Avchd

[cabletangle]

Hi all... My new Panasonic produces the most beautiful crisp HD 16 : 9 video in AVCHD.........BUT somewhere along the chain the image gets degraded and I am not sure which step does the damage.
AVCHD is a pig to edit natively in Premiere Pro. Scrubbing back and forth chews max computational horsepower and thus it has been recommended by some that the AVCHD be converted to DVCPRO, edited there, and then converted again to be burnt onto DVD for general viewing. The conversion again from Premiere Pro via Adobe Encore to PAL shows the available output to be max at 720 x 540 approx lines 16 : 9. The colour and crispness are both degraded. Is this damage done by DVCPRO or by Encore ?
Can someone please advise as to the best path to follow.
Can regual DVD video create the very high detail in HD that the camera puts out, or is this able to be achieved only with a Blu Ray disc ?
I would really appreciate any help.

Many thanks

[poisondeathray]

What are you comparing it to? The original footage?

The resolution of DVD is standard definition 720x576 for PAL regions, so it won't look crisp compared to the original 1920x1080, especially on a HDTV . It will look very soft and well...standard definition

You need to make an AVCHD disc or blu-ray in order to view HD content (you can use DVD5/9 media for AVCHD disc, but you can only play with PS3 or blu-ray player, a normal DVD player is SD only)

DVCPRO HD is a poor proxy for HD because it downscales 1920x1080 to 1280x1080, you lose pixels. But if you are only doing this for SD DVD, then it's not a bad option

The color should not be affected that much, are you sure the color has degraded ? Can you post an illustrative screenshot ?

[cabletangle]

Thanks for that. A big help. I will have to export it as Blu Ray then. But what should I convert it to so that editing is easier. (Scrubbing in particular) P2 ?, or should I try to stick to the original AVCHD so that I don't lose pixels ?
The colour is OK but jus not as vibrant in the DVD version.
What player will play the edited AVCHD footage ? I guess you mean to play it back on the computer from the hard drive ?
I understand that Blu Ray will maintain the aspect ratio and resolution also.
Many thanks

[filmboss80]

To improve your editing workflow, consider adding Cineform Neo Scene. And make sure you have a dedicated video hard drive.

AVCHD is a bear, but the bear can be harnessed.