burning, I don't have a Blu Ray burner, nor a Blu Ray player, only a Samsung upconverting DVD player connected to my sweet new Samsung 40-in A650 120Hz HDTV. Is it possible to burn the footage to standard DVD-R? Will I be losing much quality in the process? Or is it the case that I can fit less footage on a DVD-R.

Yep, lose a lot of quality. HD=>SD for DVD-Video. 1920x1080=>720x480 conversion you reduce 6x pixels. It's a shame to have nice TV and camcorder, but not be able to enjoy it

You can put AVCHD format on a DVD5 if you had a blu-ray player, or PS3.

In that case its probably best that I just back up my raw footage on DVD media until I can afford the Blu Ray burner, player, and media.

[minidv2dvd]

dvd media isn't going to cut it for HD cam footage. you will need LARGE external hard drives to store it on.

[coeng73]

dvd media isn't going to cut it for HD cam footage. you will need LARGE external hard drives to store it on.

I'm not following you....I can store 4.7GB of "data" onto a single layer DVD. If my camcorder has 32GB internal memory (4 hours of footage at best quality), I will need to split it up into manageable files (each file less than 4.7GB). Best case (seven files of roughly the same size), it takes seven cheap DVDs to backup the entire camcorder internal memory. Am I not right in thinking this?

I just basically need a cheap way to dump camcorder footage until I can shell out the dough for the Blu Ray burner, player, and media.

By the way, thanks for the replies. I welcome any suggestions you have.

[minidv2dvd]

if you record in full quality mode - HA (17Mbps/VBR) (1920 x 1080)

that's about 9GB/hr. any video over 30 minutes won't fit on sl dvdr media.

i'd still plan on hard drive storage, cost per GB is a little higher but transfer speed/ease and usability is much better.

[JimmyS]

if you record in full quality mode - HA (17Mbps/VBR) (1920 x 1080)

that's about 9GB/hr. any video over 30 minutes won't fit on sl dvdr media.

i'd still plan on hard drive storage, cost per GB is a little higher but transfer speed/ease and usability is much better.

100% agreement w. minidv2dvd. And, if your time has any value at all to you, it's probably a good deal cheaper. Do you really want to go shuffling and hunting through stacks of DVDs when it comes time to compile the footage for your HD masterpiece?

[coeng73]

if you record in full quality mode - HA (17Mbps/VBR) (1920 x 1080)

that's about 9GB/hr. any video over 30 minutes won't fit on sl dvdr media.

i'd still plan on hard drive storage, cost per GB is a little higher but transfer speed/ease and usability is much better.

I have plenty of hard drive storage, 2TB in fact dedicated solely to video capture/editing. And even though I have all files backed up on a secondary internal hard drive (I'm freakish about nightly backups), I would sleep better if I stored my footage on a physical piece of media. Especially since it may be a few months before I get the necessary gear for HD editing/authoring.

LG Burner $180 + Samsung BD-P1600 $280 + $7 per disk = not right now