Newbie Question

[Chuck Harrel]

I have been searching the forums for information on how to edit AVCHD with a older computer so it will not be so choppy during the editing process. I am currently editing with Vegas MS Platinum 9.0

I am not in a position to upgrade my HW so that option is out for at least 6-12 months. I also have downloaded trials of Neo Scene and AVCHD Upshift and played around with those conversion apps. I don't really want to spend any extra $ right now on these either since I do plan to upgrade the HW later and only will create SD DVD during this period.

I would like to know the disadvantages to rendering out a MPEG-2 file using the MainConcept encoder with Vegas and then using this file to edit and create the final project. I do understand it will have more loss than the other two apps above but I only plan to create videos in SD in the short term.

If I render out a several different files in MPEG2 and take scenes from all the files and construct a project then render & save the new project to a DVD, am I creating additional loss with the second rendor to DVD?

I would like to option to create HD version of the projects at a later date when I get a BR burner but I want to minimize the rendor loss. Is there another file type (HDV etc) which Vegas can rendor and then edit smoothly but is not as lossy as MPEG2.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Chuck

[Rob Croll]

Hi Chuck

At the end of the day if you want to maintain highest quality, you’ll want to edit using the AVCHD files. I’m running on an Intel P4 2.8Ghz CPU with 2MB of RAM. Every thing runs fine except the preview and render. Render isn’t a problem because I start rendering just as I’m walking away from the PC and let it do its thing.

On the preview side, I’ve found 2 things that help.
1. Highlight a section in the timeline that interests you Say just before and after a crossfade edit. Then under the tools menu, select the Dynamic RAM render option. By selecting this Vegas will render the highlighted section to memory. It normally only takes 10-20 seconds and after that you should be able to get a smooth preview. You may also need to play around with the settings in the “Preview Device” tab in the Preferences form. There is also a menu item to clear Dynamic RAM afterwards

2. I always open the file in the Trimmer before adding to the timeline. In the Trimmer, once you’ve clicked near where you want to place an edit point, use the arrow keys to navigate. The preview panel should handle navigating one frame at a time until you reach the edit point your after.

If you have an old monitor and a video card that handles 2 outputs, setup the second monitor. It also helps

Also I always have at least 2 edit sessions for even small projects. Edit, render and then use the render to complete changes to the project before a final render. Sometimes I have to do this a couple of times to get it right.

I know i haven't directly answered your question but hope some of what I’ve posted helps you get through until that new PC becomes a reality

Rob

[Edward Troxel]

You have programs like AVCHD Upshift which will convert the files to standard M2T. You could also render out the files to an easier format (like DV) for editing and then switch back to the original files for the final render. Fairly easy to do with a few files but gets more complicated with many files. This is where a script like Gearshift comes in handy.

On the last multi-cam AVCHD project I did, I rendered the multi-cam view out to DV, muted the AVCHD tracks, and moved the AVCHD tracks off the screen so the picons wouldn't need to redraw. That worked well also.

So... there are options.