Editing HQ vs SQ AVHCD?

[lacole]

I have a Sony HDR-SR11 and really like it. I'm just starting to edit with Sony's Vegas and trying to figure out the best way to handle the files. All my current owrk is with standard DVDs so trying to work the HD to my advantage is my goal at this point.

I've found that if I shoot in High Quality High Def (vs standard quality HD), I can crop down my image and still have a final outupt that is better than my standard digital camera was able to offer.

However, when I play the .mt2s file on my timeline the playback is jerky. Any thoughts on what could be causing this? I have a fairly high end machine with lots of memory so i don't believe that is the issue.

Second... Am I really gaining anything to shoot in high quality, edit in high quality then dumb it down to standard DVD quality? or am I just fooling my self.

Third... is it possible to render my .mt2s to avi's, edit the avi's, then replace the avi's with the .mt2s for the final rendering? or is just going ahead and using the avi's doing the same thing? Just a thought.

I'm just tryign to figure out my work process at this point.

Thanks,

colelaus

[Soopafresh]

You need a lot of CPU power to play AVCHD

You're definitely getting better quality by shooting and editing in HD and downsizing to DVD.

Converting to lossless AVI files will result in faster editing, but will require lots of disk space - around 10X the size of the source MT2S files. You can use Lagarith or HuffyUV as the codec.

You might want to consider a faster PC - the Intel Q6600 processor is a favorite around here.

[edDV]

You need a lot of CPU power to play AVCHD

You're definitely getting better quality by shooting and editing in HD and downsizing to DVD.

Converting to lossless AVI files will result in faster editing, but will require lots of disk space - around 10X the size of the source MT2S files. You can use Lagarith or HuffyUV as the codec.

You might want to consider a faster PC - the Intel Q6600 processor is a favorite around here.

If your Vegas is v6/7/8 you can also convert to the Cineform Digital Intermediate format which should solve your problem. First use Vegas to convert 1440x1080i AVCHD to Cineform 1440x1080i, then edit Cineform as a 1440x1080i project, then downsize to 720x480i Cineform, then encode to 720x480i DVD MPeg2.

Cineform is intermediate in file size but optimized for efficient image processing and quality resizing. Results will be best if you feed it AVCHD at the highest camera quality.


see https://forum.videohelp.com/topic345804.html

[lacole]

Thanks for the info.

What is the advantage of something like Huffyuv vs. using Vegas's native ability to export avi?

Also, I forgot to mention that most of my studdering happens when I'm using the multi camera preview and displaying 4 feeds at the same time. I have a pretty souped up machine but I guess it is still not enough.

[lacole]

First use Vegas to convert 1440x1080i AVCHD to Cineform 1440x1080i, then edit Cineform as a 1440x1080i project, then downsize to 720x480i Cineform, then encode to 720x480i DVD MPeg2.

I'm not familiar with downsizing and am not by my pc to look at my options. Is downsizing and encoding the same thing? Why could you not just go from 1440x1080i Cineform to 720x480i MPeg2?

Thanks for the quick replies.

[Soopafresh]

Yes, I was referring to downsizing as resizing 1440x1080 to 720x480 at 16x9 aspect ratio when the time comes to encode to Mpeg2/DVD. Ed's Cineform solution is a good one. That's a very efficient lossless codec.

MT2S ---> Cineform AVI ---> Editing ---> Mpeg2

[lacole]

Great info.

By the way, the link you mentioned https://forum.videohelp.com/topic345804.html has answered almost all the questions I have up to this point. What a great exchange! I wish I had seen that several days ago.

Thanks

[edDV]

Fully uncompressed HD @1440x1080 requires an extremely fast RAID disk system and even more so with layers. huffyuv reduces the needed bit rate but requires real time decompression from the CPU.

When you convert to Cineform Digital intermediate, you take most of the CPU hit in the encoding step. playback decompression load is less (even for multi-layers), file sizes are smaller and the wavelet based encoding is better for resizing up or down.

You can get several layers in preview from a single drive with a fast machine (no RAID required).

Vegas includes a Video for Windows (earlier generation) Cineform codec that you use in a similar way to huffyuv. Higher end Cineform packages like NeoHDV include a capture engine and a more efficient codec allowing even more layers in Vegas.

http://www.cineform.com/

[lacole]

Just so I have the termonology correct, I would convert my raw AVHCD files to Cineform intermediate files, do my editing and then do my final conversion to mp2 for burning for use with my DVD mastering program. As an alternative, I could use the free huffyuv application but suffer some performance hits. Does that sound about right?

Does Cineform / huffyuv work within Vegas or are they standalone packages?
Are the intermediate files .avi files?

Thanks, this is helping me alot.

[edDV]

Just so I have the termonology correct, I would convert my raw AVHCD files to Cineform intermediate files, do my editing and then do my final conversion to mp2 for burning for use with my DVD mastering program. As an alternative, I could use the free huffyuv application but suffer some performance hits. Does that sound about right?

Does Cineform / huffyuv work within Vegas or are they standalone packages?
Are the intermediate files .avi files?

Thanks, this is helping me alot.

Yes, convert AVCHD to Cineform, edit/process/resize Cineform, export to DVD, BluRay, HDV, H.264 or whatever.

Cineform outperforms huffyuv in most ways.

Cineform is an import format to an "uncompressed" or DV/HDV Vegas project. That means it gets decompressed on the fly when you preview an effect. Decompression is most efficient if the Cineform file matches project properties (e.g. size, frame rate, interlace/progressive, aspect ratio). If you run out of CPU, then you must render the effect for real time preview.

Intermediate files are avi files.

[lacole]

So Cineform / huffyuv are just another codec available within the Vegas framework?

Looking at the Cineform website, it appears the codec is about $250. Does this sound right?

[Soopafresh]

A feature limited version of Cineform comes standard with Vegas - it lets you save to 1440x1080 resolution. Huffyuv is a free codec which you can download and install.

[edDV]

The Cineform codec offered with Vegas versions 6,7,8 is a Video for Windows rather than DirectShow implementation. The steps to use it are listed in the other thread. Let me know if it isn't working for you.

Cineform NeoHDV ($250 list) is an enhanced and more recent version. It also is limited to 1440x1080. That isn't a problem at the prosumer level.