Hello group,

Just last week I purchased a Sony NX70. Nice footage, everything plays nicely off the camera. When I import into Sony Vegas Pro 9 the footage @ 1920*1080 60i looks choppy and movement isn't very fluid. My desktop computer is a Dell with an Intel Core i7 @2.67 and it has 9 gb Ram.

I am new to the world of HD, and I have done much searching through forums but I still am confused by what is going on here. Do I need to convert the AVCHD footage to another format to edit with SVP 9? Do I live with the choppiness? I'd really like to edit with the highest quality footage I can. I want to author my final edited project to DVD-r and Blu-Ray.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric

Check your recording frame rate and how the footage is being interpreted to ensure you are not playing progressive footage as interlaced footage.

Coincidentally, this was covered in ProVideo Coalition by Allan Tepper today...

ProVideo Coalition.com: TecnoTur by Allan Tépper (http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/atepper/story/empsf8217s_missing_workflow_em_part_2_the_canon_xa10_camera/)

best,

John-Michael
Manager of Technology Services
ShootersINC/DIVE

John-Michael,

Thanks for your reply. Interesting.

If that doesn't do the trick I'll have to figure something else out. Hopefully my computer isn't too slow because after buying a new camera with some accessories I am tapped out.

Eric

Are your project settings the same as your footage? IOW are they set to match the 1920*1080 60i footage you're giving to it? Thatwould be the first thing I'd look at.

John-Michael,

Thanks for your reply. Interesting.

If that doesn't do the trick I'll have to figure something else out. Hopefully my computer isn't too slow because after buying a new camera with some accessories I am tapped out.

Eric

I doubt that your computer is to slow. I edit 1080/50p with no problem at all on an Acer laptop with an i5 CPU with 8gb ram.

Eric,

Stupid question time, from me. Are you copying the files to your computer, or accessing them directly from the camera via USB, or from an SDHC card?

I edit 1080 50p footage on a computer similar to yours (only difference is I have 8GB RAM) using Premiere Pro CS5. I normally work with native AVCHD .MTS files copied straight from the camera. Sometimes I will use Cineform if it's important work, normally I won't bother.

Premiere is really good at handling native AVCHD. I'm unfamiliar with Sony Vegas software, so I don't know how well it handles AVCHD natively. You might want to try an intermediate codec like Cineform (try a demo of Neoscene) to see if life gets any better.

Eric, when you are editing in Vegas do you have it set at 8 bit or 32 bit? For smoother preview of the video it is recommended that you edit at 8 bit then change to 32 bit to render.

I have imported video clips through Sony's Content Management software, and I have also tried copying from sd card/camera directly to my computer's hdd, then importing from there into Vegas. My settings in Vegas have matched the footage as closely as possible? For example, HD 108060i (1920*1080). The footage played back on the timeline still looks sluggish. If I were to do a quick zoom out, the playback wouldn't be as fluid as if I were to play the video back on a LCD tv connected directly to the camera.

If my memory serves me correctly, I read that Sony Vegas 9 may not support higher than 16mb/s footage. Would that have anything to do with it? Under highest shooting quality I think the NX70u does 24mb/s.

Also, I downloaded Cineform Neoscene and the playback was a bit better, but the file sizes grew massively as I went from avdch to avi. I just would like to edit avchd footage natively as planned.

Lastly I don't think the video card is the problem, but who knows? It is a GeForce gt220 with the latest drivers.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, please keep them coming.

Eric

D.J.

Yes I have it on 8 bit, but I didn' know too move it too 32bit when doing the final render, thanks!

try to change preview from "Best" to something more forgiving

With the NX70 you could be shooting 60i (24mbps) OR 60p (28mbps) - may want to double check that? I know that I've been having some issues with the 60p that some of my Sony cameras are capable of... seriously considering the upgrade to SVP V11 for that reason alone.

As already noted, play around with the quality setting of the preview window, sometimes you have to "dial it down" a fair amount to get smooth playback.

With video, EVERY component plays a part - I'm currently experimenting and getting pretty usable results with some relaively "low power" laptops, but they are "current" designs, HD ready, and I guess have fewer or no "bottlenecks" when compared to my slightly older desktop that was built for speed just a few years ago now...

I'd take a look at your hard disk speeds and configuration, your bus speed, and perhaps the video card - I had to upgrade mine a bit to get smoother playback, and I'm sure another upgrade is overdue!

To put in in laymans terms, you've got two "speed bumps" with AVCHD - the processor has a lot of de-compressing/compressing to deal with, so it has to be able to process all those bits, BUT, there's a second potential bottleneck from my experience, and that is being able to FEED that processor fast enough - that's where HDD/bus/memory come into play, and should not be underestimated...

Couple of things here. First, I've had the same issue before with clips shot on my NX5U. Nothing is wrong with the footage or your PC. It's the nature of AVCHD. This seems to be an issue with full HQ 24Mbs AVCHD files. I was able to eliminate the problem by making sure my project settings are EXACTLY the same as the AVCHD clip properties. However, I've been shooting in 17Mbs mode because I can't see any difference in quality AND it isn't as hard on the processor. No choppy issues with clips at this data rate. Ultimately, this is just one of the drawbacks to editing AVCHD on PC's.