transcoding AVCHD: something I never thought of

R

reinout

New member
Hey,
As I was editing a filmproject while transcoding my avchd footage to dvcproHD I suddenly thought about the resolution. Maybe it's an obvious thing, but still I wanted to check it here;

When you transcode to dvcproHD using Panasonics transcoder the output is in 920*720 or something right? It says so anyway in premiere CS4. So does that mean that it kills off quite a bit of the horizontal resolution of the original footage (360 lines to be precise)?

As I said; never thought of this before; but that basically means that transcoding lowers your horizontal resolution by, what, 25% or something? Which also means that transcoding to dvcproHD really is an inferior option to native editing; resolution wise?

Or am I missing something?...
 
You are correct, you are giving up some horizontal resolution when going to DVCPRO-HD. It's not much of an issue when using 1080 footage, because the chipset can't really deliver a whole lot more than DVCPRO-HD can record, but with 720 footage yes, there is a scaling down of the highest-frequency detail.
 
Which NLE's can use the AVid DNxHD codec besides AVID? And outside of AVID land, how does one transcode into DNxHD?

Also, doesn't DVPro HD scale 1920x1080 down to 1280x1080 (60i footage)? Are you saying Barry that this doesn't really matter for 1080 footage?

Which NLE's have a decent transcoder and codec? I took a look at canapos HQ (I have edius 5.1.1) but thought the transcoded footage didn't look so great. I have yet to look up the specs in that codec, but to my eye the footage transcoded at HQ Online "Fine" looked a bit "rough".
 
dvcprohd is a good acquisition codec but it's fairly dated, and isn't really any good compared to a lot of modern codecs that have come out. i find that it transcodes badly, and lossy at times even when i'm going dvcpro hd to dvcpro hd. dnx is a great codec and easy to work with, cineform too if u wanna pay as everybody else has said. those are probably the 2 best codecs that are visually lossless for pc that are completely workable with.
 
William_Robinette said:
You can download the DNxHD codec from AVID for free and once installed can be accessed by any NLE on your system.
Click to expand...

OK, by accessed you mean they will recoginize DNxHD footage? But what about transcoding AVCHD into DNxHD? DO I have to use a thrid party transcoder? If so,which one?
 
Another thing to consider is the distribution medium. If this is just going on the web, you're really not going to notice much of a difference if you transcode to DVCProHD.
 
Blueray output or better (for FX work etc).

Any suggestions on a transcoding software. Not sure about premeire, but Edius doesn't seem to have such a thing.

I have the DNxHD codec installed.
 
Denwa said:
OK, by accessed you mean they will recoginize DNxHD footage? But what about transcoding AVCHD into DNxHD? DO I have to use a thrid party transcoder? If so,which one?
Click to expand...

No, you use your NLE or anything else that can see your quicktime codecs. You could even use Quicktime Pro to transcode if you want.

DNxHD has a TON of advantages. It's PAL aware, NTSC aware, is seamless between Macs and PCs (no gamma shifting), you can choose 8-bit or 10-bit, and there are bit rates from 36Mbps through 220Mbps. The codec recently got VC-3 approved so now it is an ISO standard which has archival potential.

Basically, it does Everything ProRes does (Except the new ProRes which is 4:4:4) and it has a proxy size at 1080/36Mbps.

Best freebie out there. As good as Cineform and free.
 
PerroneFord said:
No, you use your NLE or anything else that can see your quicktime codecs. You could even use Quicktime Pro to transcode if you want.

DNxHD has a TON of advantages. It's PAL aware, NTSC aware, is seamless between Macs and PCs (no gamma shifting), you can choose 8-bit or 10-bit, and there are bit rates from 36Mbps through 220Mbps. The codec recently got VC-3 approved so now it is an ISO standard which has archival potential.

Basically, it does Everything ProRes does (Except the new ProRes which is 4:4:4) and it has a proxy size at 1080/36Mbps.

Best freebie out there. As good as Cineform and free.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thanks. I did some reading. I remember there was talk when this codec first came out. I wasnlt editing HD back then.

FFMpeg seems a pain in the butt to use. (Unless someone knows a user friendly front end.) Having to manually enter a bit rate etc for each clip eats time and can lead to user based errors.

Any other suggestions for a trancoder? How's sorrenson Squeeze? I've heard quicktime pro is slow at transcoding.

Anything geared towards an I7 machine?
 
PerroneFord said:
No, you use your NLE or anything else that can see your quicktime codecs. You could even use Quicktime Pro to transcode if you want.

DNxHD has a TON of advantages. It's PAL aware, NTSC aware, is seamless between Macs and PCs (no gamma shifting), you can choose 8-bit or 10-bit, and there are bit rates from 36Mbps through 220Mbps. The codec recently got VC-3 approved so now it is an ISO standard which has archival potential.

Basically, it does Everything ProRes does (Except the new ProRes which is 4:4:4) and it has a proxy size at 1080/36Mbps.

Best freebie out there. As good as Cineform and free.
Click to expand...

Wow? Wasn't aware of this. I'm a ProRes user so I've come to take it for granted but that'd pretty sweet for PC users.
 
Thomas Lew said:
Wow? Wasn't aware of this. I'm a ProRes user so I've come to take it for granted but that'd pretty sweet for PC users.
Click to expand...

It has some advantages for Mac users too. If you ever need to collaborate with folks who are FCE, they can't read your ProRes files. This might alleviate their issues. And for collaborating with PC users it's utterly seamless. If there is any chance I'll have to work with Mac people or Avid people (which happens regularly) I move to DNxHD from the start.

There's even a batch encoder that takes native XDcamEX files and transcodes to DNxHD for those so inclined. I just wish Sony Vegas would implement some modern way of dealing with .mov files. My ProRes, DNxHD, Blackmagic/Aja, and all manner of other stuff just lags... it's frustrating.
 
Once you install the Avid codecs, you can use Adobe Media Encoder to batch convert the AVCCAM/AVCHD footage. My last NLE build I played with it, but didn't notice any difference in CPU use, just larger files.
 
PerroneFord said:
I just wish Sony Vegas would implement some modern way of dealing with .mov files. My ProRes, DNxHD, Blackmagic/Aja, and all manner of other stuff just lags... it's frustrating.
Click to expand...
For my home and for my business ,I only buy Panasonic products. I hate Sony.
They have to make everything hard and exclusive. Over priced pompous jerks.
 
So is anyone transcoding 720p60 footage to DVCPRO-HD and happy with the results or is everyone going with cineform or DNxHD on the PC side...

Phil
 
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