Hello everyone, I feel like I’ve been around the world 5 times in trying to perfect the HD editing process with AVCHD video in Studio 12 Ultimate. I’ve asked many questions on this forum about tips, errors and the like that now that I have a few successful projects under my belt (because of help from the forum), I thought I’d put all of my experiences together to help others save hours and hours of frustration and learning. Why re-invent the wheel, right? Here are some specs for my laptop and camera:

Dell XPS M1730 laptop
Vista-32 Home Premium
Nvidia GeForce 8800GTX with 1GB RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz, 800MHz, 6M L2 Cache)
4GB RAM

Sony HDR-SR11 HD video camera (60GB HDD camera)
I always record in full quality at 1920x1080

General Startup Information:

·        Turn off all unneeded background services. I’ve used the program EndItAll with mixed results. The better way for me has been to use msconfig and turn off various startup items including other audio or video editing items such as Roxio, Nero and iTunes and any anti-virus programs. I have 4GB of ram in my system and I’ve noticed that a normal startup nets around 50% - 55% allocation while using msconfig and turning off the unneeded services nets around 30% - 35% allocation. MUCH better for running Studio 12.

·        Turn the page file off. This option has made Studio much more stable for me. With the page file on I noticed Studio being more sluggish and open to crashing more frequently. With the page file off, it moves much faster and is more stable. I just make sure that I don’t do ANYTHING else with the page file off. Also, when I had my page file on, I would sometimes get pop up box errors stating that the computer is almost out of memory and needs to shut Studio down. With the page file off…no errors and successful projects.

·        Configure the computer to run for best performance. Right-click My Computer > Properties. Click Advanced System Settings and then click Settings under the Performance area of the System Properties box. Check the radio button for Adjust for Best Performance.

·        Remove the desktop background image.

·        Put all of your files in one folder for your project (music, video, jpegs, etc.). I think this is more efficient for Studio to grab the files when they’re all together instead of being scattered across multiple areas of the computer and/or external drives.

·        Open the Windows Task Manager (Hold Ctrl & Shift, then press Esc). Minimize this box…you just want to see the CPU level in the task bar. I have an LCD display on my XPS laptop so I just use that. AVCHD footage is very processor-intensive so you don’t want to move too fast so that you can avoid crashing Studio. After moving a video clip, adding a menu, etc., make sure the processor isn’t running near 100%...that means Studio is still processing your change. Once the processor has calmed down you can move on to your next step in your project.

·        Make sure you have the latest video AND audio drivers out there. I didn’t think my audio driver would matter much but after many failed projects, I upgraded the driver and I started having success. Do them BOTH.

·        Defragment your hard drive and maybe even get rid of some old files if you can.

·        Studio recommends keeping AVCHD projects under 20 minutes. I haven’t gone over that threshold yet but intend to within the next week or two. So far I’ve had success for my 16 minute project. If you do go over 20 minutes, I would keep the effects to a minimum. Pan & Zoom is probably ok (it worked for me) but I’ve read that effects like Stabilize are very processor-intensive.

Video and Audio Preferences in Studio:

·        Turn off background rendering. I found that it’s easier to have this function off so that I can reserve the processor for my basic Studio functions. With the background rendering on, you’ll be sharing the processor load between the background rendering and your real-time edits. I have a dual core processor that can view standard transitions and simple effects like Pan & Zoom without having the background rendering on.

·        Enable hardware acceleration. If this box isn’t checked you may get a pop up box when opening Studio stating that you may not be able to edit 1920x1080 video.

·        Use this codec for background rendering: MPEG-2: best for output to disc. My success has been with this option.

Project Preferences

·        Use this format for new projects: I’m recording in 1920x1080/60i so I set this option manually…I don’t let the system choose for me.

Editing

·        First rule in editing AVCHD footage…BE PATIENT! This video is highly compressed and is much larger than SD video so it WILL take longer. By being patient, Studio will have a chance to process your edits with greater success and hopefully you’ll avoid crashing the application.

·        Create an outline of the project you would like to build. It seemed stupid in grade school but it makes all the sense when working in Studio. Your outline will tell you exactly how to build your project from start to finish. The less adds/deletes you do the better chance you’ll have for a successful project. When you have the outline built, work in order and avoid inserting clips anywhere in the timeline. Start at the beginning and add files to the end. Transitions are ok to insert later on.

·        With the Show Videos section on, set the view to Thumbnail view (View > Thumbnail view). Wait for all of the thumbnails to show up. If you have a number of video clips, you can right click anywhere around the thumbnails and use the option to Go to Album Page to skip ahead. When choosing that new page, wait for all of the thumbnails to refresh again. When it is time to drag a clip into your timeline, click on the thumbnail once and wait for the video to appear in the Preview window. Once it shows up there, THEN it is ready to drag into the timeline.

·        Most projects usually start with a menu. If so, drag your menu to the Video timeline. From here, you can edit the text on the menu, change things around, etc. Since this is the first clip in the timeline, you won’t be able to assign chapters until you’ve placed your video, titles, pictures, etc. That’s good. Don’t assign any chapters until you are finished with your entire project. Right click on the menu in the timeline and click Clip Properties – from here you’ll be able to start assigning chapters. By clicking on each button or thumbnail on the menu, you’ll see the slot number appear to the right. You’ll want to assign these chapters in numerical order. Click on the 1^st chapter icon on the menu, then click the appropriate area of your project where you want to link the two together, then click on the Set Chapter icon. Next to the “1” in the Clip Properties box you’ll see “Chapter #” appear (it is blank until you set the chapter). Type the text you want to show up for that chapter of the menu and press Enter. Then wait. This may take a few seconds to process the text change. Watch your processor to make sure that it calms down before moving on. You can also watch your thumbnail and text appear on the menu. I usually have to wait a few seconds after seeing the menu update before my processor is calm enough to move forward. Keep going until all chapters are assigned. Finally, keep this menu’s Clip Properties box open, go to the end of your project, click on the last clip, then click Set Return. So in summary, assign the chapter numbers first, then set your return. It’s worked best in this order for me.

·        Music Files: I tried using wav files for a project of mine and I kept getting an Export Error. I ended up rebuilding the project little by little until I got the error and it ended up being the wav files. I swapped those for mp3 files (160 kbps) and the project rendered perfectly. For me, I avoid wav files.

·        Adding Video Effects: These effects should be added after you are finished adding all of the parts of your project. Once everything is in line, then add your effects. Also, this is one time where the background rendering CAN help you. For example, you might add 2 different video effects to 1 single clip (sharpen and auto color correction). Add your first effect and wait for the video clip to render (the timeline is green when background rendering is processing and turns orange when background rendering is complete). Once it is orange again, go ahead and add the second effect and wait for it to render once more. It seems like Studio has an issue with rendering 2 effects at once but I’ve gotten it to work by doing it one at a time.

·        Once your project is finished and ready to Make Movie, stay on the Edit tab and turn on the background rendering. Wait for the entire timeline to turn orange. I have had times where Studio would render everything except for maybe 8 to 10 transitions. I closed Studio, re-launched it and opened my project. It finished the rendering this time around. Once the timeline is orange, click the Make Movie tab. You may notice that parts of your timeline that were already rendered under the Edit tab are now green and the rendering process is starting again. Wait for the timeline to turn orange before doing anything else. I’m not sure why it does this but it seems like the background rendering on the Edit tab is rendering it for preview purposes while the background rendering on the Make Movie tab is rendering it for disc creation purposes (maybe???). Once the timeline is orange, you can move on to the next section for adjusting the settings, choosing the disc type, etc.

Make Movie

·        Choose Disc, File, Tape or Web on the left (all of my work has been in the Disc section).

·        Choose your Disc Type (Blu-ray disc, AVCHD, or DVD)

·        Choose the Video Quality. I’ve always ran my projects at Best Quality

·        Click Settings for other options:

o   Choose Create disc content but don’t burn. I use this option because the burn process has failed in Studio multiple times when trying to use the Create disc content and then burn to disc option. Once the content is created you can view it on your PC for testing purposes. Or you can use Studio to Burn from previously created disc content to a re-writable disc and view the project on a set-top DVD player. My PS3 works like a charm for any disc I throw at it. It’s the best Blu-ray/DVD player on the market if you ask me. Oh, and by the way, it’s got a kick-butt gaming system in it too!

o   Progressive encoding: I burned a disc with no progressive encoding and then tried the same project and enabled this option. The progressive encoding disc looked horrible compared to not using it. The text on my menu had horizontal lines all the way through it. It looked worse than SD video. Leave this box unchecked.

o   Always re-encode entire movie: Even though the system has background rendered your project, you’ll get better results with this option checked. It does slow up the render process a bit but you’ll also get a higher percentage of successful project renders. Every one of my projects failed when this option was NOT checked.

o   Video quality / disc usage: The default bit rate is 25000 kbps if you’re using Best Quality. Leave this as is.

o   Image Type: Your choices are either BDMV (MPEG2) or BDMV (AVC). I’ve run multiple tests with these 2 image types and the MPEG2 option has had better results. Out of 8 tests, AVC only looked better one time (usually during scenes where I’m panning the camera from left to right). I’m convinced that was a fluke so MPEG2 wins here.

o   Click OK and then click Create Image. You’ll get a pop-up box asking you where you’d like to save the disc image. The default for Studio (on Vista) is Documents > Pinnacle Studio > My Disc Images > “Your Project Name”

o   If you’re creating a Blu-ray disc, you can view the finished product in your project folder in BDMV > STREAM. The video portion of your project will be separate from the menu portion. You’ll have to view them separately but when you burn the disc, it will all come together correctly. If you’re creating a standard DVD, the finished product will be in your project folder in the VIDEO_TS folder.

o   When you’re ready to burn the project to disc, open the Settings area under Make Movie and change the Burn Option to Burn from previously created disc content. When you click the Create disc button a pop up box will ask you to direct it to your image folder. For Blu-ray discs, navigate to your project folder (under My Disc Images) and click once on the BDMV folder when you get to it. For standard DVDs, click on the VIDEO_TS folder. Studio has never failed me when burning from previously created content.

The tips outlined here are ones I’ve suffered through over the past month and are only guidelines. Even by following these tips myself I’ve still incurred errors when trying to render my projects. The main error I get is the Export error when trying to create my disc content. I’ve watched my project render before (just a short 15 minute project) and I got the Export error right after Studio renders the menu. After the error, I close Studio, re-launch Studio, reload my project and click Create disc again. I keep following this process until I’ve re-launched Studio a maximum of 5 times. I’ve noticed the following on my projects: Studio will render through a portion of the project and then fail. The next time I run the Create disc option, it makes it a little further into the project, and then fails again. This might fail only once, twice or it can fail 5 times. I wait on deleting the auxiliary files because it seems like Studio works itself out and eventually finishes the project (I swear that Studio must have artificial intelligence because I feel like it “learns” the projects). If it keeps failing after 5 attempts, I then delete the auxiliary files, close Studio, re-launch Studio and then go through the process of waiting for Studio to do the background rendering on the Edit tab, etc., etc.

You would think that the auxiliary files would contain something corrupt to keep the project failing each time around but it doesn’t (at least for me). That’s why I ran another test. I REALLY took my time and built a project from scratch paying close attention to my processor allocation. I made sure that Studio was finished processing whatever it was processing before moving on. I also followed all of the tips from this post. The project was about 15 minutes in length, included a motion menu (no motion thumbnails), an mp3 file for the menu, 4 video chapter sections with multiple clips in each section, mp3s for each section, and titles with fade and dissolve transitions between them and the video clips. By being patient, this project rendered perfectly the first time around. WAHOO!

So…as I mentioned in the Editing section of this post, the best tip I can give everyone out there is to BE PATIENT. I’ll continue to go as slow as I possibly can because I think it will save time and frustration in the end. However, if I find any other tips and tricks I’ll be sure to spread the word. Thanks! 

Joe 

First, this needs a sticky!  This is an excellent description of challenges AVCHD editing. The description is well written and represent a fantastic contribution to the forum. Thank you! Just one question....

·        Turn the page file off. On wht disc drive do you keep your page file? C:\ (OS and apps)? Do you ever use multiple page files (different discs)?

·   

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Yes, my page file is on my C drive. I only use the one drive for my editing at this time which is a 400GB HDD in my XPS laptop. This gives me plenty of space for HD video and editing. My plan is to use the local hard drive for editing my projects and once the disc image is created, save that on an external drive for future burns/replacements. Plus it's easier to sit down with the laptop and only have to plug in the AC charger (I wish I had room for a desktop in my house).

Joe 

I will have a look tonight. I typically have my page file on another internal drive (thinking throughput). Always looking for more optimization.tips though. So this is something to try.

Give it a shot and post your results. Just curious to see if this tip worked just for me or if it will truly help optimize the system for Studio.

Joe

Siestakey,

In a separate thread, you report loss of quality when exporting an AVCHD pan shot to HDV-MPEG2.  However, when you burn your clips into a BD project, have you experimented alternatively with the AVC and MPEG format options for disc burn?

Working with a core 2 duo and NVIDIA not much different from yours, I see smooth motion in the raw MTS clips from the videocam, when played back on the PC.  However, when I burn to AVCHD-DVD at 17 mbps or to BD in AVC, some motion shots get jerky.  This happens even if the disc image bitrate is higher than that of the source raw MTS clip.  Pan shots or rapid actions (a ball pass, etc) yield the worst.  However, when I burn to BD-MPEG at 17 mbps or higher, the motion is about the same as in the original MTS clip.  Is your outcome the complete opposite?

 See: http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/permalink/211489/210327/ShowThread.aspx#210327

 

Great post, very helpful and informative. I have yet to try AVCHD editing. But this shouldn't be missed by both new and experienced users. Great stuff. Thanks you for sharing this. Pinned!

Marc - Thanks

I tried taking away the System set page file on C:. Studio was slower to respond without the page file, but background rendering used less processor (~85% instead of ~100%).  Not sure I make sense of that. Just an observation that seems to agree with the suggestion and the original post. It might be a matter of personal preference as I felt I was able to edit quicker (AVCHD) with the page file. There was less waiting. But, my processor wasn't worked as hard during background rendering. Then again, the current suggestion is to avoid background rendering,......

Marc from Pinnacle, Thanks for the good words.

Mark (with a K), thanks for the extra info and testing Marc. No page file to reduce the load on the processor looks like it works well for my dual core processor. From this forum I've found that quad core is what you want for AVCHD editing because the processor is the most important. When my laptop is doing the background rendering (after the editing is finished) my processor is running between 95% and 100% on the dual core for most of the project. It drops to 88% for a second but usually stays between 95% and 100%. The lower percentage for your quad core makes sense. For my application, no page file has allowed me to finally get through AVCHD editing and finish projects.

So I guess that for users out there with barely the minimum requirements for AVCHD editing (or just under the requirements like me) no page file may be the way to go. A 10% to 15% drop in processor load is huge and I would think that Studio would work much better with the 85% load since it has some headroom to work with. If my processor hits 100% and Studio needs more, that might be the hiccup in my projects so that will require me to adjust the project.

This new information will be a nice addition to the AVCHD editing tips on this thread.

Joe

Now that I have been successful in burning my Blu-ray projects to BD-RE media with the MPEG-2 option, I haven't been going through any other testing. In fact, Studio is running pretty smooth for me now. With the large project I just finished, I was able to get through rendering the very first time which hasn't happened before...especially on a project like...especially on an AVCHD project. I did have a few hiccups in the photo slideshow and I'm going to replace the corrupt files this weekend and hopefully that will fix it. However, the video portion looks great. When I was shooting the video on vacation, I had the DVD in mind the whole time so most of the footage is panning and zooming shots. That footage looks perfect on Blu-ray so I'm happy where I'm at now. In fact, it exceeded my expectations because when I had the camera plugged directly into the TV via HDMI, I thought the panning was a little hard to follow. It was hard to watch it smoothly. But now that Studio has rendered it to BD-RE, it seems to have smoothed it out a bit and it looks dynamite.

When I was on Studio 11 and was burning AVCHD images to standard DVD, I definitely saw the HD video as being jerky...even with small pan movements with the camera. Luckily, I was only experimenting with this on S11 for a short time but I upgraded to S12 Ultimate as soon as it was released.

Joe

In Studio Plus 11.1.2, I can open files from my Sony HDR-CX12, process and write to a AVCHD-DVD disk.  However, Studio converts the data to an .stx file and then converts to AVCHD upon writing to the disk.

 Comparing such disk on a 32" HDTV in 1080i with the source as viewed by the camecorder attached to the TV, the quality of the Pinnacle product was noticeable lower.

 Writing the same data to Picture Motion Browser, supplied with the camcorder and then to AVCHD-DVD disk produced the same quality as the camecorder-TV show.  My guess is that the deterioration is due to the double conversion.

Pinnacle states that version 12 Pinnacle Studio Plus "works natively with HDV and AVCHD footage".  Doesn't it write a temporary file ... and if so, what format is the temporary file?

Joe,  Great review ... thanks!

I have a Sony HDR-CX12 and record in 1080/60i for final output to a 1920x1080i HDTV via AVCHD-DVD and Playstation 3 Blu-Ray player.  I am processing the video in Studio 11.1.5.

Considering only the "Make Movie" workflow, what are the differences between 11.1.5 and 12?

Jack

Thanks, Jack! The main difference between S11 and S12 is the ability to burn to Blu-ray disc with full motion menus (you also get the Montage feature and Magic Bullett Looks video effects). You have to upgrade to the S12 Ultimate to get the Blu-ray capability though I believe. I had some issues getting my system stable enough to edit the full 1920x1080 HD content but now that I'm straightened out, I think S12 runs smoother than any other version of Studio I've had before - and that's going through each version of upgrade back to Studio 7! I looked at the Montage feature for a few minutes but I'll probably never use it. The templates are kind of cheesy and don't have the professional look that I'm after. And I only played around with Magic Bullett Looks for a few minutes one day. It does have a video effect that makes the video look like a beach scene from CSI: Miami (the sky is a nice amber/red color but the beach and water are still blue). Pretty cool. The stability and addition of Blu-ray burning are definitely reasons to upgrade. If you have a Blu-ray burner, I'd say go for it. If not, the Montage and Magic Bullett Looks might not be enough for an upgrade for you. Oh, and S12 still does AVCHD burning as well.

Joe 

What is the largest BD project you've burned?  Any problem with making adjustments to quality, bitrate, image size, or diskometer reliability when burning a BD project of 120 minutes or longer, or 23 GB or larger?

I have 2 answers to this. First, I tried making a BIG project that was going to total about 1 hour and 40 minutes of time. It included AVCHD video at 1920x1080, full hi-resolution JPEGs from a 10MP camera, fade and dissolve transitions, video effects for about 5 minutes of video for color correction (it was underwater footage of a snorkeling trip and I used color correction to get the water clearer - it looks stunning), a video effect to reduce the brightness and contrast of some video that a friend shot for me using the manual exposure setting (it was WAY too bright!), multiple custom built standard menus with background music (the menus were standard Studio menus and I used some pictures to run a 21 second slideshow behind it with music and my multiple I mean I had a main menu, a scene selection menu, an "extras" menu, and a music menu), 2 photo slideshows (1 with about 230 pictures another with 15), and I had a section where the user could listen to the full audio tracks there were used as background music for the video portion - they could listen to them one at a time (with a return to the Music menu when the song was done) or they could choose a Play All function that would play all 7 songs in a row. The music was mp3 format at 160 kbps. For when the songs are playing, I created some graphics in Adobe Illustrator to make the title I added look like an iPod screen (play icon, batter icon, iPod name, artist and song name). The title also included a countdown timer effect. The graphics were just bits and pieces - not a full hi-res image. I used Studio to type in the artist name, song name and the word 'iPod'.

I thought this was a killer project and was excited to see the finished project. However, when I was trying to render the project it would get through writing all of the frames and then hang on writing the final file. It was also draining my hard drive storage for whatever reason. It got to the point where I had zero hard drive space left and Studio gave me a warning to either cancel the project or delete some files to gain storage space. I ended up canceling, deleting the aux files, letting the project re-render and using my 1TB drive for the hard drive but it still just ran and ran and ran. I ended up deleting the music part of the project which reduced it down to about 52 minutes. Everything else was the same though. this project rendered beautifully and totaled on 11GB. In retrospect, I'm thinking that maybe the graphics I used for the iPod display might have been too high in file size which screwed up the project. I probably should have tried just deleting the iPod graphics but I had been working for SOOOO long on the project, the music portion was just an addition. I was more concerned with the video and picture portion of the project.

At 52 minutes the project runs absolutely perfect on my PS3 - no runs, no drips, no errors. HA! At 52 minutes the project totaled 11GB so there is plenty of space left for more video. This was a win in my book since the Studio Readme file recommends keeping AVCHD projects to under 20 minutes. I had done that already so I decided to "kick it up a notch" and got this project to work at 50 minutes. And now that I'm done with this project, I'll probably keep experimenting to try and get maybe an hour and 40 minutes onto a Blu-ray disc. Of course, I could get a 50GB Blu-ray and go to town. As I test more, I'll post the results. 

Joe 

Thanks Joe,

Wow, what a quick reply.  I do not have a Blu-Ray burner soooo, I think I will just stick w/ 11.1.5.

Thanks again!

Jack

You're very welcome on the quick reply. I feel that I'm here today at my level of understanding of Studio because of this forum so I try to give back as much as I can.

Joe
 

I need some help. I asked a question on the general forum, but maybe you can help. I have S.12 ultimate. I have trouble getting themenus to work. when I put in a two page menu with thumbnails to the chapters it works in pinnance, but when I burn it to a DVD as ACHVD, it won't play. it freezes on the menu and says "still" on my blu ray player. I have played non menu AVCHD stuff fine but upgraded for the menus. I did get it to work sucessfully for a e minute movie the clips played but the menu was one page. can you do two page menus? any idea what I am doing wrong? I just drag the menu to the timeline (i tried to put it in the title line but it only showed up on the screen when I put it in the timeline) like I did for non AVCHD. any help or advice would be appreciated.

Yes, you can do 2-page menus. You should be able to just drag and drop the 2 menus to your video track. You'll need to link the 2 menus though using a thumbnail button, regular button, or whatever. Once both menus are on the timeline, right-click on your first menu and click on Clip Properties. Choose the button, thumbnail, etc. that you want to use to link the 1st menu to the 2nd menu. This button will be highlighted after you click on it. Then click on the 2nd menu in the timeline. Then, to link them, click on the Set Chapter icon on the Clip Properties box. If it is successful, you will see "Menu" appear just above the button you chose in the menu preview screen in the Clip Properties box - similar to seeing the chapter link for other chapters you set.

In Studio 11, you could burn an AVCHD image on standard DVD but the menus would not work. Menu support for AVCHD images was added in Studio 12 Ultimate. I just ran a test for you with 2 motion menus and a short AVCHD video clip and it worked perfectly. Try the linking option I described above or you could try deleting your menus and rebuilding them from scratch. Maybe something got corrupted along the way. Also, when assigning chapters in the menu, it's important to do them in order. Each time you click on one of your menu buttons, you'll see that button's number assignment in the right part of the Clip Properties screen. Start with 1, then 2, etc. I've found that if you try to assign number 3 before assigning 1 or 2, Studio will crash or corrupt the menu. At any rate, you're having issues with these menus so I would suggest deleting them and starting from scratch.

Also, what Blu-ray player are you trying to watch them on? I just recently ran into an issue where my Blu-ray project played perfectly on my PS3 but didn't play on a friend's Sony BDP-S300 unit. Turns out he needed a firmware update which added BD-RE and BD-R support and now it works. Maybe your player needs a firmware update (???).

Let us know if this helps you fix your problem. Thanks!

Joe 

Hi,

New user here experiencing huge frustration in my first attempt burning DVD's with Studio 12 Ultimate.

     I have a new Blu-Ray burner

     I imported AVCHD clips

     I'm running WIN XP SP3 on a PC (Pentium 4; 3+ GHz) and 4Gb RAM

I have no issues rendering and creating the VIDEO_TS folder, it's the burning to DVD+R DL that is the problem.  It just runs forever on "Writing lead in..." and nothing happens.

I'll try the steps you have posted and see where it leads me.

Thanks,

 

Glenn

 

Glennimal:

 I'm running WIN XP SP3 on a PC (Pentium 4; 3+ GHz) and 4Gb RAM

Your system is below the 2.4 ghz core 2 duo minimum prescribed for AVCHD.  If your system lacks an adequate dedicated graphics card, playback of AVCHD may also be difficult. 

Were you able to preview your clips on the timeline at all? 

I see you bought a BD burner but you were trying to burn a standard definition DVD.  Did you have it set up for a "standard definition" or HD project?  One can burn to a standard DVD from either set-up, but the SD one may demand a bit less CPU.

Most people will tell you to upgrade the PC or forget about AVCHD.  Before you do, however, I'd be curious to learn whether you can load AVCHD clips to a timeline, export them as an HDV2 or WMV 1280x720 file, import that file to a new project, and edit successfully in that format.  I was able to convert AVCHD to 1280x720 on a P4, using another application, and the output files could be edited.  It was an improvement over standard definition.

Yes, I downloaded AVCHD after loading a UDF driver.  I couldn't download right from the HD camcorder, but could from the SD memory cards.  I was able to add them into the timeline, edit them and create to VIDEO_TS folder.  All of this with very little problem. 

I actually was just able to get it to burn to a dual layer DVD+R DL, although I need to play with it a bit more as it was not as good as I expected it should be. 

The next question I have is my new Bose DVD player wouldn't recognize it, but I can play it in either of my DVD drives on my computer.  It gave an Unrecognizable Format error.

Thoughts???

 

Check the specs on your Bose DVD player to ensure that it can recognize a dual layer DVD. If it only plays DVD+-R, CD-R, etc. then you won't be able to play it. Do you have that large of a project that you need to burn it on a dual layer DVD?

Joe 

I just successfully burned a 2+ hour DVD @ 5.8GB with no issues,  Again this was at 1440 x 1080 60i or whatever that setting is.  I'll have to check the spec's on the Bose DVD Player.  Thanks for all of your input.

 Glenn

Almost forgot, this one I had to run at "Automatic Quality" instead of "Best Quality" because of the way Studio 12 recognizes disc availability, even though the burn was only 5.8GB of the 8+GB available on the DVD+R DL.  (It said I was 5 min over)  Any work around to that???

 Glenn

Hi again Joe!

A couple of quick questions about the SR11. I'm getting the SR12 (this weekend).

Can you make SD DVDs right off of the camera? I read that you can "instant burn" right off of the camera, but does it create an AVCHD DVD (need Blu-ray player) or can you select SD output?

The reason I ask is that I take videos of my son's soccer games and sometimes give copies to parents of fellow team mates. None have Blu-Ray players and I'd hate to have to read the footage into Studio and convert to SD (assuming that works well - have you tried that?). Making DVDs for non-Blu Ray owners is my biggest concern and the work that might be involved doing that with this camera. I'd like to do all my filming in true HD and "downgrade" as needed for SD copies of the movies for parents, friends and family - until such time that everyone has a Blu-Ray player!

Perhaps there is a workflow to accomplish what I want to do that I am missing.

Thanks again for all your help!

Tony