CS4 + 1080 24p issues?

Strobe Media

Strobe Media

Well-known member
has anyone else had issues with this? i shot practically an entire short in 1080 24p yesterday, and now PPCS4 practically won't respond to it! it lags HORRIBLY, it won't play, i'll try to render and it will freeze every time, and sometimes it won't render and then it won't play in real time at all. Is this my computer acting up or does anyone else have issues with this?
 
You might need to right click on the footage in your project window and select Interpret Footage. In the dialog box that opens up, select to remove the 24p DV pull down. Also AVCHD is extremely processor intensive, even on playback. Hopefully the upcoming Premiere 4.1 update will improve performance.
 
ugh, I sure hope so, my computer specs are minimal and i was stoked that it could even minimally edit AVCHD

edit: It doesn't give me the option to remove the 24p pulldown, guhhhh

double edit!: and it renders ridiculously slow, like 1% every minute, this is only a 10 second clip if that.
 
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transcode your footage to another codec. i think even high powered comps have a tough time handling native avchd 1080 footage.
 
i downloaded that avchd to dvcprohd transcoder, but for some reason it wouldn't let me hit transcode! i'd hit browse, find my file, import it, and nothing! and I used to try that but got rid of it because I used vegas, but now I'm trying it and it just doesn't work. It won't let me import more then 1 file at a time, this is lame...
 
i downloaded that avchd to dvcprohd transcoder, but for some reason it wouldn't let me hit transcode! i'd hit browse, find my file, import it, and nothing!
Click to expand...

Try clicking around a little more. I don't know exactly what the problem is but it strikes me this has happened to me before. It's a tiny program so check out all the buttons to see if something obvious (like maybe output directory) isn't set or points to a non-existent directory...

Good luck
 
ah, got it, it was because i renamed the files on the SDHC card so it didn't work. Now i'll transcode and see if that helped...
 
yes! it works! is it just me or does the quality go down? I guess that means I lost all the footage on the 2nd card I recoded to because I renamed the files : /
 
Regarding quality loss: the Mainconcept transcoder cuts out some of the vertical resolution. It makes files that are 960x720 and a 1.33:1 aspect ratio (I think -- don't hold me to this), which to me indicates a loss of vertical resolution. To my eye, the transcoded files do seem a little fuzzier than the AVCHD files do.

Regarding loosing footage:

If all the files are still there and you restored the files names, it would be just like it was. The .mts files can play in programs like VLC but all your meta-data exists in the other folders, which Panasonic's Transcoders requires.

I screwed around with this a little too much during my first few card dumps. Now I keep it really simple - I have a folder called _CARD_DUMPS with subfolders like 00008, 00009, 00010. Each of those has exactly one PRIVATE folder in it -- a dump from the card. As far as any software is concerned, each of these *is* the original SD card.

From there I transcode to a temporary folder on another drive: _TRANSCODES/00009 or _TRANSCODES/00010. I use those files to edit with. And in theory, I should be able to delete my _TRANSCODES/##### folder at the end of the project, and simply re-create it from the data from the original SD card later if needed. I believe my NLE, Premiere CS4, keeps all of it's meta data in the project file, so in theory this should work.

But -- I haven't tested this aspect of it yet. I need to do a sample project involving lots of clips and meta data to see if it's possible to delete my transcodes and re-create them later. If so, that's ideal :).
 
I’ve got a few relatively high powered quad-core PC’s -- and trying to edit native AVCHD in Premiere Pro CS4 works with clips less than ten seconds in length. Anything other than that -- and it’s a disaster.

If some wizard out there could come up with a way of incorporating the CoreAVC codec into the Premiere/After Effects workflow -- we’d all be happy campers.

The only program I’ve found that pleasantly/seamlessly edits raw AVCHD files is Edius. It works like a charm -- and proves that the problem with AVCHD editing is a software thing -- not a hardware thing (in exactly the same way the CoreAVC codec proves it’s a software thing, not a hardware thing).

I’m currently in the midst of testing the Grass Valley ProCoder 3 with HMC “PH” AVCHD. In fact, this past day was spent working specifically with 1080/24p HMC footage. The big advantage to ProCoder 3 over the MainConcept DVCPROHD transcoder is that I’m going from progressive to progressive (the MainConcept DVCPROHD transcoder dumps the 24p on a 60i stream) at full 1920 by 1080 (with the right settings in ProCoder 3). So far the results have been rather impressive -- and getting the best out of the HMC’s full 1920 by 1080 recording.

The above workflow is similar to using Cineform -- but at this point it appears to me that ProCoder 3 offers a ton more options than Cineform’s “HDlink.”

The bottom line -- transcoding is absolutely necessary with Premiere Pro CS4 -- unless your clips are less than ten seconds in length. In an ideal world Adobe would fix this -- because it’s a software problem. Unfortunately, based on my experience with Adobe, both development teams and their corporate leadership -- I’ll bet you an HMC that the HMC will be obsolete by the time Adobe gets around to fixing anything.

SO -- if you or someone you know can figure out how to make the CoreAVC codec work with Premiere Pro CS4 -- you’d become a hero to thousands and I’d be happy to send you some money.
 
Great post, AGMedia. In addition to your last paragraph there, we could potentially hold our breaths for a Blackmagic Intensity or Matrox card to provide better AVCHD support (though perhaps not -- my old Matrox card required everything to be in a proprietary Matrox format)
 
I hear an update to premiere is only weeks away. Hopefully that is true.
It is strange that progressive footage seems more difficult to edit with CS4.
 
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