Is AVCHD Still Difficult to Edit?

[HoosierGuy]

I've not read these forums for about five months but when I did I read many times here that modern home computers could not really handle editing high-def AVCHD video. Has that changed since then?

The reason I ask is because I plan on getting a new Dell sometime early next year and I want to edit high-def video. I would like to get a Dell with 16GB of ram, 1.5TB Sata II (7,200 RPM), Intel Core-i7 3.4ghz.

Would a set up like this handle editing high-def video.

My editing software is Vegas Studio 10HD and I will probably upgrade to Vegas Pro by then too.

Thanks

[turk690]

That Dell will be OK for importing and playing AVCHD. Be sure to put a separate physical drive for captured and edited files, as well as an appropriate PCIe graphics card (like nVidia 560, etc). Although strictly speaking you can drop an AVCHD *.mts clip into a timeline and edit away, you will be pushing your computer to 100% CPU utilisation so it's best to convert AVCHD to *.avi with an intermediate codec first.

[racer-x]

You should be in good shape with that system. I've been shooting and editing HD AVCHD @ 24 mbps with an Intel Q9400 Quad-core w/ 4 GB ram running Vegas Pro 9. I shoot a lot of sports and generally edit 5-6 games a week. Editing is a piece of cake on my system and is about as easy as when I was editing HDV.

Contrary to the previous poster's opinion, there should be no reason whatsoever to convert to intermediate codec with your system unless you are going to remove pull-down or will do heavy processing like stabilization and such.......

[HoosierGuy]

Thanks. I'm not familiar with the concept of converting AVCHD to AVI and then work on it. So you convert AVCHD to AVI and then edit it. What do you do after you are done? Re-convert it back to AVCHD?


For my projects I want to edit high-def and add in some fonts, making TV commercials for cable networks, lower thirds, etc... I need to make sure the PC I get can handle all that. I'm talking about commercials for local businesses.

[turk690]

For my projects I want to edit high-def and add in some fonts, making TV commercials for cable networks, lower thirds, etc... I need to make sure the PC I get can handle all that. I'm talking about commercials for local businesses.

You do not appear to be in this just casually so you need an intermediate codec. A popular one would be Cineform Neoscene. Even on a fast PC an intermediate codec just liberates you and you will seem to fly while editing, no hiccups no latencies no waiting (assuming everything in your hardware chain is up to snuff)--hardly the domain of a strict AVCHD timeline, even if it were just cuts and joins. Yes, after you have edited your timeline contents just the way you want, you export back to any MPEG-4 flavor you want that your encoder supports: F4V, FLV, MP4, h.264, etc...

[edDV]

For export, talk to your client and broadcaster what format they want. A good default is 1080i Sony XDCAM EX (either 4:2:0 or 4:2:2). A bad deinterlace will get your work rejected.