AVCHD Editing with CineForm

[David Newman]

I just discovered an inexpensive workaround for editing AVCHD. I wrote it up here on my blog : http://cineform.blogspot.com/2007/04/avchd-support.html

Basically the Elecard MPEG player with the option AVCHD module is all you need. This will enable all CineForm's PC apps (with HDLink) to batch convert your *.m2ts (AVCHD) media into far more editable CineForm AVIs. Editing AVIs instead of the heavy compressed MPEG4 transport streams, will allow AVCHD camera's to be much more useful.

I hope this is helpful news.

[Chris Hurd]

Now that is indeed very helpful, and very cool. Thanks David! Hope to finally meet you in Vegas next week,

[Derek Weiss]

Nice discovery.

This also works with Nero. But I did't know it did until reading your post. The renaming of the file is key to making it work.

It's rendering now, and appears to have scene detection as well.

Maybe not.................

[Guy Bruner]

CineformHD will work with any of the MPEG players that use DirectShow filters including PowerDVD7 Deluxe or Ultra, Nero 7 Ultra, or Elecard MPEG Player + AVCHD plugin.

[David Newman]

That is correct. I was looking for the cheapest addition to make everything work. Are any other option available for less than $50?

[Guy Bruner]

A lot of folks already have PowerDVD 7 and Nero 7. That's why I mentioned them. If someone doesn't have a player, then the Elecard is pretty cheap. Perhaps one of the Ulead products like Movie Factory would also work, but I haven't tried it. I also hear there is an inexpensive MainConcept plugin for Premiere Elements 3 that might also work.

[Derek Weiss]

In Elecard, what are you conveting the AVCHD files to?

Then you are taking that file into HDlink to convert into Cineform AVI?

So a double render?

Thanks.

[David Newman]

No, only one render that is effectively none (being that it is performs like uncompressed.) All we are doing is using the Elecard (or any other DShow) decoder to decompress the higher compression AVCHD it something more editable and more robust.

[Michael Eskin]

I spent the day editing several very long training and music AVCHD videos shot on my SD1 using the Cineform transcoder instead of Nero transcode to MPEG-2. It was an absolute joy compared to dealing with the long transcode and slow editing of the high bitrate MPEG-2 I was generating with Nero.

This is really fantastic stuff David, unless something goes very wrong in the next two weeks of the Cineform trial, I'll gladly buy a copy and never look back. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!

Cheers,

Michael
Edit/Delete Message

[Tim Cee]

Awesome, does it work with Vista???

[David Newman]

Originally Posted by Tim Cee

Awesome, does it work with Vista???

We are still dealing with installation issues with Vista. It will be about a month before we address Vista with our tools, primarily because most of the editing apps haven't be rev'd for Vista yet.

[Derek Weiss]

I must be missing something (brain cells or intelligence).

Are you using Elecard to convert the AVCHD files?

Perhaps I need to be lead along.

Thanks.

[David Newman]

Derek,

your *.m2ts files are MPEG4 compressed. They will no be viewable unless uncompressed. Today's PC don't have a MPEG4 decoder, so you can use the Elecard decoder, or the Nero decoder and PowerDVD decoder. With a decoder present you can now view your MPEG4 *.m2ts files, but you can't edit them practically. To edit them easily you convert them to something else, some convert to MPEG2, but that is slow and somewhat visually destructive, some convert to HUFFYUV or uncompressed, which are non-destructive but the data is up to 50 times bigger then the source. I was proposing converting to CineForm AVI, which are designed for post, visually non-destructive, yet are up to 10 times smaller than uncompressed.

David Newman
CTO, CineForm

[Derek Weiss]

Originally Posted by David Newman

Derek,

your *.m2ts files are MPEG4 compressed. They will no be viewable unless uncompressed. Today's PC don't have a MPEG4 decoder, so you can use the Elecard decoder, or the Nero decoder and PowerDVD decoder. With a decoder present you can now view your MPEG4 *.m2ts files, but you can't edit them practically. To edit them easily you convert them to something else, some convert to MPEG2, but that is slow and somewhat visually destructive, some convert to HUFFYUV or uncompressed, which are non-destructive but the data is up to 50 times bigger then the source. I was proposing converting to CineForm AVI, which are designed for post, visually non-destructive, yet are up to 10 times smaller than uncompressed.

David Newman
CTO, CineForm

Thanks David.

I currently edit on Vegas 7 and have Cineform that works great when capturing footage from my FX1. But how are you using HDlink and Elecard to get a Cineform AVI out of AVCHD?

I must be missing something very simple. And feeling like a chump.....;)

[David Newman]

HDlink for HDV, uses the Elecard MPEG2 decoder to help convert HDV to CineForm AVI. All that is different now is we can use the Elecard MPEG4 decoder for the same purpose. This is all invisible to the operator, HDLink will find a suitable decoder and convert the image to CineForm.