Viewing AVCHD format on PC

[Soopafresh]

Mpeg2 should be easy to play. Elliot - post a short clip of the MPEG2 somewhere. You can use www.wikiupload.com for free hosting.

BTW, you need more RAM for your PC. Even another 256MB will do wonders.

[Soopafresh]

BTW, Elecard has announced their convertor for AVCHD -->MPEG2 conversion. Doesn't decode the audio track (so it seems). You'll still have to demux if you want anything other than the original .AC3 audio, but that's easy. Even ProjectX will demux the AC3 audio from a .MTS file.


http://www.elecard.com/products/products-pc/consumer/converter-studio-avchd/

$75

[danijoe]

Hi there,

What are the implications of this product not decoding the original audio. Could you also please explain demux to me (a noobie)!

Thanks a lot,

Joe

[PowerApp]

Hello Soopafresh....

The video quality of
https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/rtknapp/00003.MTS
is about the best Hi-Def I have seen yet.

What camera was this taken with?

Thanks

[Soopafresh]

PowerApp - Panasonic HDC-SD1

[PowerApp]

PowerApp - Panasonic HDC-SD1

Soopafresh,
I think I am sold on this camera! (either SD1 or the
Canon NV20)

Thanks

[Soopafresh]

Right on, but remember, the conversion process is time consuming. Deinterlacing PAFF encoded h264 will take a while.

As an alternative, consider the Canon HV20

[PowerApp]

Right on, but remember, the conversion process is time consuming. Deinterlacing PAFF encoded h264 will take a while.

As an alternative, consider the Canon HV20

Soopafresh -
Thanks - Yes, I meant the HV20. The HV20 does seem to offer
a slightly improved image over the SD1, except for the point below...

TWIMC-

Two sites have yielded plenty of SD1 and HV20 video - which has helped in
my quest for the righteous path:
1) Wolfgang's HDV blog (actually DX1 instead of SD1 but I assume
the quality is the same)
2) http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=ja_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2...2fzooma284.htm

A direct comparison of SD1 and HV20 is found in
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/The-Great-HD-Shoot-Out---Canon-HV20-Sony-HDR-HC7-...JVC-GZ-HD7.htm

The second site is really interesting - a screen full of moving
leaves challenges the AVCHD compression to the limit - and it still
looks ok, I think. More conventional footage looks stunning.

One thing that I have noticed about the SD1 is that its videos are the
only ones that I have found (in this price range) that are free of de-interlacing
artifacts when viewed on a (progressive) PC monitor.

The HV20 has these artifacts on some videos and not others. The effect I refer to is the "ghosting" of moving objects. Successive frames in the original interlaced sequence
(which contain the moving object in slightly different positions) appear
superposed when de-interlaced. Somehow, the PAFF system used in the
SD1 gets around this problem. Even the JVC GZ-HD7 has this problem, really
badly. I wonder if AVCHD (of the SD1) is known for this improved behaviour,
or is it simply due to the decoder? I am using Nero 7 Ultra.

Maybe some of the HV20 recordings were done in progressive mode. I am assuming
that these viewers are not dropping alternate frames when decoding AVCHD!

The improved interlacing of the SD1 is preserved even when I convert to
HDV Mpeg2 using Nero. As you say, this process is time consuming
but I have to do it to view video on a single-core 3.2GHz (Intel) P4.
I can view AVCHD directly and reliably (with unimpaired sound) on a
dual-core (Intel) T2400 1.83GHz, with either Nero 7 Ultra or Windows
Media player 11 (about 90% CPU utilisation, both cores).

I am wearing this inconvenience for now, but I am hanging out big-time
for coreAVC to become available again. If I can believe some sites, it will
be possible to play AVCHD on my P4!

Another thing about the SD1 is its solid-state memory - it seems that a single
glitch on HDV tape causes 1/2 second of video loss - according to one
review:

http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/shoot3/

One concern about the SD1 is its battery life - reviews say 1h20m in highest
definition mode with OIS off. I wonder what this becomes with OIS on? This
battery issue takes (for me) some of the gloss off the promise of huge capacity
SD cards in the near future.

Maybe some of this information will assist others in their decision for
which way to jump.

Cheers

[PowerApp]

Soopafresh -
Thanks - Yes, I meant the HV20. The HV20 does seem to offer
a slightly improved image over the SD1, except for the point below...

Using Windows Media Player 11 seems to solve the interlacing
artifact issue, for both the HV20 and GZ7.

[ed7]

Coreavc is now availble. I would like to play .mts files with media player classic but don't know how to use coreavc or setup media player! Please help--- have hdrsr1sony camera

[Soopafresh]

Not much to it.

1) There's a setup program for CoreAVC.

2) Next, install Haali media splitter

3) Double click on an MTS file. If windows asks you which app you want to open it with, choose Windows MediaPlayer or MediaPlayerClassic.

[ed7]

Yes, I have done this but MPC crashes each time- thus I think I need to change something in MPC-- Thank you

[Soopafresh]

Try opening it in Windows Media Player

Uninstall Haali , then reinstall latest version if that doesn't work.

[ed7]

Thank you for your help. I had trouble downloading coreavc-- my firewall was on-
My problems with Media Player Classic and Microsoft player was that I had ffdshow loaded- once removed-- all is well
Now, Sony Picture Motion Browser does not work with Haalii running! I remove Haalii- it works
on another computer- with coreavc 1.3-without haalii-all works

[PowerApp]

Thank you for your help. I had trouble downloading coreavc-- my firewall was on-
My problems with Media Player Classic and Microsoft player was that I had ffdshow loaded- once removed-- all is well
Now, Sony Picture Motion Browser does not work with Haalii running! I remove Haalii- it works
on another computer- with coreavc 1.3-without haalii-all works

I have had a similar experience with CoreAVC 1.3.

Using GraphEdit (found on net) I confirmed that the video rendering by an application like Windows Media Player proceeds in the sequence:
Haali Media Splitter -> CoreAVC Media Player -> AVI Decompressor -> Color Space Converter -> Video Renderer
Now I found that on my P3 3.2G, AVCHD files would stutter and/or play slowly (which I why
I sought out CoreAVC in the first place!). Its use of CoreAVC was verified (from right click
on file name in r.h. panel).

Noticing that a Haali Video Renderer was also installed with the CoreAVC software and Haali splitter, I used GSpot (also found on net) to increase its merit enough so that the video rendering sequence is
Haali Media Splitter -> CoreAVC Media Player -> Haali Video Renderer
hoping that things would run faster. Maybe this is in fact the intended setup, but
for the codec hell on my particular machine.

However Windows Media Player locks up.
(BTW, Nero Showtime is unaffected since it uses its own codec/rendering elements and ignores the codec merit settings - it won't use coreAVC)

I wonder if this is related?

One real problem is that there appears to be little or no documentation on CoreAVC or
Haali avaliable.

[jagabo]

Graphedit on my computer automatically builds a graph with:

Haali Media Splitter -> CoreAVC Video Decoder -> Video Render

CoreAVC is sending YUY2 to the Video Renderer (Quartz.dll).

[EliG]

Hi,

I am also having issues of random crashing during AVCHD playback. I am trying to play the HDC-SD1 files on my Vista machines. I have the Power DVD Ultra that deployes DirectShow filters and they look fine using Graph Edit but using the PowerDVD player or WMP11 causes the players to crash 2 out of 3 sessions. I have a Quad 2.4 CPU with 4GB or RAM and a ATI Radeon HD 2600 video card so I dont think it is a matter of system resources.

any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Soopafresh]

You might want to try the CoreAVC and Haali Media Splitter route.

[dooger]

Soopafresh,

I'm working with AVCHD files from my Sony mini-dvd camcorder, and I have CoreAVC Pro v1.5 installed, with Haali Media Splitter v1.7.189.11, do I still need to use AviSynth to encode using ConvertXtoDVD? If so, could you post a little sample script? I am able to play .m2ts files in both MediaPlayerClassic and WMP (WMP playback is smoother than MPC, though), but ConvertX (v2.2.2.256) chokes on the video - looks like only about half the image is present in the preview frame and the rest of the image is garbage. Several error codes are generated by the engine relating to PAFF ("interlacing is not implemented") and MBAFF (" + spatial direct mode is not implemented"), and the converted file is 0 bytes. Deinterlace/codec issue? (didn't matter if the De-interleave option in the ConvertX Image Processing section was selected or not)

I was able to meet my emergency needs to get AVCHD converted to DVD by using Nero Vision, but I want better quality - your one second "test.mpg" sample is amazing. Thanks for all your input on these threads - you've been a big help!

-dooger

[Soopafresh]

ConvertX should be able to identify the file type and use DirectShow (the CoreAVC plugin) to make the conversion to Mpeg2 DVD. Weird that it is choking, but nothing is surprising in the world of video conversion I'm guessing you have 2 h264 decoders in competition - the one in ffdshow vs the CoreAVC one perhaps ? If that's the case, you'll want to make sure the ffdshow one is disabled:




I just posted a similar response to your question here: (look at the last few posts)

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic326934.html


So yeah, you can wrap the MTS file in an Avisynth script, but try the tests I posted to be sure it'll all work.

I also found TmpgencXpress to work pretty nicely with AVCHD files.

[EliG]

You might want to try the CoreAVC and Haali Media Splitter route.

Ok. purchased the professional edition. installed on my vista. not only does it work perfect - the response time is almost zero and the issue I had with WMP11 that was taking 15 seconds to load the PowerDVD DirectShow Graph while showing "Changing Media" message is gone! now I can play my AVCHD files from my HDC-Sd1 camera fast and with no errors!!

Thanks, it is worth the $15 - dont bother with any other software tool or codec !

[EliG]

You might want to try the CoreAVC and Haali Media Splitter route.

Another question for you. I am using CoreAVC to playout the AVCHD files on my plasma screen. I have a Toshiba panel with 1024x768 native resolution. When playing my files, I get black bars on the top and bottom. I know my Panasoinc HDC-SD1 is not full HD but rather 1440x1080 but still, when using my camera as the source to my Plasma I see the video all over my plasma and for some reason "full screen" mode of WMP11 using CoreAVC doesnt fill my screen. any thoughts?

[Soopafresh]

On a 1024x768 screen and a resized 1440x1080 (actually 1920x1080) video (which I think would be reduced to 1024x576 for 16x9), it seems to make sense that you'd have bars on the top and bottom. But I could be wrong, and have been many, many times.

[EliG]

On a 1024x768 screen and a resized 1440x1080 (actually 1920x1080) video (which I think would be reduced to 1024x576 for 16x9), it seems to make sense that you'd have bars on the top and bottom. But I could be wrong, and have been many, many times.

So how come when I connect my camera directly to the plasma using same HDMI port (my camera has HDMI out) I get a full screen?

[jagabo]

So how come when I connect my camera directly to the plasma using same HDMI port (my camera has HDMI out) I get a full screen?

Because your plasma TV is set up to stretch video to fill the screen. If you really want to see a disorted full screen display on your PC use a player that supports such a stretch mode.

[dooger]

ConvertX should be able to identify the file type and use DirectShow (the CoreAVC plugin) to make the conversion to Mpeg2 DVD. Weird that it is choking, but nothing is surprising in the world of video conversion I'm guessing you have 2 h264 decoders in competition - the one in ffdshow vs the CoreAVC one perhaps ? If that's the case, you'll want to make sure the ffdshow one is disabled:

Ok, graphedit shows the Cyberlink H.264 decoder instead of CoreAVC. I deleted the Cyberlink decoder and inserted the CoreAVC in its place and was able to preview the file in graphedit, but how do I make the decoder priority change permanent?

I also was able to view the file in VirtualDub using an Avisynth script, but that must have been using the Cyber decoder.

[dooger]

ConvertX should be able to identify the file type and use DirectShow (the CoreAVC plugin) to make the conversion to Mpeg2 DVD. Weird that it is choking, but nothing is surprising in the world of video conversion I'm guessing you have 2 h264 decoders in competition - the one in ffdshow vs the CoreAVC one perhaps ? If that's the case, you'll want to make sure the ffdshow one is disabled:

Ok, graphedit shows the Cyberlink H.264 decoder instead of CoreAVC. I deleted the Cyberlink decoder and inserted the CoreAVC in its place and was able to preview the file in graphedit, but how do I make the decoder priority change permanent?

I also was able to view the file in VirtualDub using an Avisynth script, but that must have been using the Cyber decoder.

I bumped the CoreAVC merit using gSpot, so now the graph looks like this:



But the .m2ts file will still not render in ConvertX. It does render in ConvertX using a simple Avisynth script (DirectShowSource and resize), and runs at about 7 fps (3.2 GHz P4). I'm getting a lot closer.

[Soopafresh]

7FPS isn't that bad, considering the resizing that's going on and the fact that you have to use a DirectShow decoder (CoreAVC) to first decode the video for the encoder to work. You're running a P4 3.2, so the performance is pretty normal for that proc.

[dooger]

7FPS isn't that bad, considering the resizing that's going on and the fact that you have to use a DirectShow decoder (CoreAVC) to first decode the video for the encoder to work. You're running a P4 3.2, so the performance is pretty normal for that proc.

Ok. If I let ConvertX do the resize, the fps jumps to 10. Still some more questions: the file length, framerate and/or frame count are off, as reported by VirtualDub info. For example, this is a 14 second clip, and if I just do a DirectShowSource script, the stats look like this:



The framerate is being reported as 1387.347 fps, and the total frames as 20090, but the clip duration appears correct. When ConvertX runs this script, it reports Estimated Framerate = 23.96, pulldown required, and the clip seems to loop endlessly during encoding, and the encode doesn't complete. The playback seems correct speed, but audio is only present during the first few seconds. If I add a line to the script to assume FPS=29.97, then the info looks like this:



Now the clip duration is way off, and while ConvertX encodes only one loop, the resulting video output plays back in slow motion, and the whole audio clip is present, but the clip ends when the audio completes, so a few seconds of video are cut off.

Wow, now I'm discouraged again. And I thought I was making good progress. Maybe I'll just have to resort to my old Hi-8 method of capturing compsite video with a capture card, yuck!

[Soopafresh]

Don't get bummed out. This isn't that difficult, it just takes some experimenting to get the correct settings.


Try this

DirectShowSource("yourfile.mts",fps=29.97)
ConvertFps(29.97)
BicubicResize(848,480)



Also:

1) Turn OFF deinterlacing in ConvertX - the CoreAVC decoder is already doing deinterlacing