Avc

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WACOMalt

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Hi there. I know there have been many topics about the best lossless codec, and how to get your AVCHD footage to said codec. But I am wondering if there is ANY way to go from AVCHD directly to an uncompressed AVI file without any loss of color quality or resolution from transcoding. Storage Space is not an issue here.

I need an uncompressed AVI file, preferably with uncompressed wav audio in the AVI container as well.

The only way I could think up for doing this is taking the AVCHD footage straight into Premier (buggy as heck) and then use the dreaded Adobe Media Encoder, to output an uncompressed AVI file.

If I had the new version of Vegas it would be so much less buggy to do the same thing, and Vegas's exporting settings aren't buggy either... but alas, all I have is premier...

any ideas? thanks all!
 
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Uncompressed HD footage is so large, you will not even be able to play it in realtime when read from disk.

Just some estimations:
Full HD = 1920x1080 = 2073600 pixels
Let's say a pixel is stored in 8 bit RGB with 8 bit alpha so that's 4 bytes per pixel
2073600 * 4 = around 8 megabytes per single frame
Now lets assume we have 30 frames per second
That yields 30 * 8 megabytes which is around 240 megabytes for just a single second of uncompressed full HD footage.

With current drives you will not even get close to this.
 
Pailes and dr. jones are right... for uncompressed you're going to need several fast drives set up in a RAID array. Honestly, you're better off buying Vegas, or going with near uncompressed by either downloading the Avid DNxHD codec or buying Cineform Neo Scene and rendering everything in your timeline, downloading the DvcProHD converter and dealing with that for the time being, or waiting 2-3 weeks for Cineform Prospect HD v4.

Besides, given the heavy compression of the AVCHD source footage, what do you gain by transcoding it to uncompressed, besides being able to say it's uncompressed?
 
I know Uncompressed is unwieldy, though I didnt realize JUST how unweildy. Mainly I was complaining at how Adobe media encoder cant do uncompressed with even SD footage or at least it always gives me corrupt AVIs that don't play in anything (I know uncompressed AVIs lag in almost every player.. but I mean these files just didn't work period) For my effects work I usually get a single shot, in either uncompressed AVI or a TGA sequence. I need to be able to do that with AVCHD without any quality loss. AVCHD may be compressed, but transcoding it to DVCProHD just looses too much quality for me (I am picky) I guess I will just have to shell out the cash for vegas 8... Does the trial of 8 support AVCHD fully? maybe I can just get the trial to convert these for now.

BTW, in my workflow (compositing in Shake/Nuke) TGA sequences have worked the best out of everything so far, and AVIs as well, AVIs are just more convenient because it is all in one container file rather than an image sequence.

Like I said, I don't care about the space it takes up, as for the effects I will be dealing with like 2 second clips and at most 10 second clips. I prefer my only compression to take place when encoding for bluray or DVD. (though I know AVCHD is already compressed.... ah well)

Thanks for your suggestions and explanations so far, I will likely resort to buying vegas if premier isn't fixed within a month.
 
You may want to think about either using the Avid codec, or Cineform. Avid is free, and Cineform will either run you $130 for NEO Scene, or $750 when ProspectHD v4 comes out. The nice thing about Prospect is that it replaces the decoder in Premiere and makes playback of Cineform files realtime without having to render the timeline. Either way, you get virtually zero quality loss, and something much more edit friendly than either AVCHD or uncompressed AVIs.

Avid codecs

Cineform Neo Scene demo
 
I will likely go with the avid codec (as I am short on money) though cineform will become my solution unless premier fixes AVCHD support soon.

Thanks for your help everyone. Though for my 2 second clips Uncompressed AVI or TGA sequence is what I really want (and for 2 seconds, space isn't an issue, and I dont need realtime editing for compositing)

going to try vegas 8 pro as well, hoping the trial supports avchd.
 
Do note, the Avid codec doe NOT give an .AVI, it gives a .MOV. The DNxHD codec will save you a TON of space over uncompressed, and give realtime playback on a single disk. Uncompressed won't.

Vegas has a number of advantages, but if you must collaborate with anyone else, please tread carefully. It has a number of maddening quirks.
 
are these quirks new to AVCHD support? or vegas quirks in general? I used to primarily use Vegas before, so plain Vegas quirks I have learned to deal with. If the AVCHD quirks are anything close to how bad premier is with it I may go insane though.
 
WACOMalt said:
are these quirks new to AVCHD support? or vegas quirks in general? I used to primarily use Vegas before, so plain Vegas quirks I have learned to deal with. If the AVCHD quirks are anything close to how bad premier is with it I may go insane though.
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No, I just meant Vegas quirks, not AVCHD. I've not had any trouble with AVCHD.
 
Sweet, well I have been a Vegas user for many years before premier (just went with premier as I figured Adobe would be the fastest to fix the AVCHD quirks that I figured both programs would have). I guess once I get the funds I will fully switch to vegas 8 pro.

I guess that about sums up all of my questions, so thanks everybody!
 
I use Vegas. There are a few issues with Vegas and AVCHD. 24P clips are not 100% reliable in my experience. I have been transcoding to DVCPROHd and using Raylight.

One of the problems is that native AVCHD 24p clips can hang at the end of a clip and lock up Vegas. unfortunately, if you get the hang, you cannot transcode to something better (like the AVID codec) within Vegas.

I am interested in NEO Scene. It may be a cheaper alternative to Raylight. Ie, it is cheaper than Raylight, but I haven't tested it.
 
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