AVCHD, why are some having problems and others not?

Green Hornet

Green Hornet

Veteran
I have been reading these threads and it seems as if many can not edit AVCHD.
I have no problems at all, and I do not feel as if my computer is any better than others, so maybe we should try and figure out what is needed to make this work easily.

If your system can not view or edit AVCHD, then post the specs, maybe we can determine why.


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MY SYSTEM :

Plays native AVCHD in Windows media player 11 full screen and even at 200%.
I can scrub, and jump forward and backward without issues.
When I am playing footage, my fans do power on full speed.

I can also play footage in Premiere CS4, and edit native 1080p AVCHD footage.

My system is a sony sz750 laptop with Nvidia 8400M GS dedicated video card with 256 megs ram. I have 4 gigs ram and a Core 2 DUO 8100 processor

I am running Windows XP service pack 3

I am running Core codec Professional as the default Decoder for AVCHD.
(Cost $14.95) yes fourteen dollars and 95 cents.

I am running a modified driver set for my video card
nVIDIA ForceWare X 179.44 drivers. As sony drivers do not support many advanced features of the Nvidia card.

I usually edit in Cineform, but have been editing direct AVCHD, recently to test that workflow.

Everything play real time no skips or delays, fast forward and rewinds instantly.



Here is a link to a 2D benchmark program called bit bit

http://www.stereopsis.com/blttest/blttest.zip


You can test how many frames per second your video card can display.
I would think that anything AVERAGE above 280 frames per second OR BETTER should be able to do AVCHD.

.
 
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I'm on a MacbookPro 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo

3Gb ram

Premiere Pro CS4

and it stutters playback, i can play maybe 12-15 frames per seconds, for about 3 seconds, then it freezes, scrubbing is not possible at all
 
My my laptop and especially my desktop are beefier than yours, I'm running CS4, and Vista x64 and I'm having issues with it... but I've never heard of Core codec Professional.

Care to post a link? I'm intrigued...
 
Mike Harvey said:
My my laptop and especially my desktop are beefier than yours, I'm running CS4, and Vista x64 and I'm having issues with it... but I've never heard of Core codec Professional.

Care to post a link? I'm intrigued...
Click to expand...

http://www.coreavc.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=4&id=21&Itemid=59

Not sure if that will solve all problems, but so far that is the only difference (other than modifiying my graphics card drivers to use cuda) i see from others.
 
I ran the test you provided and I got interesting results, I run dual OS XP pro and Vista64 bit. I knew the 64bit would be better but was surprised how much faster it registered as:
XP Ave 1565, Vista64 Ave 6312, I think I'm going to make another partition and try windows 7 64 next week and see what, if any, bonus that gives.
 
Ken Steadman said:
I ran the test you provided and I got interesting results, I run dual OS XP pro and Vista64 bit. I knew the 64bit would be better but was surprised how much faster it registered as:
XP Ave 1565, Vista64 Ave 6312, I think I'm going to make another partition and try windows 7 64 next week and see what, if any, bonus that gives.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that you are getting average of 6,312 frames per second?
If so, you should be able to edit AVCHD.
Are you saying you can't?

That is odd...
 
I'm using an HP M8100N

AMD Athlon 5600+ 64x2 processor
3gb ram
GeForce 9800+ video card
500gb hard drive

my footage usually plays ok, I import right to Sony Vegas 9.0 platinum. My 720 24p footage always stutters and glitches, but so far all my 1080i footage looks good, i just can't get good render settings! nothing i render/compress as makes the footage look ok
 
So when you install CoreAVC... then what? Do you need to transcode to another codec, or is that it? Just install it and you're done?
 
Mike Harvey said:
So when you install CoreAVC... then what? Do you need to transcode to another codec, or is that it? Just install it and you're done?
Click to expand...



The Core codec will DECODE AVCHD when ever you use AVCHD, unless some other codec is programed to take over. If your system is fast enough, you don't have to transcode to anything else. Transcoding is only necessary when your system can not use the source footage.

Core will also allow FASTER transcoding, to other codecs... faster than real time.

That being said, I still prefer Cineform due to it's 10 bit nature, and it is faster than AVCHD, but if you want to edit AVCHD, that may get you there.

It is really nice when you just want tp playback from the SDHC card in windows media player.
The codec works in the background.
 
Green Hornet said:
The Core codec will DECODE AVCHD when ever you use AVCHD, unless some other codec is programed to take over. If your system is fast enough, you don't have to transcode to anything else. Transcoding is only necessary when your system can not use the source footage.

Core will also allow FASTER transcoding, to other codecs... faster than real time.

That being said, I still prefer Cineform due to it's 10 bit nature, and it is faster than AVCHD, but if you want to edit AVCHD, that may get you there.

It is really nice when you just want tp playback from the SDHC card in windows media player.
The codec works in the background.
Click to expand...

CoreAVC has nothing to do with CS4's internal AVCHD decoder.
It's simply a DirectShow codec that allows playback and decoding of DirectShow players.
Nothing special, converting AVCHD with/without the "Core" codec (Using a DirectShow program like Avisynth) makes no difference, the speeds are the same (Compared to bundeled AVCHD codec in K-lite codec pack).
 
Not sure how....
He's got a better CPU than mine (I have 6400), and more RAM, but I doubt these minor differences cause it to play back real time.

He's using a modified version of forceware, which?
I 'm using a Rivatuner to make my 8400GS a quadro NVS290, but it's not improving my performance so much.
 
I'm going to try it on my laptop later today, but on my desktop the little I played with it, performance did improve. Whether due to CoreAVC or just having a good day, I dunno. But right now I can't play AVCHD in CS4 on my laptop (2.4 dual core, 4gig RAM, Vista x64) without it crashing, so if it plays after installing this, then I think Green Hornet found a cheap solution to the CS4/AVCHD problem.
 
I seem to have trouble myself with Final Cut. I have a 2.8 Quad Core with 8GB of RAM, and Final Cut has a lot of trouble recognizing the MTS files and the PRIVATE folder from some files I have from the HMC150. I got it to work once, but it always crashed on me when I tried converting the 720p60p footage. Any thoughts on this?
 
One key variable you are missing in this post is the bit rate at which the AVCHD footage was shot. Many systems will be able to edit AVCHD footage natively if it was shot with a bit rate of 17Mbps or less. It is important to note that the majority of users, including myself, who are claiming to have problems editing AVCHD footage natively with their high-end machines is because they are attempting to edit AVCHD footage that was shot with a bit rate above 17Mbps. For example, this would include any PH mode with the Panasonic HMC150.

My current specs:

ASUS P5Q Pro MoBo
Intel Q6600 Quad Core CPU OC'd to 3.0GHz
4GB Corsair Dominator RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 1700 graphics card

I did not list hard drive specs because AVCHD editing is more CPU intensive rather than being reliant upon hard drive throughput.
 
So I tried CoreAVC on my laptop... no go. CS4 did perform better, but it still crashed after a few minutes.

Guess I'll just have to keep waiting for Prospect HD v4
 
Maybe Vista is the weak link...
I am on XP pro.

Guys, I would like to find out the solution for this, but so far, no one that can edit is coming forward except me.

Where is Bary Green on this one?
 
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