AVCHD gone Turneresque

Got a problem that when I import AVCHD footage from Panasonic SD1 - it used to be absolutely fine, but now it's very corrupted - looks gradually like a painting by Turner!
I reckon it must be something to do with some recent system upgrade.
FCE version is 4.0.1 Quicktime is 7.5.5 (990.7)

Look at the menu screen on your camera to see exactly what recording mode you are using
That determines your Premiere preset

Similar Messages

How to back up projects and raw AVCHD footage???

Please bear with me as I'm really new to digital editing. I'm trying to understand how to work with AVCHD files. Obviously, these are too large to store on my computer once they are ingested; hence, the only option is to store the raw footage. I can burn the raw AVCHD footage to DVD no problem (I use an optional DVD burner that works with my Canon HF-10 camera). Now I'm trying to understand how to work with the system (i.e. save project files for re-editing later on). I'm using a Canon HF-10, and Final Cut Express 4, on a new MacBook Pro.
Here's how I think it might work, but please correct me if I'm wrong:
1) I begin a new project, ingesting the raw AVCHD footage as I need it.
2) I edit the footage and save the completed project.
3) With the project completed, and since the ingested video files are too big to save, I delete the ingested footage from the scratch drive, but still saving the FCE project file (This means that if I open the project file now, I will get a message telling me the media files have gone offline).
4) I move on to my next project, and carry on ingesting new AVCHD files as I did with the original project.
Here's where I'm confused...
5) I later come back to the original project to make a few changes.
QUESTION: Can I simply re-ingest the raw AVCHD footage into the scratch folder and carry on editing the first project? Or will I have problems with Final Cut Express finding the media files??? Or any other problems??
There may be easier ways to do this for someone who understands computers better than I do. I am looking for the simplest solution that will work for me, since I really don't have any technical computer skills/abilities. Will the procedure I described above work???
Thanks so much for your advice!

I'm no pro, and surely not a technical wizard, but what I plan on doing is this:
Back up the raw AVCHD files on DVD (2 copies ideally). Delete them from the camera. Ingest the files into FCE and edit. I won't change the name of the raw media files at any time, to avoid confusing FCE. Once I've finished editing, I'll keep the FCE project file (and any related files) on my hard drive. However, I will delete the huge ingested files from the hard drive (because, no matter how big an external drive you have, to me using 160GB to store two hours of video is nuts). Then, if at a later date I want to re-edit, I'll re-ingest the original files back onto the scratch drive. I figure FCE will read them fine, since they haven't changed; they've merely been removed and replaced. One key point here is that, when ingesting the AVCHD files, you must ingest the complete clips, not just a part of them. That way, nothing about the files (such as the length, starting and finishing points, etc.) will have changed. It may seem a bit awkward, but that's about the only way I, being a technophobe, can understand how to do it without keeping huge files on a hard drive. And, I am only speculating that this will work. At this point, I'm still waiting on the DVD burner that works with my Canon camcorder to arrive in the mail. Then I'll do some testing/experimenting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

No AVCHD or any HD supported in CS 5.5 ?!

Hello everybody,
Today i installed the Adobe CD 5.5 master package, and when i started Premiere Pro i immediately noticed that there where no video presets supporting any kind of modern HD video such as AVCHD or XDCAM. So i made my own preset and tried to import some video's. But it wasn't possible, Premiere says the .m2ts file format is not supported. Same thing with .mts files.
After Effects sayd the files where damaged, couldn't import any AVCHD files either...
So what's up with this ? My CS5 is still running, luckyly and there seem to be no problems with my files.
Somehting gone wrong during the CS 5.5 installation ?
Anybody any idea why i have no AVCHD support in my CS 5.5 ?
Thanks in advance !
Kind Regards,
mambo

In my version it worked straight out of the box. Where as iMovie on my Mac doesn't support .mts PP CS5.5 will. Connect cam to pc/mac and import moviefiles. If you can't choose AVCHD from start choose another preset and import the files. Does PP give you a warning? BTW are you perhaps using PS CS5 instead of 5.5?
Good luck.

How to make AVCHD 1080i run smoothly in PE 12, I'm using a Canon HG10

Hi I'm a nwbie on here and not sure how things work.
I have a Canon HG10 AVCHD ,video camera and when I load it into PE12 it is really jerky, I'm downloading as 1080i if that helps, the program is rendering it as it uploads it, but still plays jerky, if I play the video through my media player on the same computer it plays lovely and smooth.
Any help would be appreiciated.
Dave

Your computer is a bit underpowered for AVCHD editing. But, if your project is being set up properly by Premiere Elements (which it is, if you're not seeing a yellow line along the top of the timeline in Expert view), you should be able to do basic editing.
Most likely you've got something in the background interferring with your playback. This could be antivirus software, your firewall or Windows Indexing -- or possibly some background program or even malware.
What antivirus program are you using? Norton antivirus is notorious for dragging systems down.
If you open your Task Manager with no other programs open on your computer, how many background processes does it list as running?
Have you manually gone to Windows Update and ensured you have all of the Windows AND Microsoft Updates, including those that do not install automatically? When did you last run Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter?

AVCHD in Ae CS5 is a sad joke.

Ok! AVCHD footage is playing perfectly in Premiere cs5 due to Mercury.
But no Mercury in AE C5 makes scrubbing the CTI such a difficult task!
And don't think my 8 core workstation is to blame.
The strange thing is that RAM preview is reeealy fast! (at last 64bit! )
So whats the point if after editing in Premier I have to render out to some other more AE friendly format instead of using my Pr project in Ae.
Even if only wanted to do some compositing in AE I would have to use something like Cineform compression before importing in AE....
This is so sad Adobe...
We waited a lot of years since the first 64bit processors for Ae to finaly catch up.
Are we gonna wait some more for decent AVCHD performance in Ae?
The Mercury playback could be the end of the time and space wasting workflows like cineform/prores.
But only if it existed in AE!
Whats the advantage of a tapeless workflow for AE cs5 user working cameras like Sony NX5 or AX 2000 if we get stuck with files that need to be
rendered with a different codec in order to be usable?
Is there an alternative workflow that I am inaware of ?
I have to admit I love Ae but some things are so disappointing I am starting to think seriously about alternatives...

After Effects isn't a real-time program, like an NLE.You shouldn't expect scrubbing to be smooth in After Effects; it's just not what After Effects does. It's not what any compositing and visual effects program does.
AVCHD is a long-GOP format (i.e., to decode each frame,After Effects has to get information from multiple surrounding frames). Playing these back therefore takes more time than is the case for formats that contain all of the information for a frame within that one frame.
After Effects CS5 has made a lot of performance improvements, but they mostly affect RAM previews and rendering to final output, which are the two features that can take advantage of Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously mutliprocessing.
There are a lot of tips for getting After Effects to work faster for various purposes here: "Improve performance"

I'm having a problem importing AVCHD from Sony HDR-SR1 (into FCP)

I've gone through all of the posts, on this site, but I can't seem to find a solution.
I have one of the new Intel based mac pro boxes
The files are in a .mt2s format and they are currently sitting on my hard disk.
- I can't import from the camera, directly, because it doesn't support firewire
- FCP and iMovie both grey out files, with this extension, when trying to import them (as does MPEG Streamclip)
- The log and transfer utility also shows the files greyed out (and nothing happens if I try to drag and drop them onto the utility)
any assistance would be appreciated
Thanks in advance
John

My understanding was that you have to maintain the directory structure from the AVCHD source. Is the HDR-SR1 a supported camera?
Patrick

Uploaded my pictures from my iPhone to my MacBook- Some of the videos I made show that they imported and play sound, but no picture- are they gone?

I Uploaded my pictures from my iPhone to my MacBook… Some of the videos I made show that they imported and play sound, but no picture… are they gone?Becuase they offer to delete what was imported, so to save space i did... Is there anything I can do to restore the picture?

Do your videos play in QuickTime Playerwhen you reveal one of them in the Finder with "File > Reveal > Original"? Try to open the revealed movie in QuickTime and see if it plays.
Check the format of the movie. You can see it in the Inspector in QuickTime Player from the "WIndow" menu: Window > Show Inspector.
iPhoto does not support all movie formats and codecs that QuickTime player can play, and not all frame rates.
See: Using AVCHD video with iPhoto '11
If the movie does not play in QuickTime Player either, install QuickTime 7 for more codecs.

From AVCHD to iDVD

Okay - I've gone through posts here ad infinitum until I'm thoroughly confused! Without any reference to codecs, muxed audio or deinterlacing, can someone give me a simple workflow to take 1080i AVCHD footage from my camera, edit it, then burn the resulting movie to DVD with the best possible quality (best DVD, that is - I know it won't be HD. Until the whole planet owns Bluray and DVD is dead, I have no need for HD final product).
I have a Canon HF S11 AVCHD hard-drive camera, I'm running Snow Leopard, and I have iMovie 11, iMovie HD, Quicktime 10, Quicktime 7, and iDVD 11. I also have Final Cut Express, but can't even manage to get it to import video, so let's not go there.
I thought getting iLife 11 would finally end my continuing reliance on iMovie HD, but it's not looking that way. I like some of the transition and titling effects in iMovie 11, but I still like the clean and intuitive audio editing aspects of iMovie HD for cutaways and soundtrack creation (the ability to adjust levels, cut, and drag to place with a couple of clicks). I've only used Garageband when I want specific effects put onto soundtracks.
Note: File sizes are unimportant to me. Fast is always good, but I'm used to hours of rendering and dubbing. I don't want fast/low quality. I just want the slickest way to import, edit then output the best possible quality DVD.

I would also recommend Cosmos from Shedworx to archive your original AVCHD files in their native AVCHD format. I finally found this software after hours of reading through posts about converters etc. But I wanted cataloging and asset management and I don't want to store all my footage in the Apple AIC format which takes up 10x the space of AVCHD.
The workflow now is:
1) Import from camera using Cosmos, do basic cutting in trimming of the AVCHD files right there (without recompression, so no losses!)
2) Decide which clips I'm going to use
3) Batch convert only those clips using Voltaic (by the same company) to AIC (or in my case ProRes422)
4) Edit in iMovie, FCE or in my case FCP
5) Burn with iDVD or DVD Studio
Can't believe how hard it was to find an AVCHD management software on a Mac that actually works directly with the AVCHD files themselves.

PE7 - AVCHD user's first look

I've been using a variety of AVCHD programs for nearly a year now to edit clips from a Panasonic SD5. I've also tried some trials without purchasing them. I've not tried the most costly, just those suitable for someone chiefly producing domestic-type projects.
Here's my take on Premiere Elements 7 totally from that standpoint, and based at least initially very much on first reactions. Oh, I should add that the most recent version of PE I have is version 2.
Installation - no obvious problem.
First reaction to the interface - not as "noddy" looking as some in this league.
I'm following my nose. Opening existing AVCHD clips stored on my hard drive. When I attempt to open them I get a message requiring activation. At once, a problem - this version isn't listed on the activation page. Well, I tell it I've got the previous version and it gives me an activation code. The program accepts it. I have to say that normally such activation procedures are completely automatic - this seems a bit crude.
Good, there's the six clips. They appear on the "organise" page in reverse time order. I think this is normally a Windows problem (XP Pro here on a quad core PC). I've now dragged them one by one into the sceneline.
I've now created a disc menu (just grabbed the first one) and click on "Share". Burn to DVD, select the AVCHD preset - er... there is no AVCHD preset. Well, looks like all else has failed and I'll have to read the manual.
That's odd - there's no reference to burning AVCHD onto DVDs. I can't believe this can't be done in PE7 - it's a standard feature in all other such programs and (after many months of interacting with others on sundry video forums) the most popular way of outputting AVCHD projects. Well, I guess I'm missing an obvious option here, so meanwhile I'll have to go about things another way.
In the "Share > PC" page I have now found an option to output to H.264 in the same format as the original footage. Set that running and the time to complete the 2.5 minute project with no effects or transitions is given as about 9 minutes. Well, that clearly shows that the clips are being transcoded unnecessarily, as in a non-transcoding AVCHD process (in other software) the task would take much less than a minute. Not good.
Once I've got the render done I guess I'll have to fire up another app to get it onto a DVD to check on my PS3/Bravia system. And as it's been transcoded I'll have to check it with deep suspicion.
I'm kind of hoping that someone is going to point out that I've gone at this much to hastily and that I'm missing some options, but at first glance Adobe, coming late into the AVCHD game, haven't taken the opportunity to leapfrog the others in the market by providing what the market is asking for, namely non-transcoding of unchanged clips together with a 'serious' editing environment. No, I've not even touched on the editing side because it's fallen at an earlier fence. And if, as it seems at first glance, you have to use a competitive app to actually get your AVCHD project onto an AVCHD DVD, then the editing side would have to be pretty damn good to get people to not simply handle the whole project in that other program. That editing side I will explore as soon as time allows - will it be so good as to make the user forgive the basic shortcomings (as I see them) I've identitified?

If you select PCM then you cannot have multiplexing "on", so you end up with a video file and an audio file. To be honest I haven't tried simply offering that to the PS3 and seeing whether it would treat them as a pair to play, but I'd doubt it.
Meanwhile however I have made some progress!
What I have now found to work well is a procedure based on advice in http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/convert_mkv_to_avchd_for_ps3_and_blu-ray.cfm - but there's one small thing you have to do in PE7 first.
The nice thing is that the two small programs used in the procedure are freeware or donationware,
and the output from PE7 is not rerendered. The downside is that you don't get menus this way. If you want full disc authoring, use a suitable not-free program.
Anyway, the crucial thing is to use "Share > Personal Computer > H.264 " (pick your size and frame rate) and then click on the "Adavanced" button, then the "Multiplexer" tab, then the "None" button - so that the video and audio will not be merged in one file but will end up in separate video and audio files.
These files (yourfilename.mv4 and yourfilename.ac3) should be added to the Input file list of the 'tsMuxeR' (you can drag them in) and then you can either click on the "M2TS muxing" button in its output section, or on the "Create Blu-ray disk" button. Then press "Start muxing" and within a very short time, your file or folders will be finished.
If you created an m2ts file, you can burn that to a DVD as data and the Playstation 3 should play it as a standalone file, or you could copy it onto the PS3 hard drive.
If you created Blu-ray folders, you can burn those to a normal DVD using ImgBurn as detailed in the second page of the tutorial whose link I gave above. The PS3 will then treat that as a Blu-ray disc and I suspect many other Blu-ray players will too.
In the next day or two I will set out these procedures in more detail and with better presentation in a form suitable for adding to the FAQs for PE7. When set out on the page it sounds like hard work, but actually it's very quick and easy. But no, Adobe, that doesn't get you off the hook of needing to add AVCHD DVD support natively to PE7!

AVCHD Disappointed with FCE

I am having mixed information regarding Final Cut Express' support of AVCHD. If I understand correctly, ingesting video (from a Sony SR-12 AVCHD 1920x1080i) creates a "wrapper" using AIC since FCE can't edit the AVCHD files directly (that wrapper is supposed to retain quality-I thought). When I edit and export my footage using Quicktime (not conversion), and import into iDVD it looks bad -- blurry. It looks bad no matter what I do with it (excluding the interlacing of course).
I'm doing editing with a friend and he called Apple Support and they said that it's FCE's lack of proper AVCHD support that is causing the issue. What? I thought FCE 4 "supported" AVCHD??
I just purchased (and learned) FCE and don't want to have to switch to Premiere (if that even helps). I checked elsewhere and other people suggest using Sony Vegas to ingest/capture footage from a Sony camera (yeah, that doesn't work on a Mac and I don't want to have to go back to a PC just to edit video).
Does anyone else have these issues? I tried to find answers on the forums (and they are probably here but I am not seeing what I need)...
I previously posted regarding the quality issue, and people suggested video conversion programs such as Voltaic (or even iSkySoft), but when I try that, I don't see a setting that looks good or that FCE will accept without re-encoding.
I am going to take the camera to a friend's house tomorrow for him to test it out with Sony Vegas. I just figured I would post another message here in the discussion groups to see if anyone else has any thoughts.
Thanks.

I think we've gone through this and it's been discussed on the forum on various places pretty but I'd just like to comment on a few misconceptions.
The ingested material is not placed in a wrapper. The original material is in a wrapper that includes metadata in addition to the video and audio. The media is converted to a QuickTime file using the Apple Intermediate Codec.
How are you looking at the exported file? On your computer? Is the QuickTime Pro player set to high quality output? If you are monitoring it correctly the quality is excellent. What happens in iDVD after that is a different question for a different forum. The quality is going to be substantially impacted by reducing it to standard definition.
< Edited by Host >

Creating "Menu" for AVCHD File

Is it possible to create a menu file, or something like it, for an AVCHD file? I am hearing more and more that people want their video projects on flash drives, which is fine. But the downside is, as far as I can tell, you lose the menu screen when you export to the computer, as opposed to burning a DVD. Sometimes the menu screen contains a logo or other art that people want to display when the video is not running (i.e. before they push "play movie").
I have tried to figure out how to create a separate file with just the menu art, but so far I'm stumped. Any help is appreciated.

Susan Verner
Premiere Elements (any version) does not offer menu for export to file saved to the computer hard drive.
Disc menus are offered for burn to end product.The exception to all this is the export choice of webDVD which is in reality a flash file with menus.
What version of Premiere Elements are you working with and on what computer operating system is it running?
As I recall, webDVD did not appear in Premiere Elements until version 9.0/9.0.1. It used to be that the user could share these webDVDs via photoshop.com. Now that photoshop.com is gone, its replacement Adobe Revel does not offer that opportunity.
ATR

Can I use toast 10 to convert AVCHD to DVCPRO HD *with timecode* ???

I have a project shot in DVCPRO HDp60 and they've now given me some AVCHD footage to work with. Following the advice around here I went out and got Toast 10 to convert the AVCHD to DVCPRO and it works but I don't get the timecode. I need to preserve the timecode because windows dubs have already been made and it'll be a reference. I have the full AVC file structure and do get proper reel# and timecode when using FCP Log&Transfer but don't want to use ProRes or AIC.
Can Toast transfer the timecode or did I rush out and buy this too soon??? And if so am I stuck with ProRes or AIC if I need timecode? And if so does the quality of AIC compare to DVCPROHDp60?
thanks for any help

Time Machine would work, but it is the wrong tool for this job...
Easiest is to buy a new drive which is the same form-factor (2.5-inch laptop SATA drive probably) which is in an external case. I'd go for a terabyte drive -- it's not much more expensive.
The tool you need now is a disk-copying utility -- the best ones are CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper. One is free, the other shareware.
Then you plug the new big drive into your MBP, and it will probably mount on your desktop. Use the cloning software to copy your internal disk to the new external disk. This will take an hour or two, as opposed to Time Machine which takes FOREVER!
When you are done making the copy, you need to swap the two disks between the computer and the external drive case. If you are adventurous, search YouTube for instructions on how to replace the disk drive on your computer. Or take it to your local mac repair shop and have it done by a professional.
Ok, now you have a big new disk inside the computer, with everything exactly as it was on the 250GB disk -- except for a lot more free space! And you have a "boot disk" in your little case, which you can put up on a shelf for safe keeping. After awhile, you can erase your old disk and use it for off-computer storage. Or just leave it and periodically boot from it and keep the software up-to-date. When all **** breaks loose (software upgrade that has gone bad, etc.) you will find it an invaluable tool!

Kernel panic rendering AVCHD footage in Encore CS5 or CS6

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro running CS6 and 10.8.2. My usual workflow is burning two hour multi-cam live performances to DVD. Usually this is two cameras of DV, one camera of AVCHD, all in a DV timeline.
Lately I've been trying to burn DV timelines of nothing but AVCHD footage, and somewhere through the rendering process I always get a kernel panic. This happens with different projects, footage from different cameras (I'm using a Panasonic AG-AC130 or HMC40), whether I'm using Encore CS5 or CS6. The projects never finish. It seems to get 50-75% through rendering video before crashing. Rendering these projects on my MacBook Pro work just fine (though much slower). Timelines where it's not 100% AVCHD are still working fine.
I had began having kernel panics unrelated to Encore, but traced this back to a heat issue. It's an old machine after all. After installing smcFanControl, this problem has gone away. I don't normally burn timelines of nothing but AVCHD, but I'm certain there was a time in the past I was able to burn these without issue. I monitor my system temperature during rendering and I'm somewhat confident that's not what's crashing the system.
The top part of my latest crash report is listed below. Can anyone help me figure out what's going on?
Thu Mar 21 02:32:47 2013
panic(cpu 6 caller 0xffffff800fe9db1b): "TLB invalidation IPI timeout: " "CPU(s) failed to respond to interrupts, unresponsive CPU bitmap: 0x1, NMIPI acks: orig: 0x0, now: 0x0"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2050.18.24/osfmk/x86_64/pmap.c:2337
Backtrace (CPU 6), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff8101e53c20 : 0xffffff800fe1d626
0xffffff8101e53c90 : 0xffffff800fe9db1b
0xffffff8101e53d10 : 0xffffff800fea2330
0xffffff8101e53dd0 : 0xffffff800fea2b65
0xffffff8101e53e20 : 0xffffff800fe66a1c
0xffffff8101e53f10 : 0xffffff800fe6a8f0
0xffffff8101e53f40 : 0xffffff800fe18aea
0xffffff8101e53f70 : 0xffffff800fea5b16
0xffffff8101e53fb0 : 0xffffff800feced53
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: PProHeadless
Mac OS version:
12C60
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 12.2.0: Sat Aug 25 00:48:52 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.18.24~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 69A5853F-375A-3EF4-9247-478FD0247333
Kernel slide:     0x000000000fc00000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff800fe00000
System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 1380749415118119
last loaded kext at 1365787386464065: com.apple.filesystems.afpfs    10.0 (addr 0xffffff7f9262e000, size 348160)
last unloaded kext at 1360973799296735: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEthernetHost    2.3.6 (addr 0xffffff7f9260b000, size 20480)

After a not-too-intense Bing search, the particular panic you're getting seems to be an indication of:
Your Mac Pro is dying.
Bad drivers in combo with an unforgiving OS.
I don't have any easy advice for number 1. If it is still a heat issue, you may need to redo the thermal paste on the CPU and blow the dust out of the heat sink. If it's a deeper problem than that, some serious repair work up to and including replacement may be required. Either way, it will be a painful fix. For number 2, try updating your graphics card drivers (which card do you have?) and/or going back to 10.6.x or Lion 10.7.x and see if things improve.
Jeff
EDIT: Although Encore and Premiere Pro have their share of bugs, a lot of times they expose weaknesses in a system because of how much they tax all of the hardware and software.

I have a avchd file approx 15min in lenght on a sdhc card. My camera says there is one file. When I put the card in the PC ( Win8.1), the PC says there are 2 files,

I have a avchd file approx 15min in length on a sdhc card. My camera says there is one file. When I put the card in the PC ( Win8.1), the PC says there are 2 files, one is 11mins approx and the other is 4mins long approx. If I bring these files into premier CS6 they are both identical length of 15mins What is going on here??

Hi and thanks... kinda getting there but still unsure WTF. I have found that the files are split at 197gb (consistent with other uses on the web), however when I import them into premier cs6 they are 15mins and 29secs, on the SDHC card the file size is 197gbfor the larger, then the shorter one is 634mb. BUT when I import both files into premier cs6 they are identical size and length both are 15.29.19 or 15mins 29sec and 19frames. I have put the card in the camera and run that as an external and it sees the files as 2 split files while if I view the files straight off the camera there is only 1 file. Why it says there are 2 files of different sizes and premier imports them as 2 identical files is a mystery to me! I have also gone back and looked at some archived footage on another card and yes there was one split file when the size exceeded 197gb but of course when I imported that footage nothing was missing because cs6 imported the file as a complete 'take' of the whole length

AVCHD - professional or what?

Here goes nothing....
I am / was considering buying a new Panasonic AG- AF100 for some of my projects.
What scares me is ... AVCHD as a format when it comes to be edited.
I will be undertaking extensive tests (shoot and workflow) before I purchase but...my limited experience with AVCHD is not good.
NB: I have never edited any AVCHD that I shot myself yet.
As recent as today I have been editing some AVCHD footage supplied by a client from his Am Cam Canon. It was horrendous to work with and confirms my suspicions that PPRO does not seem to "enjoy" monitoring it. (Source / Program)
Note: the ******* bought and uses a NTSC camera in PAL Land and I had 29.xx frame rates. Us Pal landers aint used to that crap! I did edit in a matched sequence ...BTW ...in case you wondered.
Unlike DVCPRO HD ..the small amount of AVCHD I have edited has proven to be a less than desireable editing experience especially once FX or CC are applied. (MB Looks did not want to know about it for some reason)
MB Misfires were o.k but took an eternity to render.
I do not want a workflow that includes transcoding. I want the silky smooth "butter" like clips I edit and export currently . (DVCHD Pro / avi / mov/ Pro res)
Any pro editors here working with AVCHD and what are your experiences in a pro workflow. (eg Broadcast, FX, CC, Compositing, After Effects etc..)
Note:. I am not talking YouTube or home movie production here. I am seriously looking for the possible gotchas with this format and they tend to display when you get to a certain level where the quality is monitored and specced..

I would consider myself a professional, and I do use AVCHD to some extent (I've got a b-camera that records in AVCHD).
As several other posters have said, if you're just doing a simple cut up of the footage and editing something together, AVCHD works fine. It's when you try to start doing other things that you run into problems, and here's why:
There are basically two types of encoding algorithms: one is called inter-frame, and the other is called intra-frame. In intra-frame encoding (the type used in DVCPRO-HD, JVCPRO-HD, and XDCAM-HD, among others), each frame of material is encoded separately, meaning that as you work with the footage, each frame can be dealt with on its own. The file sizes are typically bigger, but the quality is much higher. Inter-frame encoding (the type used in AVCHD and others) uses what is called a Group of Pictures (or GOP) where, typically ever six frames, you have one frame that is encoded at its full resolution. The intermediate frames aren interpreted based on the full frame (or I-frame) which falls every six frames (basically the same thing as tweening). What this means, is that if your cut happens to fall in the middle of a six-frame GOP, all six frames have to be decoded and analyzed by your NLE before anything can be done, adding to the slowness of your system. It also means that in order for any FX to be applied, each GOP has to be broken down into individual frames, and finally re-encoded back into the GOPs. Interframe encoding is a horrible spec, slows down every NLE (even the mightiest of computers), and was really meant for the home-movie enthusiast who simply records, copies to the computer, does some basic edits (maybe) and then burns to a DVD. It wasn't really designed for use in professional cameras. However, the small file size has become so popular, that professionals are attempting to use it to save on space. Read the Wiki article on inter frame encoding for some more information and diagrams of how this all works.
There's a little bit of the tech speak on it, here are some of the real-world results I see on a day-to-day basis:
Color correction sucks. It's really really hard to make my AVCHD b-cam footage match anything else--HDV, DVCPRO-HD, RED, Canon 7D... anything. I've found that it typically has a distinctive yellow tint to it (may just be my camera, but there is no way to manually adjust the K white balance) which usually cannot be removed in post.
Fast pans or recording of any sort of action (especially if recording in any of the interlaced modes) really sucks. You can see some pretty bad interlacing artifacts in your footage, and you get what has been termed the "jello-effect" of the GOP as it "tweens" between every six frames and so you get a leaning effect of vertical objects in a pan (buildings, trees, people, etc.)
Encode times are typically three to four times longer than footage that's compressed using and Intraframe codec.
I'm guessing this is also due to the GOP thing and the frequency of the light spectrum), but under most lighting conditions (basically anything except the sun or incandescent around 3200K), I get a really bad "pulsing" effect to my image which sometimes disappears after encoding to a final format, and sometimes it doesn't.
Using the motion effect to increase the size of the image at all ("zoom-in in post") ends up giving me really crappy, blocky-looking footage.
For that form-factor, you could pick up JVC's GY-HM100U for half the price of the Panny. I'm about to pull the trigger on it's big brother, the GY-HM700U, which can be had for $2k more than the Panny. Both of those cameras use the much better Intra-frame encoding algorithms. And keep in mind, the Panny doesn't come with lenses, either, so unless you've already got lenses to fit that camera, you've got more cost that's gonna eat up your budget. If you want interchangeable lenses, the GY-HM700U can do any 1/3" bayonet lens, and can be adapted for any 1/2" or 2/3" bayonet lens.
Good luck!

AVCHD gone Turneresque

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