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  1. I have the Panasonic HDC-SD1 which records HD in the AVCHD format. I'm using the decoder in CyberLink PowerDVD, and Ulead VideoStudio 11 to edit. (Wish there was a way to edit in Premiere 6.5 - My editor of choice for DV). Anyway, I've been making normal DVD files and don't know if the Panasonic AVCHD format is upper fields first or lower fields first. Anyone know for sure? If so, how did you find out?

    I tried encoding the same file as both upper and lower and viewed it with a non progressive DVD player on a CRT TV, but didn't see any difference (which I found odd).

    Any help would be great. Thanks in advance.
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  2. I'm not sure if it matters but I forgot to mention - I'm shooting in NTSC format, not PAL.
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  3. I used AVISynth to determine the field order of a few AVCHD (.MTS) files I downloaded from the internet (I keep them around as reference files). They were top field first. I'm not sure if they were from the exact same model as your camcorder. I only know they came from a Panasonic camcorder.

    I believe Ulead VS is pretty smart about field order. If it identifies the source as TFF but you tell it to encode as BFF it will reverse the field order as it encodes (this can easily be done by shifting the frame up or down by one scan line). Maybe this is why you saw no difference. If it identifies the source field order wrong you should get very jerky motions.
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  4. Member Soopafresh's Avatar
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    Look up the term PAFF - it's hybrid interlaced/progressive.
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    I'm considering buy the Panasonic High-Definition SD Camcorder (HDC-SD1) and wondering how long it takes to convert the video to normal DVD. I'm filming HS football games and need it done pretty fast.
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  6. Thanks for the help guys. Through trial and error I've found that using "frame based" instead of either upper or lower is producing the best quality encodes. Strange that it wants to be treated as progressive.

    mu1640 - I'm loving the quality of the video from this camera. I moved "down" from a VX2100 which is a prosumer DV camera, and have been nothing but happy with video quality. To answer your question - I haven't really timed it, but with my P4 3.2 GHz and 1GB ram it's taking about 3-4x the amount of time to convert to DVD format with Ulead VideoStudio 11. Remember to used "frame based" when you make the files or they will look like crap.
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  7. You shouldn't encode interlaced video as if it is progressive. Doing so will cause the chroma channels to blend together. It may also lead to the two fields being played back in the wrong temporal order on interlaced equipment.

    There are two issues to consider with field order: the source field order and the destination field order.

    It's been a while since I used Ulead VideoStudio. If I remember correctly it is pretty smart about field order. If you give it a top field first video and tell it to encode as top field first it just encode the frames as-is. If you tell it to encode as bottom field first it will reverse the field order of the frames (this is easily done by shifting the frame up or down by one scan line) and encode as bottom field first. Both will play properly.

    But if it incorrectly identifies the field order of the source both will be encoded improperly and will play in the wrong temporal order on interlaced displays. In cases like this you must manually specify the source field order setting. If I remember correctly you do this by right clicking on a clip and selecting Clip Properties (or something like that). In the dialog that appears you can select the field order of the clip.
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  8. jagabo - I think it has something to do with that PAFF???? With this panasonic AVCHD format when I try both upper and lower it looks like crap on both interlaced TV and my HDTV, but when I set it to "frame-based" it looks great.
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  9. Member Soopafresh's Avatar
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    mu1640 - It won't be fast enough, most likely. Even with a pretty fast conversion tool. But the quality will be nice when reduced to DVD specs. If everyone had BluRay players, there would be no conversion issues - 2 clicks and burn.

    Consider working out a plan where you have the rest of the night to encode and convert the footage, then have some kid drop the DVDs off at people's houses the next morning.

    AVCHD converted to DVD spec Mpeg2

    xpress.mpg
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