Burning AVCH Disks Please Help!!

[Mike Burgess]

Larry, hopefully this is my last question. Is there a way to move the titles on the screen so that they are not in the middle of the video picture?

Thanks,
Mike

[Larry Horwitz]

Not exactly Mike, at least not that I am aware of.

A partial workaround may be to insert spaces into the title string to shift the start location, spread the spacing of the title, or possibly expand the line spacing. Not remotely as nice as the precise title controls in the better titlers, but worth a try.

Larry

BTW.....check out BluffTitler, a super titler which makes very cool 1920 by 1080 totally animated, antialiased 3D and 2D titles. Dirt cheap, extremely fast, same particle effects, lighting controls, compositing, font controls as Adobe After Effects for about a tenth the cost.

[Larry Horwitz]

Mike,
Has the HD plugin solved your problem, and how are your experiences with Nero so far?
Larry

[Mike Burgess]

Originally Posted by Larry Horwitz

Mike,
Has the HD plugin solved your problem, and how are your experiences with Nero so far?
Larry

Don't know yet. Have been so busy doing other things, have not had the time. Will have later today. Will post then as to whether I have solved my problem or not.

I am not comfortable with Nero yet. But am getting more used to it as time goes on. I will tell you, Pinnacle and Corel are easier to use with each programs screens and layouts much more user friendly and complete. I really don't like the title tool on Nero. It places the title right in the middle of the screen and that is very annoying. The other programs allow you to position the titles wherever you want them. Less tools in other areas also. And of course there is the chapter/menu thing, which I will find out if it is resolved or not later today. But the sound and picture produced are great in AVCHD.

One more question for you. Can I download my friends HDV footage from his FX7, combine that footage with my AVCHD footage, and produce an AVCHD DVD?

Thanks.
Mike

Mike

[Mike Burgess]

Boy Larry, don't know what I did, but when trying to burn an AVCHD DVD of my footage, it came out all jittery. Yes, obviously the download I did, did bring up the screens that you showed earlier. So how come the jitters?

Thanks
Mike

[Larry Horwitz]

Mike,

To answer your prior question, you should be able to mix HDV and AVCHD on the timeline, but I have not recently tried it with the latest updates and revisions / patches so each of the programs may behave differently. I did this often when I was transitioning from my HV20 to the HF100 and found no problems generally, except for re-rendering of HDV, which is unavoidable under the circumstances.

Regarding the Nero interface, it is unquestionably less elegant and rich compared to the other NLEs. Nero Vision is just one of 8 programs you get for (as low as) $39 so I am not ever going to tell you it is a direct competitor in terms of features with, let's say, Corel at twice the price or Pinnacle at 3 times the price. What I (and many others) have been saying is that it makes superb looking AVCHD high def disks with very attractive 2D and 3D animated menus extremely quickly. The titling is weak, as are some other features, which is why I do not use it all the time, but instead have a few programs, know their strengths and weaknesses, and use the one which fits the job. Not unlike having a few different wrenches or screwdrivers to fit the job......... As my posts have revealed, I am more a jack of all trades than a master of a single NLE......

Regarding the jitter, I assume you have a fast quadcore, and that this jitter is a new problem since the HD BluRay plugin was installed? Are your AVCHD camcorder files being Smart rendered or rerendered? You can tell this during the burn step if the 100% for video and audio is displayed.

Larry

[Mike Burgess]

Originally Posted by Larry Horwitz

Mike,

To answer your prior question, you should be able to mix HDV and AVCHD on the timeline, but I have not recently tried it with the latest updates and revisions / patches so each of the programs may behave differently. I did this often when I was transitioning from my HV20 to the HF100 and found no problems generally, except for re-rendering of HDV, which is unavoidable under the circumstances.

Regarding the Nero interface, it is unquestionably less elegant and rich compared to the other NLEs. Nero Vision is just one of 8 programs you get for (as low as) $39 so I am not ever going to tell you it is a direct competitor in terms of features with, let's say, Corel at twice the price or Pinnacle at 3 times the price. What I (and many others) have been saying is that it makes superb looking AVCHD high def disks with very attractive 2D and 3D animated menus extremely quickly. The titling is weak, as are some other features, which is why I do not use it all the time, but instead have a few programs, know their strengths and weaknesses, and use the one which fits the job. Not unlike having a few different wrenches or screwdrivers to fit the job......... As my posts have revealed, I am more a jack of all trades than a master of a single NLE......

Regarding the jitter, I assume you have a fast quadcore, and that this jitter is a new problem since the HD BluRay plugin was installed? Are your AVCHD camcorder files being Smart rendered or rerendered? You can tell this during the burn step if the 100% for video and audio is displayed.

Larry

Thanks Larry.
Don't know what was going on with the jitter. Yes, the jitter is a new problem. I did not have the problem before the HD download. And I do have a pretty fast quadcore.
As for smart rendering or rerendering, I don't know. So if it says 100% during the burn step, then that means what?

Mike

PS Earlier, I got Corel for a month to try it out. On the test DVD (AVCHD) I made, the picture is very, very good, but the sound is not near as good as what I have on Nero. Could that be because it was a trial download?

[Larry Horwitz]

Mike,

I am trying to find out if the jitter results from Nero re-rendering your camera clip(s) or if the original clips are being passed through without re-rendering (since they were Smart Rendered).

As the attached screen capture shows, Nero tells you if it is doing Smart render on the audio and video on the final page (where you burn the AVCHD disk or file). Note the 100% audio and video for the sample I have attached. This is a Smart Rendered situation.

Regarding the sound difference between Corel and Nero:

Both keep the original audio without re-rendering unless you chose to modify them by adding more audio, changing the audio levels, converting the camera's Digital Dolby 2.0 to Digital Dolby 5.1, etc. I am guessing that you may have Corel set to convert the audio to 5.1 whereas Nero defaults to using the unmodified Digital Dolby 2.0 straight from the camcorder without re-rendering it. This could make the Corel 5.1 sound inferior. I do not believe that the Corel trial audio is any different from the purchased product.

Larry

[Mike Burgess]

Thanks Larry.

Just got home. Tomorrow I will take a look at that screen you had. Thanks for the information. Hopefully tomorrow when I try again, the jitters will be gone. I will let you know what my screen is saying, and also, how my second try comes out.

So I take it that because I may have had Corel set to 5.1, that was the cause of the inferior sound. So should I have just left things as they were? IF I decide to get Corel again, this time purchasing the product, I will have to remember that.

Mike

[Larry Horwitz]

Mike,

Not knowing how you have both programs configured, it's really hard to guess why audio from one sounds better than the other. I believe that if both Nero and Corel are used in the default mode, the audio should NOT be re-rendered, and should pass from the camcorder clip(s) to the output AVCHD file / disk unchanged. Perhaps Corel is set to create 5.1 audio by default but I doubt it. I am assuming you are using a Canon HF10/100, both of which create Dolby 2.0 audio. (Some Sony camcorders create 5.1)

Let me know what your situation is regarding audio, jitter, etc. and I will try to help. The major concern immediately is whether you are re-rendering or not.

Larry

[Mike Burgess]

Originally Posted by Larry Horwitz

Mike,

Not knowing how you have both programs configured, it's really hard to guess why audio from one sounds better than the other. I believe that if both Nero and Corel are used in the default mode, the audio should NOT be re-rendered, and should pass from the camcorder clip(s) to the output AVCHD file / disk unchanged. Perhaps Corel is set to create 5.1 audio by default but I doubt it. I am assuming you are using a Canon HF10/100, both of which create Dolby 2.0 audio. (Some Sony camcorders create 5.1)

Let me know what your situation is regarding audio, jitter, etc. and I will try to help. The major concern immediately is whether you are re-rendering or not.

Larry

It seems as if I am not re-rendering. At least according to that one screen. My second try turned out great. As for my camcorder, I am using a Sony SR11.

I have a theory as to why I got the jitters the first time. I had included some footage that was edited and rendered from Pinnacle, along with the footage added straight to Nero. I wonder if Nero had to re-render those first shots from Pinnacle and then continued re-rendering all the additional shots. How does that theory sound?

Anyway, my second try looks much improved. There is nothing like the sound of a big steam engine starting up, with the low frequencies booming through the house. Not to mention the crystal clear picture of all the steam and smoke.

Mike

[Larry Horwitz]

All sounds good Mike, and I think your theory may be correct, but really not sure. Nero 'should' re-render in such a way that the resulting video does not jitter, but taking output from Pinnacle and using it in Nero may have some weird issues I have not encountered.

I have basically tossed Pinnacle 12 Ultimate, even though I just bought it for over one hundred bucks. It makes ugly disks, takes forever on a quadcore 3.0GHz to render, and crashes left and right. Wish they had offered a trial to spare me and others a lot of wasted time and money. NEVER AGAIN will I buy their junk.

Let me know if I can help you in any way. And be sure to check out Nero's animated 2D menus as well as their 3 D menus. They are very cool.

Larry

[Mike Burgess]

Originally Posted by Larry Horwitz

All sounds good Mike, and I think your theory may be correct, but really not sure. Nero 'should' re-render in such a way that the resulting video does not jitter, but taking output from Pinnacle and using it in Nero may have some weird issues I have not encountered.

I have basically tossed Pinnacle 12 Ultimate, even though I just bought it for over one hundred bucks. It makes ugly disks, takes forever on a quadcore 3.0GHz to render, and crashes left and right. Wish they had offered a trial to spare me and others a lot of wasted time and money. NEVER AGAIN will I buy their junk.

Let me know if I can help you in any way. And be sure to check out Nero's animated 2D menus as well as their 3 D menus. They are very cool.

Larry

Thanks Larry.
As for Pinnacle, the 12 has not crashed on me yet (knock on wood) and despite a somewhat inferior picture, it does have a very intuitive and user friendly interface. I only wish that Nero were as easy and loaded with useful features (like putting titles wherever you want on a screen).
And yes, I have checked out the various menus. They are cool, but a bit corney in some instances.

Thanks again Larry.
Mike

[Larry Horwitz]

Glad to help Mike. Some of Nero menus are definitely 'over the top'. Surprisingly, they have some customization available to modify / add backgrounds, change effects, etc. Nero's real strength is the extremely fast Smart Encoding and the resulting extra crisp and details results. Sure wish Pinnacle had that, as I especially like Pinnacle's new Montage and slide show features, except for the smeared re-rendered results.

Good luck with the new AVCHD stuff!

Larry

[Mike Burgess]

Thanks Larry for all your help. I really appreciate it all.
More projects to do in the coming days. Will keep you informed of my progress and of any problems or questions.

Respectfully,
Mike