Hello everyone. I just wanted to post my findings in burning Blu-ray discs with mpeg2 and avc image types. My project includes AVCHD video at 1920x1080 from a Sony HDR-SR11 and I rendered the project in S12 Ultimate at 1920x1080/60i. My first Blu-ray project was burned with the mpeg2 image type and I noticed a few issues. I had about 4 areas during my 15 minute project where I had a flicker during the video. The flicker is a video frame from somewhere else in the project. This is something that has been mentioned on the forum when working with AVCHD footage. I have about 15 photos in the project as a slideshow with dissolve transitions between each one and every picture has a pan & zoom effect. I had 5 areas where the pan & zoom stuttered just a little bit and 2 areas where I had that video frame flicker. I took the same project and burned it using the AVC image type and the results are much, much better. Only 2 video frame flickers during the video portion of the project and the photo slideshow is perfect. I'm not sure what the main difference is between these 2 image types but the AVC definitely provided me with better results. The Blu-ray was viewed on a PS3.

Thanks!

Joe 

Sometimes the results of a project change when it is re-rendered, even if the output format is the same.  When you noticed the problem in the MPEG version, you may also have tweaked some of the transitions or sequences that gave you the problems.  In other words, the improvement you witnessed in the AVC BD might be perfectly true, but have nothing to do with the format per se.

What bitrates did you use in the respective versions?

Do you notice any quality differences between the AVC and MPEG disc versions of rapid action or pan shots?  I saw jitters or jerks (as if skipped frames) in AVC dusc images that were smoother in the MPEG versions at 17 mbps or higher.

I would like to think that a AVCHD video source burned to AVC would be better (or at least loss-less) compared to a conversion to MPEG, but my exports or burns to HDV-MPEG2 or a BD-MPEG somehow look better, even without bumping up the bitrate a lot.  Conversion is out of the question for a 4.7GB disc, but the 25 GB space on a BD-SL gives enough space to accept the larger size of the MPEG output.

The project I burned using the MPEG image was the same project that I used for the AVC image. No other project changes were made with transitions, effects, etc. However, in all of the failures and export errors I got, I know I deleted the auxiliary files a few times so that project might have rendered better the 2nd time around. Between the MPEG and AVC versions though, I thought the AVC version was MUCH better. I did have some pans on the video and they were jerky and stuttered a bit on the MPEG version whereas I had none of that going on with the AVC version. Very smooth. There is a post on the forum regarding quick video frame flashes when working with AVCHD footage (a frame of footage from another part of the project flashes quickly during playback) and I had maybe 5 or 6 of these flashes in the MPEG version. In the AVC version it was limited to 1 or 2 which I think is acceptable. But I'm just happy with the project renders successfully!! HA!

I used the best quality settings for the BD project which defaults the bit rate to 25000 (I think...I'm actually at a hotel computer right now). Anyway, it's the greyed out default for the best quality. When playing the BD on my PS3 I can activate a display option and view the actual bit rate during playback and the max was around 17mbps.

I'm kind of bummed that Pinnacle recommends limiting an AVCHD project to under 20 minutes. Blu-ray is DEFINITELY the way to go to showcase the high quality 1920x1080 video I'm shooting but I'd love to take advantage of the large space available on the disc for a longer project...maybe an hour to encompass some great vacation video I have.

Joe
 

SiestaKey1:

I did have some pans on the video and they were jerky and stuttered a bit on the MPEG version whereas I had none of that going on with the AVC version. Very smooth.

This is the opposite of my experience with sample pan and action shots.    In my case, what looked good in the original MTS from the videocam, or played back on a 2.4 ghz core 2 duo with an NVIDIA 8400, became choppy when playing back the m2ts from disc images created from the same files for AVCHD-DVD or BD-AVC, but looked OK in HDV2 or in BD-MPEG.  I will test again with other project, but am temporarily( ?) waylayed by Studio's inability to import Dolby 5.1 sound.