how to edit avchd

[Onceler2]

what can I use to edit these vegas crashes each time I try to use it,PS can't be downloaded,neither can premere.Is there a way to open and trim these clips in virtual dub?
I found one page on how to do it but it didn't go into detail
Is there one that I could use the directory structure of HDWriter maybe edit it in another app and then copy it back to the HDWriter folders and it be edited but working in those HDWriter folders?
Thanks

[edDV]

If you want detail, try this.

You don't have a computer profile. Which version Vegas?

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic347204.html
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic345804.html

Also
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic346331.html

[ßsimian]

also what cam made the avchd. there are a bunch of different flavors.

[Onceler2]

Panasonic HDC-HS9

[ßsimian]

vegas v8 will import sony avchd from their cams, i don't know about panasonic's. if you post a 5mb sample i can try importing it in vegas 8.

[SCDVD]

Right now, the various camera makers are not your friend with AVCHD. They are all rooting around trying to "improve" it. The most basic problem they are all having is trying to work around a bit rate that is too low. As a result, they are having problems with compression artifacts. They are trying to "fix" this with "improved" encoding schemes. Since the camcorder manufacturers are competitors with one another, they are not mutually collaborating in this endeavor. The impact of this is that there is no common compatibility with AVCHD files from camcorders.

I can only speculate about why they are attempting to "work-around" the insufficient bit rate problem. Two possibilities come to mind.

1. It takes a significant amount of processing power to encode (and decode) AVCHD video. The camcorder manufacturers appear to be positioning AVCHD as a consumer video format. This being the case, it is important to keep the cost down - consumer products must be competitively priced. The cost of these camcorders would be higher if the hardware encoding engines in the camcorders were beefed up enough to handle higher bit rate AVCHD encoding. To them, that is a good way to get competitively killed.

2. They don't want to step on higher end "professional" video formats that they offer in higher end cameras. For example Sony has their high bit rate XDCAM video formats that they use in professional video cameras. From a marketing positioning point of view, it's important that the formats used in the higher end cameras be "better." (Read Sony's pitch to the "pros" http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/docs/brochures/v2223.pdf )

If, in spite of this mess, you have a burning desire to use an AVCHD camcorder, it's a good idea to stay within the product "family" when you select your camcorder. For example, if you use Vegas, buy a Sony camcorder. This will at least reduce the misery that you will face with AVCHD.

[edDV]

Panasonic's Pro-Prosumer HD formats (non-tape) are going to be DVCProHD and AVC-Intra in MXF wrappers. AVCHD remains a consumer format. MXF is still a work in progress but promises interoperability someday.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MXF
ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/PBTS/papers/AVCIntra%20FAQs.pdf

AVCHD is difficult to edit directly. Most consumer editors fully decompress it or convert to MPeg2 before processing.

Higher end editor products advocate conversion of AVCHD to a digital intermediate format before editing.
(See Cineform and NeoHD application)

Simple cuts editing can be done on I frames (approx 30sec intervals) or with decompressed GOPs.

Someday computers will be fast enough or hardware AVCHD codecs will appear to speed editing of native AVCHD.

[SCDVD]

Higher end editor products advocate conversion of AVCHD to a digital intermediate format before editing.
(See Cineform and NeoHD application)

I believe Vegas Pro 8 has Cineform included with it but it's a lower end version without all of the bells and whistles. Is that correct?

[edDV]

Higher end editor products advocate conversion of AVCHD to a digital intermediate format before editing.
(See Cineform and NeoHD application)

I believe Vegas Pro 8 has Cineform included with it but it's a lower end version without all of the bells and whistles. Is that correct?

Yes, it's the earlier 1440x1080 Video for Windows version that encodes from the timeline. 1440x1080 NeoHDV ($250) is faster and includes the direct capture appication (not sure if this works with AVCHD). NeoHD works with many HD format capture but is higher priced.

[SCDVD]

A new version of Vegas Pro 8 is coming that will provide more compatibility with various HD files. Hopefully this will help with AVCHD as well. Here is more info:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=602126&Replies=69

[holyvideoly]

Maybe too late for this comment.. However Vegas 8 Platinum will handle direct raw m2t ilink from my Sony HDVHD1000U... and will take AVCHD files from a sd card of a friend's Panasonic SD1 also raw .mts files. I can mix them without a problem. However, I am archiving Church Videos in .wmv and the rendering is super slow. 14min to render 1 minute. at 1080i, 8Mbps.

I just purchased the platinum for $99... and it seems to have all of the editing capability I need without going to Pro.

Also you may want to try VoltaicHD to convert the (AVCHD) .mts to wmv first.

Regards,

H

[turk690]

Panasonic has freeware on its site that converts AVCHD (naturally only those shot with Panny camcorders) to P2, which Premiere will accept.
Doing anything with AVCHD is NOT a casual matter. For a start, your computer has to have heavy-hitting specs (Core 2 Duo 3GHz, 4GB system memory, at least 500GB of storage (RAID, preferably), defragged and all that as absolute bone-minimum, WinXPProSP3 (NOT Vista), etc). Ideally, the only programs that are in it should only be those that have to do with your non-linear editing; no games, no MySpace, no MSOffice, no messenger and all other slutty programs of the same persuasion. www.videoguys.com has tips on what constitutes reasonable hardware for tangling with those super-compressed AVCHD files (as well as other HD files in general). In many cases I have seen where the PC crashes when attempts are made to edit it is because the PC was just Pentium 4, or worse, Celeron! What (even barely) worked with DV before just doesn't cut it now for HD in general & AVCHD in particular.
It's ironic that the camcorder manufacturers want consumers to embrace resource-hogging AVCHD and then just to mention briefly in the footnotes (if at all) that a workstation-level quad-core PC is required to have a modicum of smoothness in previewing the AVCHD clips, let alone editing.

[holyvideoly]

Voltaic is not as an overwhelming resource hog... I do editing on a Athlon 2.8 Dual Core with Vista, Nvidia with 256... 1.5TB storage. However the VoltaicHd will run on my old XP laptop. HP with 1.8 and 150G drive. It will let you select the files to be converted... then don't even think about doing anything else for a few hours. Interestingly enough. the files are successfully produced in .wmv (HD) won't run on the same laptop without crashing media player!