AVCHD in Vegas 8.0C

[Chris Barnes]

I read on the update products page for Vegas 8.0 C that there is increased support for importing,rendering, presets for AVCHD. I have never tried editing AVCHD in Vegas (I have 8.0B). Is the support sufficient to edit AVCHD as there is with Mini DV? I am looking for medium capabilities, as I do not use any add-ins and only edit SD.

[Perrone Ford]

What kind of support do you need? Vegas reads, writes and cuts AVCHD without transcoding.

[Rich Castro]

Vegas 8c works like a champ with AVCHD. You need a quick pc to get smooth previews though.

[Paul Kellett]

I agree, AVCHD, no problemo for me and vegas.

Paul.

[Paul Kepen]

When I try to output AVCHD to DVD-r, it won't play in my blueray player, its says, DVD, then unsupported. The specs for my Blueeray player states that it supports AVCHD, and I tried an avchd from an iso download and it plays fine. I took the avchd disc that I made to BB and it would play on any Sony player, but not on the pannasonic or samsung players. Any idea if there willbe an update to DVDA so that it will support AVCHD? It seems to just support BR or DVD. n Thanks - PK

[Perrone Ford]

Paul,

Not all players support BR on DVD. In fact, many don't. I am currently shopping for a Blu-Ray player and that is one of the primary things I am looking at, one one of the things pushing me toward the Sony players.

[Paul Kepen]

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford

Paul,

Not all players support BR on DVD. In fact, many don't. I am currently shopping for a Blu-Ray player and that is one of the primary things I am looking at, one one of the things pushing me toward the Sony players.

Hi Perrone,My Panasonic BD-30 is suppose to support AVCHD. In fact it even has the AVCHD logo on it. I have a Bluray burner, and BR disk that I make with that work fine.

There is a HD Video test/Calibration disk available on AVS (I forgot where/which forum it is under). This disk is available as an ISO download in each of the following formats: AVCHD, Blueray, and HDDVD. I downloaded the AVCHD one and burned it to a DVD-R. It plays just fine in my Panasonic BD-30.

However, when I attempt to make one with Vegas 8/DVD Architect, the BD-30 refuses to play it: "DVD, format unsupported." These discs will play in a Sony PS-3 and a S-550 blueray player. No luck when they were inserted into several models of Panasonic, or Samsung Blueray players.

Because the Calibration disk plays fine, I suspect there is something "non-standard" in the way V8 is encoding avchd. I would definitely rercommend getting a Sony BD player for this. However, if you want to author to others that don't have a Sony unit, you will be out of luck.

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Paul Kepen

Hi Perrone,My Panasonic BD-30 is suppose to support AVCHD. In fact it even has the AVCHD logo on it. I have a Bluray burner, and BR disk that I make with that work fine.

There is a HD Video test/Calibration disk available on AVS (I forgot where/which forum it is under). This disk is available as an ISO download in each of the following formats: AVCHD, Blueray, and HDDVD. I downloaded the AVCHD one and burned it to a DVD-R. It plays just fine in my Panasonic BD-30.

However, when I attempt to make one with Vegas 8/DVD Architect, the BD-30 refuses to play it: "DVD, format unsupported." These discs will play in a Sony PS-3 and a S-550 blueray player. No luck when they were inserted into several models of Panasonic, or Samsung Blueray players.

Because the Calibration disk plays fine, I suspect there is something "non-standard" in the way V8 is encoding avchd. I would definitely rercommend getting a Sony BD player for this. However, if you want to author to others that don't have a Sony unit, you will be out of luck.

What settings are you using in Vegas to encode?

[Tom Roper]

DVD Architect doesn't author AVCHÐ, just BDMV which is actual Blu-ray format, so it will not play from DVD5/9, just BD-R/RE.

There is an exception, a hack that patches the DVD5/9 disk so that it reports itself as AVCHD, plays on any AVCHD compatiblle player.

You can either search on my posts or I'll put up a link on request.

[Michael Ojjeh]

[QUOTE=Tom Roper;1002889]DVD Architect doesn't author AVCHÐ, just BDMV which is actual Blu-ray format, so it will not play from DVD5/9, just BD-R/RE.


I made an AVCHD with menu on a DVD and it played fine on a Sony BD player. I also made the same project on a sd DVD with the same menu just changed the setting from BD to DVD.

[Paul Kepen]

Originally Posted by Tom Roper

DVD Architect doesn't author AVCHÐ, just BDMV which is actual Blu-ray format, so it will not play from DVD5/9, just BD-R/RE.

There is an exception, a hack that patches the DVD5/9 disk so that it reports itself as AVCHD, plays on any AVCHD compatiblle player.

You can either search on my posts or I'll put up a link on request.

Tom, a link to that patch would be great!

I just successfully made an AVCHD dvd+RW that works with my Panasonic BD-30. I used Ulead Movie Factory 6+ with the HD pack. I had previously tried this unsuccessfully, but that was before I updated the program with the HD pack. MF6+ already was capable of HDDVD, and (bluray without menu's). The advertised advantage of the HD pack was BD menu's. I purchased the upgrade right before Sony added BD to DVDA, hence I never tried it, but it added the avchd capability to the program as well.

I Compared the file structure of the Ulead avchd disc to the one from DVDA and have attached a screen shot to this reply. From what I can see, the DVD architect disc seems to have an extra folder on the disc labeled "Certificate." It's only content is an empty sub folder "backup." The DVDA disc (that only plays in a Sony BD player or PS3) is the top D: drive, the E: drive is the one that DOES play on my Panny BD-30.

On another note, I've noticed that both of these "AVCHD" discs, do not present nearly as sharp or contrasty of an image as when I make an HDDVD, or true Bluray from these same files. I don't know if this info/experiment is helpful to anyone, but hopefully I'm not just adding to the confusion. Good noght everyone - PK

[Tom Roper]

Originally Posted by Michael Ojjeh

I made an AVCHD with menu on a DVD and it played fine on a Sony BD player.

Sorry Michael. What you made was a BDMV disk on DVD that will play on some players like the Sony standalone, but not on the PS3. Read the help files in DVD Architect for complete information.

DVD architect will accept AVCHD streams for its source.

[Tom Roper]

Paul, Here is the link

[Tom Roper]

Originally Posted by Paul Kepen

I Compared the file structure of the Ulead avchd disc to the one from DVDA and have attached a screen shot to this reply. From what I can see, the DVD architect disc seems to have an extra folder on the disc labeled "Certificate." It's only content is an empty sub folder "backup." The DVDA disc (that only plays in a Sony BD player or PS3) is the top D: drive, the E: drive is the one that DOES play on my Panny BD-30.

On another note, I've noticed that both of these "AVCHD" discs, do not present nearly as sharp or contrasty of an image as when I make an HDDVD, or true Bluray from these same files. I don't know if this info/experiment is helpful to anyone, but hopefully I'm not just adding to the confusion. Good noght everyone - PK

The actual difference between file and folder structures between AVCHD and BDMV is small as you've noticed, the presence of the certificate folder being the obvious one, the other difference is inside the file index.bdmv, but functionally the Blu-ray BDMV (not AVCHD) accommodates more in the way of video and audio codecs, and menu functionality.

I do not observe any difference between the AVCHD/BD hybrids on DVD, and HD DVD or Blu-ray on BD-R/RE, as far as contrast or sharpness.

The hack I've linked you to in the other post is really worthwhile, especially if you'll adopt some of the useful utilities that make the process easier like TSmuxer. TSmuxer allows you to author some non-compliant streams that may or not play back for you, like VC1, DTS, or at higher than permitted bit rates.

[Brian Boyko]

AVCHD works like a dream in Vegas 8.0c. It really is possibly the biggest selling point for Vegas - that and multicore support.