What is AVCHD recording, how will it effect me?

[seven1970]

Just wondering what it will mean to me.
If I buy a camera that records in AVCHD, how will things change.

I normally use a MiniDV cassette camera, and link it to my laptop, and capture it using Cyberlink PD.

Plug and record basically.

How would an AVCHD camera change things?

Do I need special editing software?

[shaema]

1 - AVCHD files [with extension .m2ts or .mts] are treated as ordinary files when transferred from the camera to the pc. You don't need to play/capture them as in MiniDv files. Your camera would come with a basic software to do the transfer or some editing.

2 - You will need a powerful pc and software like Sony Vegas for more editing features.

[Cornucopia]

1. You'll need a better, beefier computer/gpu to handle the hd decodes & encodes.

2. You'll need a better computer & newer nle app to handle, support editing avc/h.264.

3. You'll have to understand that because avchd uses interframe compression as well as intra, you will have a harder time with editing and less support for smart rendering.

4. One bright side is the time you'll save at the beginning of editing importing/ingesting the footage as opposed to realtime capture. The downside is at the end of editing, where you will have to archive your source footage to a backup medium of some kind (dv, you just keep the original tapes).


That's a start...

Scott

[seven1970]

Ok, so no real changes needed, other than when backing up the files.

I have a laptop with 6GB of RAM, and Cyberlink Power Director. I guess that will work.

What is smart rendering?

I just want to edit them into WMV files at 640 and sometimes 1080i.

[edDV]

Ok, so no real changes needed, other than when backing up the files.

I have a laptop with 6GB of RAM, and Cyberlink Power Director. I guess that will work.

What is smart rendering?

I just want to edit them into WMV files at 640 and sometimes 1080i.

What is your laptop CPU and display chipset? Some modern GPU's will take much of the load for 1x playback. Effects, downsize manipulation and encoding rely primarily on the CPU.

You will need a version of Power Director that can handle AVCHD format.

You will also need Class 6 to Class 10 flash media to handle sustained bit rates while recording.

Expect greatly increased processing times for downsize and encoding from HD resolutions.

[yoda313]

Actually if the user is intending to post these clips online chances are the camera that the poster is looking at probably has an "upload friendly" format. Lots of them have a "youtube" mode. It should be readily uploadable.

Editing issues may simply be trimming and straight to the net.

The poster should mention the intended destination for this footage. It might be a lot simpler than what has been mentioned.

I also believe "mainstream" cameras have youtube options as well as the smaller "bloggie" cams.

[Atak_Snajpera]

You will also need Class 6 to Class 10 flash media to handle sustained bit rates while recording.

Most of AVCHD camcorders record in 24mbps. This means that any flash memory with min 3MB/s write speed is enough.

I just want to edit them into WMV files at 640 and sometimes 1080i.

WMV? Why people still use that bizzare format? I would use MP4/MKV with x264 encoder.

[edDV]

You will also need Class 6 to Class 10 flash media to handle sustained bit rates while recording.

Most of AVCHD camcorders record in 24mbps. This means that any flash memory with min 3MB/s write speed is enough.

Go with manufacturer recommendation as stated in the camcorder manual. Generally Class 4 for 1440x1080i 17 Mbps and Class 6 up for 1920x1080i/p 24-28 Mbps.

[seven1970]

What is your laptop CPU and display chipset? Some modern GPU's will take much of the load for 1x playback. Effects, downsize manipulation and encoding rely primarily on the CPU.

You will need a version of Power Director that can handle AVCHD format.
[/QUOTE]

Not sure, I will have to get back to you on that.

Cheers

[seven1970]

Actually if the user is intending to post these clips online chances are the camera that the poster is looking at probably has an "upload friendly" format. Lots of them have a "youtube" mode. It should be readily uploadable.

Editing issues may simply be trimming and straight to the net.

The poster should mention the intended destination for this footage. It might be a lot simpler than what has been mentioned.

I also believe "mainstream" cameras have youtube options as well as the smaller "bloggie" cams.

Some straight to youtube, some higher q for keeping.

cheers.

[Atak_Snajpera]

Go with manufacturer recommendation as stated in the camcorder manual. Generally Class 4 for 1440x1080i 17 Mbps and Class 6 up for 1920x1080i/p 24-28 Mbps.

Class 4 means 4MB/s (32Mbps) min write speed. So as you can see it is even enough for AVCHD 2.0 (28Mbps).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#Speed_Class_Rating

[edDV]

Go with manufacturer recommendation as stated in the camcorder manual. Generally Class 4 for 1440x1080i 17 Mbps and Class 6 up for 1920x1080i/p 24-28 Mbps.

Class 4 means 4MB/s (32Mbps) min write speed. So as you can see it is even enough for AVCHD 2.0 (28Mbps).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#Speed_Class_Rating

But flash RAM does not consistently perform at those sustained rates especially as they age and/or get fragmented.

Go with camcorder manufacturer recommendation or better. Class 6-10 cards no longer carry a hefty price premium if you shop carefully.

[haneef95]

4. One bright side is the time you'll save at the beginning of editing importing/ingesting the footage as opposed to realtime capture. The downside is at the end of editing, where you will have to archive your source footage to a backup medium of some kind (dv, you just keep the original tapes).


That's a start...

Scott

So, for e.g. once I export the AVCHD folder from my camera using Sony PlayMemories Home, I get .m2ts & .m2ts.modd files. Do I still need to keep a copy of the original AVCHD folder structure along with those 2 files? That's going to be double the data isn't it?

Thanks,

[Cornucopia]

Depends on your editing professionality.

Example (if I were doing it):
#1 I wouldn't use SPMH to do the exporting, I'd do a backup imaging of the data to an ISO (w/GUID+Datestamp naming) or similar and save that to HDD.
#2 Mount the ISO and use the AVCHD ingest function on a pro NLE, such as Vegas, Premiere, Media Composer, FCP, Edius. Reads the whole structure, incl. ClipInf/Playlist, etc., so it gets timecodes and other metadata.
#3 Depending on editor, Ingest should either do a straight copy to HDD project media folder (yes, you have duplicates) with "media source" name = ISO filename, or it will transcode to edit-friendly DI similarly. Unmount.
#4 Edit, Master, make compressed distribution copies
#5 Save the Edit Master, complicated FX sub-renders (and graphics/fonts/audio elements), and pertinent/usable media from ISOs, as well as compression products. Offload to External HDD/Flash, Optical Disc, Cloud, or Backup Tape according to your budget & retrieval needs.

You can then trash both the ingested HDD project media and/or the transcoded DI media. Now it is no longer double the data. You can also now reformat/recycle/reuse your AVCHD source media.

If you have to restore a project, you just:
A) Restore your backed-up media to HDD.
B) Load your project and it will ask you where missing media is
C) Mount each ISO in succession and point the Missing? dialog at it, it will re-ingest and copy or re-ingest & re-transcode and then re-link

You can now go back to anywhere in the project and/or jump to the various stages: Project (to re-edit), Master (to re-compress or use in other project/compilation), or compressed products (to upload/re-share, etc).

There are times during this cycle where you will have extra data. That is just one of the expected items of overhead and you should plan for it.

Not sure if this is anywhere close to what you were wanting to do, so YMMV.

Scott

[haneef95]

Thank you very much.

You gave me a little tutorial there that I have been looking for a long time.

At this point, I want to know the difference/the benefit of using the ISO method to simply exporting the AVCHD to a single m2ts file (or two inclusive of the XML data file).

With keeping a single m2ts video file, it makes it easier to import straight away (without the medium of an ISO software). Also, makes it easier to use with PluralEyes. As I usually have all my clips (audio & video) from different devices imported into PluralEyes to sync, then I export them to PremierePRO.

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,