To AVCHD or not to AVCHD

R

rtprtp

New member
Hello all,

This is my first post, and i apologize in advance if this topic has been addressed, but I did a search and came up short, so here goes...

I want to edit in AVCHD real bad, and I am about to purchase the HVC-150, when suddenly I come by a few posts that scare the bejeebers out of me from folks saying "never go near AVCHD" or "you'll regret AVCHD for the rest of your life".
Yikes!

So I just got this PC Alienware M17 quad core, 4 ghz DDR3, ATI dual video cards, 7200 rpm dual drives, Vista 64 bit and on and on, hoping that I will have enough juice to make AVCHD work, especially if I wear the Alien hat that came with it :huh:. And just to add to my insecurities there's the "trancsode or not transcode" issue.

So my question is twofold...Should I be scared about AVCHD, and settle for a Mini DV HD cam?

Second queston is...what editing system would you folks recommend? I'm considering:

Premier Pro CS4 with the 4.1 update
GV Edius Neo 2 (which comes with the HMC-150) or the full Edius

I would appreciate any opinions/discussion. Thanks in advance.

Stan
 
You can always transcode to an intermediate or editing format, which I recommend.

Nothing to be scared about -- just an additional step
 
Thanks David. What programs/formats might you recommend I use for transcoding? Is it particular to the NLE program?
 
Your computer will do fine editing AVCHD in native format... But after playing around with transcoding then editing - I see why everyone is doing it. It plays back and edits like butter.
 
There's the Panasonic free transcoder that goes to DVCPRO-HD, which would work with Premiere Pro but not EDIUS Neo.

Frankly I say just try EDIUS Neo. You'll probably find that you get realtime editing, you have a fairly smoking quad core machine there, I bet you'll find that you have nothing to even worry about. Just get your free copy of EDIUS Neo, drag files to the timeline, and see what you think.
 
My computer is a lot weaker than yours, and after the 4.1 update, I'm editing AVCHD without issues in CS4. However, for effects heavy stuff, you can transcode to DVCProHD for free or spend a little extra and get Cineform.

However you go, your machine is more than adequate to handle it. The concept of "never go near AVCHD" or "you'll regret AVCHD for the rest of your life" is a load of Barbara Striesand. The editing issues have more or less resolved themselves or soon will. It's no different than when HDV first came out. Growing pains, nothing more.

Frankly, I love my HMC150, early editing issues and all. I love the images it can produce, and I never want to go back to tape if I can at all help it.
 
Mike Harvey said:
However you go, your machine is more than adequate to handle it. The concept of "never go near AVCHD" or "you'll regret AVCHD for the rest of your life" is a load of Barbara Striesand. The editing issues have more or less resolved themselves or soon will. It's no different than when HDV first came out. Growing pains, nothing more.
Click to expand...

Amen, brother.
 
rtprtp said:
So I just got this PC Alienware M17 quad core, 4 ghz DDR3, ATI dual video cards, 7200 rpm dual drives, Vista 64 bit and on and on, hoping that I will have enough juice to make AVCHD work, especially if I wear the Alien hat that came with it :huh:.
Click to expand...

I would offer one upgrade to this... since I think you mean 4GB DDR3 and not 4ghz DDR3... get more RAM. Not that it will affect AVCHD performance so much as editing performance in general. Vista 64 loves memory, so there is no reason to not beef up on it. If you can afford it, add on as much as the motherboard will allow. It will help performance a lot, regardless of the editing program you choose (with CS4, having Premiere, AE, and Photoshop open at the same time tends to bog things down a bit).
 
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Thanks everyone for your replies and encouragement! I will def purchase the HMC-150 in about 2 weeks. Looking forward to further discussions with all.
Peace, Stan
 
Hi Stan,

I shot with HDV for a couple of years and I like AVCHD much better. I have to transcode in Edius. I'm running Core 2 Duo's, 2.0 Ghz. Edius has a free transcoder that works really nice, but it takes time, especially with my computers.

I have actually been looking at the laptop you have. What is the processors speed? I'm really interested to see how your laptop handles AVCHD in Edius Neo. Please let me know and feel free to email me. Mark@VonWeddingFilms.com
 
currently I really love the canopus hq converter (which you can get free if you have edius). All i have to do is drag the card's icon onto the converter's icon and it will ingest to the directory of my choosing while transcoding on all cores at 100% cpu power. That lets me edit in vegas!
 
Hi Mark,

I have a quad core 2GHz. The 4GB ram is "3" DDR, which from what I've been told is like having 6GB with "2" DDR. I have not started to edit yet, but when I start in about 2 weeks I will let you know how it works out.

Stan
 
Skilled said:
Hotch... Do you transcode no mater what for Vegas? If so why?
Click to expand...

I absolutely love editing with vegas and it works wonderfully for me, in fact I have 4 versions installed (64-bit and 32 bit versions of 8 and 9). Editing native 720/30p works pretty good, but due to my underpowered laptop, it stumbles at full resolution playback. After transcoding, it really is like butter, even at full resolution even on vegas's "Best/Full" setting.
 
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