Best way to go from AVCHD, date/timestamp it, and save as Mpeg 2.

[pf4711]

Hi,

I have a camcorder that records in AVCHD or iFrame, and I can use either a windows or apple computer. The end product I need is mpeg2 with date and time stamp.

What is the easiest/quickest/best way to do this?

Is there a video editor for windows or apple that will allow me to import from the camcorder, display date and time stamp, then save as Mpeg 2? iMovie allows me to display date/time stamp but it won't allow me to save as mpeg 2, plus the re-encoding of video takes forever.

Would it be easier and faster to get some kind of capture card that allows me to play back the video from the camcorder into the capture card while it records that onto my hard drive in mpeg 2?

If so, any suggestions for hardware/software?

In the past I have imported into iMovie, displayed date and time stamp, then exported into .mp4 and used another program to convert to mpeg 2, but this is ridiculous to convert formats so many times and it also takes forever.

Please help! and thank you

[poisondeathray]

non free way
dvmp pro

free way - avchd2srt to generate srt subs then hardcode them with any mpeg2 encoder that accepts srt subs (e.g. avidemux, hcenc + avisynth + textsub,e tc.....)
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/316229-Export-AVCHD-frame-specific-metadata-to-subtitles

Would it be easier and faster to get some kind of capture card that allows me to play back the video from the camcorder into the capture card while it records that onto my hard drive in mpeg 2?

Not really, because on modern computers, mpeg2 encoders can go many times faster than realtime - that would be many times faster then playing it back.

[pf4711]

Anyone know of any way to go straight from AVCHD or iFrame to mpeg 2 with an Apple machine?

[pf4711]

Not really, because on modern computers, mpeg2 encoders can go many times faster than realtime - that would be many times faster then playing it back.

It's taking 3 or 4 times as long as the footage on my machine for avidemux to convert an .mp4 to .mpg with mpeg 2 encoding.

[poisondeathray]

avidemux's mpeg2 encoder is pretty slow and produces lower quality compared to other mpeg2 encoders. I think it's not very well optimized for multithreading

are you doing a straight encode? 1080i60 => 1080i60 no filtering or resizing ?

why do you need mpeg2?

[pf4711]

I need mpeg2 because the video is for a client that requires it and for some ungodly reason claims they can't edit .mp4 with Pinnacle Studio 10. I actually tried buying some capture card that claimed to capture in mpeg 4 , 2 , or 1, but when I opened the software in Apple it only allowed the mp4 option... arg...

[poisondeathray]

Pinnacle Studio 10 is pretty old software. Wikipedia says 2005. Can they upgrade to a more recent release which supports AVCHD natively ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnacle_Studio

This way they could edit the original footage, without quality loss, or wasted time, or huge intermediate files

[pf4711]

They could, and should upgrade, but in the mean time I need to find a way to go from AVCHD or iFrame to date/time stamped mpeg 2, preferably on a mac, and as cheap as possible, lol.