AVCHD support in CS4 ... Incredible... as in lousy...

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I had the opportunity to look at some AVCHD footage suing CS4 (with as recent updates as two weeks ago...).

Aside from the macroblocking artifacts, all playing would stop after a few seconds of play time.

As a test, I used FC Express to 'log and transfer' the same footage to an AIC format... and Primiere played the resulting AIC movies just fine.

The system that I used was a Mac Book Pro 17" (last years model...), but definitely capable in terms of editing HD when in AIC (the only format I've tested...).

I looked on the Adobe site, and of the couple of threads on this topic the 'advice' ranged from caustic to idiotic... well, other than just transcode to a more usable codec...

The camera that I was using for the AVCHD was a Sony HDR-SR11, and I have noticed that it does take quite a bit of time to 'convert'. When I rented a Panasonic HMC-150, the AVCHD material converted much more quickly.

I did not have time to get the disk with the Panasonic AVCHD footage to see if there was a similar response as with the Sony's AVCHD.

There was a difference between the footage:

Sony HDR SR11 --- AVCHD 1080i60
Panasonic HMC-150 --- AVCHD 1080 24p

I have not changed the Sony's recording characteristics to reduce the bit rate to less. Unfortunately I don't have time at the moment, so, that will have to wait until 2 weeks...

[mcsmooth]

I concur. Seems to be more of a tease until they do some serious work. Have to give them credit for at least deciding to support the format, but it clearly wasn't ready in time for the CS4 release. Transcoding is still the only real option... which gives owners with older versions little reason to upgrade.

I was thinking it might just be having problems with HMC's unique hi-bitrate, VBR mode, but sounds like you had the same issue with a more common consumer cam.

[Eric1138]

AVCHD takes a tremendous amount of processing power when edited natively - which is how PPro CS4 does it. If you're seeing blocking of the image, you can adjust your preview monitor quality to highest and that will give you great image quality, but lousy performance if you don't have a powerful computer.

Keep in mind, I edit with PPro CS4 on a powerful system at work - cuts XDCAM HD, HDV, and P2 HD with no problems what so ever. Drop in some AVCHD - slowdown (unless I change the settings for preview). I know that Adobe will be issuing an update soon that includes fixes and supposdly presets for the HMC-150. I'm hoping that performance will increase with the update, but I fear that getting an even more powerful computer or transcoding to some other format will still be the best bet for dealing with AVCHD on PPro.

But I have been able to edit it, and it does output great - it may not always look it during preview, but the quality is there.

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

AVCHD takes a tremendous amount of processing power when edited natively - which is how PPro CS4 does it. If you're seeing blocking of the image, you can adjust your preview monitor quality to highest and that will give you great image quality, but lousy performance if you don't have a powerful computer.


What is 'powerful'... and of course note that I'm usually buying Macs for my image processing activities...

[pinakbeth]

What is 'powerful'... and of course note that I'm usually buying Macs for my image processing activities...


Powerful to me is 8core XEons with 16+gig rams on 64bit OS.

Saying you are buying MACs for image processing activities does not say much.

What Mac specs are you supposingly gonna use?

I have no problems editing AVCHD with my PC running Adobe CS4: 64bit XP with an 8core Xeon and 8Gig Ram.

I would of bought a MAC system with similar specs , but I don't know of any benefits in doing so.

[mcsmooth]

So you don't get hung processes and green screens at all when editing or rendering? I tried using the little bit of 1080p content I have (since there are no presets for 720). Seemed to be working for a few minutes, then started choking on random clips.

I'm not even maxing out my cpu/ram at full quality (except when the import process hangs on one core), it is just acting buggy. Fresh install of Vista 64, drivers, and PPro CS4 on an i7. See lots of other people with the same problems. They are aware of the issues, we just have to hope for a proper update before the next codec has replaced avchd.