Output quality from AVCHD 1080/25p source? (Canon HF100 PAL)

Hi,
Background: I am interesting in FCPX but read so much negative about it. I am a consumer that today use FCE. I moved from iMovie to FCE to easy get good ouput quality. Then I compressed it to h264 using QuickTime 7 Pro and x264 codec. I have a canon HF100 (PAL)
Is now FCPX as good as FCE to produce a good output? What you put in you get out? No damaging the source material? No missunderstanding of interlaced/progressive (iMovie problem with Canon AVCHD cameras)?
VERY intersting of experience prior buying..
Thanks
Olof

Similar Messages

1080p pour export quality for 25p material from Canon HF100 PAL

Hi
I have now tested iMovie 11 with a Canon HF100 PAL version. Shooting in progressive.
The AIC import has good quality.
New 1080p export gives same pour quality as before when using QuickTime 7 for h.264 export.
AIC export provides good quality.
So still nu easy way for export from iMovie. Is this common or is it a camera compatibility issue?
Thanks
Olof

I just posted this for another user with the same problem.
I have a Sony VG10 camcorder that shoots 30p and records it as 1080i60. iMovie sees this as interlaced video and deinterlaces it IF I use most FX.
So I did a bit of googling and found there is a simple solution. I bought Steve Mullens newest version (09 and 11) of his "Ins and Outs of iMovie." With it I got a free copy of his iMakeFullHD utility. So after importing AVCHD I run the utility on the folder of clips and in a few seconds all the clips are now marked as progressive. Which is actually what they are! iMovie now treats them as 1080p30 -- exactly as it should.
When reading about the utility I remember skipping the stuff on PAL HD camcorders. So I just reread it and it's no big deal eitherl.
If you shoot 1080i50, the video is marked as 1080p25. This is exactly the reverse of what my camera does. So while I need to use iMakeFullHD, PAL users do not.
If you shoot 1080p25, the video is marked as 1080i50. This is exactly like my camera. So you have to use iMakeFullHD to remark it is as progressive -- which is what it is.
Now Ive no idea why Sony or Canon did what they did, but they did. After buying a $2000 camcorder, buying the book was by far the simpler solution.
I know he has a section on 1080p50 and 1080p60 from the tms700. Didn't apply to me so i skimmed it. Also, having had imovie 09 i was surprised to read that 11 now supports real 1080p24. There's also a section on removing 2-3 pulldown from 1080i60 to get 1080p24. Again i just skimmed this in case sony were to release a firmware update so I could shoot 24fps.
One more thing I learned. Because my video really is progressive, I can use all FX. They'll always look perfect.
But, if you shoot 1080i50 -- which imovie sees as 1080p25 -- the good news is that imovie will never deinterlace the clips causing a loss of resolution. But, the clips realy are interlace. this means that sometimes you may see combing during the FX. There are very clear pix of what this looks like in the ebook. But, the solution is so simple -- only shoot 1080p25!
Most of us want to shoot progresssive anyway!
The nice thing is i followed the instrictions on burning 1080 avchd video to DVDs and they play in HD on my BD player. And, i didn't have to buy a BD burner.

Output Quality from Motion 4

I have recently upgraded to FCS3 from FCS2 and now when I export a Quicktime movie from Motion the quality is very poor no matter what settings I use.
The resulting output appears to be outputting at 'Draft' quality despite it being set to 'Best' in the project and in the output settings.
My output settings also seem to default back to draft no matter how often I change them.
Can anyone help please!!??

I have been playing around and it only seems to effect Motion 3 projects. The projects appear crisp in Motion 4 but the outputs are shocking. New projects created in Motion 4 are fine.

Does Pro-Res codec yield better quality from AVCHD files than AIC?

Hi folks,
I use FCE4 and ingest AVCHD for editing. I'm wondering if, for example, I ingested with the Pro-Res codec (eg. such as when using Final Cut Pro or FCX), would that be a higher quality transcoder than the inherent Apple Intermediate Codec that is part of FCE4? In other words, if I upgraded my software, would I likely get better quality?
FYI: I shoot with a single chip AVCHD camcorder, in case that matters.
Thanks,
Vixter

If you are running Lion, then FCPX is the only way forward unless you go with a non-Apple editing suite. For what it's worth, I think FCPX has gotten a bum rap overall. It's quite powerful compared to the old FCE even with its current limitations. Apple will continue to improve the program over time, and no one should discount the foresight that Apple actually does have in its product lines. The FCPX user interface and the method of editing is quite different compared to FCE, and takes a lot of adjustment if you were familiar with FCE or FCP. For general purpose editing, even prosumer editing, FCPX is quite an application, even if it's not quite ready for broadcasters & professionally employed editors.
The best way to find out is to try it out - it's available as a free 30-day trial so you can see for yourself whether or not it works for you. You can read all about it elsewhere and of course people in these forums have their opinions one way or the other. As I long ago discovered about wine, there is no definitively good or bad wine ... just wine that we ourselves like because it satisfies our individual tastes and conditions. I don't concern myself with Robert Parker's opinions. In fact I think a lot of his 95+ rated wines stink! If you follow my drift ...

Input preset (Canon HF100)

I am using a Canon HF100 PAL AVCHD camera with PE7. This camera has several settings for recording video, but i mainly use FXP which gives 1920x1080 footage.
With this setting i can choose 25p of 50i. 25p doesn't look good when played back om the camera as well as on my plasma screen. It stutters, especially when panning. I still wonder why, 25p should be able to present smooth playback right?
So i tend to use 50i which gives smooth playback.
But, it seems i cannot create a custom preset in PE7 that supports this.
Anyone with the same issue?

You need to use the "FULL AVCHD 1080i 25" preset either with or without 5.1 audio depending if you are capturing with 5.1... so 25 frames per second, so 50 interlaced lines.

Help with getting high quality DVDs from AVCHD footage

Hello,
I know enough about video editing with PE7 to be dangerous, and was hoping someone could help me out.
My question is regarding getting the highest quality standard DVD from AVCHD footage. I have a Sony HDR-SR12 camcorder recording in AVCHD. I am editing footage natively in AVCHD with PE7 on a quad core system. No problem with that. However, when I export to standard DVD the quality of the video goes down drastically. (Yes, I know burning to Blu-ray would give me higher quality, but I am giving this DVD to a friend who doesn't have Blu-ray).
So far I have tried starting my project in both HD 1080i 30 5.1 channel:
General
Editing mode: HDV 1080i
Timebase: 29.97 fps
Video Settings
Frame size: 1440h 1080v (1.333)
Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: HD Anamorphic 1080 (1.333)
and Full HD 1080i 30 5.1 channel:
General
Editing mode: HD 1080i
Timebase: 29.97 fps
Video Settings
Frame size: 1920h 1080v (1.000)
Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0)
But I see no discernable difference in the quality of my output onto DVD.
This is where my knowledge is lacking...how can I get the best quality output from my AVCHD onto a standard DVD? Is there some format I can convert to first, and then burn to DVD? Also, I am willing to break the footage into a couple of DVDs to improve the quality, but I don't know how or what to do for that.
My footage looks REALLY great when viewing from the HDR-SR12 direct to HD TV with HDMI cable, but not very good on the DVD. My footage is of a ballet recital, and I lose definition in the faces, costumes, etc on the DVD output.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
Gina

Hey Gina,
This may be a year late, but as I have been pulling my hair out trying to solve this problem for the last 48 hours I finally did find somewhat of a work around, but it requires Adobe PP CS4.2.
There is a plug-in here:
http://www.mainconcept.com/site/prosumer-products-4/mpeg-pro-hd-7850/features-7861.html
Which will actually output your edit as an AVCHD file. You can then burn this straight to an AVCHD using Nero 9 and keep the highquality level of your clips and not need Blu-Ray. The DVD player will need to be AVCHD capable, but I just bought one of those for $40 as compared to the $200+ of most Blu-Ray players.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
DSW

How Do I Change Video Output Quality When Capturing .DV Video From Camera?

I am experimenting with both this Premiere Elements 10 trial, as well as other brands of software, finding the best one to purchase for my needs.
In some other software, I not only indicate the source quality, but the output quality to the computer. If I want to upload the full quality video files to edit for retransferring back to a DV video tape, that's fine, but I will take up a lot of computer memory, relatively speaking. On the other hand, if I know that I'm going to be editing the video for replay on the computer or over the web, I can tell the program to upload to MPEG4 or some other conversion.
I am not seeing this as an option with the Premiere Elements. Can anyone tell me where, if possible, I can alter the output quality before the program begins the download? I certainly can find the input quality (such as .dv 4:3 ratio). I'd prefer not to always have to download the full quality video, THEN have to covert it as a separate step.
Thank you!

The PRE workflow is (1) Create your project (2) import your assets (3) sequence and edit your assets (4) create your menus (5) share your project.
The quality of intended output has no effect on your project settings which should match your source footage. Done this way optimises PRE's performance - as it can internally process far more effectively when matched to a 'native' format.
For standard definition the ideal format for PRE is DV-AVI Type 2. This is almost lossless and operates at around 13GB per hour.
Compression to an output format (e.g. DVD, or an iPod, or viewing online) is managed through the share process.
You could:
Import your footage - e.g AVCHD, HDV, DV-AVI, VOB
Share it to a compressed format - e.g. MP4
Delete the original capture source (in Step 1)
Work in a new project using the compressed output (in step 2).
But if you do this your final output quality will be lessened through working with a compressed original that you will then compress again. I can't see what you feel you will gain by this - disk space is so cheap now why wouldn't you want to give yourself the best quality source to work with.
Note that once you are finished with a project you can archive it off to free up your disk space.
Cheers,
Neale
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

Importing Canon XA-25 AVCHD 1080 60p

Running CS6 on Mac 2.66 intel xeon with 16 gb memory, gobs of hard drive space and runing OS 10.7.5.
When inporting AVCHD 1080 60p from new Canon XA-25, video is choppy, and continues to be after placing on timeline and rendering.
The timeline was created by dragging clip onto new item. 1080 24 and 30 works fine and 1080i 60 works fine.
Thoughts?"

Yes reset resolution and the type is MPEG. the camera allows one to chose AVCHD or MPEG... If you want 720P or SD video you must use mpeg. I have sent copies of the clips to Adobe Support and they say they are analyzing.

Can't select paper type or output quality when printing from new imac....

Not sure if I'm in the right place to post this question....
When I try to print (from ANY app; Photoshop, InDesign, etc.) to my hp business jet inkjet printer, I get a print menu, but no where on the print menu (or any pulldown tabs) do I have an opportunity to select paper type or output quality. I am unable to print photos, for example.
The printer worked fine with the old PC; there is no driver to d/l for mac.
Only from iPhoto can I select paper type (from a limited number of choices), but not from any other app on my imac. I mostly use InDesign and print flyers and brochures, many with photos, and can't select anything other than plain paper. Do I need a new printer? Genius bar 'help' said they had no idea why it wasn't working....
HELP!!!
Thanks!

Hi Duane,
Yes, I opened the Printer Driver package, and then pulled up my test InDesign file and selected File>Print, and here's the screen i get: (hope this works, I'm trying Skitch for the first time)...
[img]http://img.skitch.com/20100219-8ywf49rxkh7heg86n25gefbydc.preview.jpg[/img]
Click for full size - [color=#A7A7A7]Uploaded with plasq's Skitch[/color]
when I click on "Setup" in the print menu box, I get this screen:
[img]http://img.skitch.com/20100219-pgqjnjt1anrx2xic3pih9def3y.preview.jpg[/img]
Click for full size - [color=#A7A7A7]Uploaded with plasq's Skitch[/color]
I've clicked on each topic on the left on the Print menu, and still there is no where to select paper type or output resolution.
The same thing happens when I print from Photoshop.
Thanks.

Improve quality from Sony Handycam xr100 AVCHD.

I'm looking for video editing software for my Sony Handycam XR100. I've downloaded PrE 8 trial version and have imported video direct from the camera to PrE 8 and so far it is very poor quality. Is there a way to improve this picture quality?
The playback quality from the Sony PMB software from the same file is great. Is there a way to get the same quality in PrE 8?
I'm looking to see if the Handycam can record in mpeg2.
The purpose of my most videos is to host them on YouTube.

To re-enforce the statements by John T, and Steve, many feel that a fast Quad-core is the minimum for AVCHD. Other feel that a fast i7 is the minimum.
What are the full specs. of your computer? AVCHD takes a lot of power, just to playback, much less edit smoothly.
I'd almost think that Intel was behind AVCHD, as it has probably sold more big i7's, that anything else could have.
Good luck,
Hunt

Output quality less than source file in sequence FCP 7

I imported a .mov file into my sequence. It is 1920X1080 Apple ProRes.422. 7 1/2 mins. long. 6.18GB.
I added a new audio file for the entire sequence. Inserted a few edits to the credits using Motion.
I exported, first at Apple ProRes 422 HD also 1920X1080. It ended up being over 9GB. The quality was worse than the
source .mov file. These were both auditioned in Quicktime. The original .mov file looks fine at full resolution,
but not after my export. I've read the manual, consulted my online tutorials, read forums. I believe I have set all my
export settings correctly, yet it doesn't export with the crispness of the original file.
If it is important, the thin color bar just above the playhead and timeline is light purple.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Two things are screwing you up.
1. Your sequence frame size is not the same as your original media.
2. Your sequence compressor is h.264 not ProRes.
Take the original clip and drop it into a new sequence.
When FCP asks if you want to match the clip settings, click yes.
Delete that clip then go to your original sequence and copy all the clips then shift over to the new sequence and past them into the timeline.
You may have to remove any distortions (resizing) to have the clips play in full screen.
Export that edit using Export Quicktime (NOT quicktime conversion) with "current settings" and "make self contained" selected.
Once you have that file, use Compressor to create any non ProRes deliverable.
x

Output 4:3 center cut from Anamorphic 16:9 source

Hi all,
I have an Anamorphic 16:9 Sequence (IMX 50) that I want to ouput to a 4:3 aspect ratio using a center cut. i.e. cutting the left and right sides of the picture off. I do not want to letter box the output.
From what I have read it is relatively easily to produce a letter boxed 4:3 output but I haven't managed to find out how to produce a center cut output.
Any ideas would be great
Thanks
Matt

Well as you say, it works ... and it seems pretty darn simple to me
I can't speak for Quicktime Conversion as I never use it. If I was looking for an alternative method (and assuming I didn't have a direct hardware center cut option from an I/O card such as the AJA mentioned above) I would use Compressor. Its easy to use, has masses of presets, and you can tweak output aspect/crop directly in the preview window so you can see exactly what you are going to get.
Using Compressor you can save your own custom preset as a droplet, then whenever you have output a 16:9 master that you want to center cut then you only need to drop it onto the droplet ... and hey presto, it'll spit out the needed file.

Output quality of blu-ray, can it be changed?

I've already started a discussion on this issue, but i cant seem to reply to their answer. So i had to open another discussion. Apologise for any mistake.
Quote by Bill Hunt;
Re: Can we change the quality of the output for Blu-Ray? & 6 Channels Audio output?
I am confused on your workflow here. It seems that you are Importing material that is already in fully BD-compliant form, but then are Transcoding again?
Can you step us through the exact Assets that you are working with, and the steps that you are taking with those Assets?
Also, if you have a muxed MPEG source file, I would rip it to the elemental/elementary streams, as Encore has some issues with muxed MPEG source files. Also, you will want to rip the two Audio streams, and Import those separately. These Assets should show Do Not Transcode, if they are 100% BD-compliant. If they do not, you should be able to force Encore to NOT Transcode them, so the quality should match that of the Imported files exactly, and no more work should need to be done. Remember, that is if they ARE 100% BD-compliant - very important.
If you already have your dual-Audio streams, you will not need the SurCode DD 5.1 SS encoder plug-in, in this case, as that encoding has already been done, or at least I think that it has been done.
Good luck, and we'll be looking for details on your workflow,
Hunt
My reply;
I am working with m2ts files from another BD. I'm trying to create a Music BD. I'm extracting the songs from multiple BDs.
I wanna create my own menu and pop-up menu(i will create another discussion for this issue)
The output quality is far inferior that the input file, like 10 times worst. I want to know if there is something i can do to overrride this thing.
Thanks.
Arshad

You would export to full quality in whatever format it currently is (probably AIC). Then you would put this into Toast (with the Blu-ray plugin installed). You can adjust the encoding settings in Toast.
Bitrate affects how much data is used to construct video. DVDs are encoding in mpeg2 video, with a bitrate around 4.5 Mbps (megabits per second; take this and divide by 8 to get megabytes per second). Do the math, and you will come up with around 2 hours of 4.5Mbps fits on a 4.7GB DVD.
Blu-ray uses three possible video codecs: VC-1 (basically a new windows media), mpeg2 (like a DVD, but high def), and H.264 (also called AVC). Toast allows mpeg2 or H.264. H.264 is more compact but takes a LONG time to encode. A very general assessment of mpeg2 and H.264 is that both offer the same quality, but H.264 can use about half the bitrate of comparable mpeg2, at the same dimensions.
You have to decide how low you can go before the quality worsens. As I said, I would say in general you could set the bitrate as low as 11mbps for H.264. If there is a lot of action, or detailed textures such as moving grass or water, it might need to be higher.
I just opened Toast and starting dropping movies into an AVCHD disc. With the bitrate in encoding settings up to the max of 26mbps, I can put 40 minutes on. So you could play around with it, and see how your footage looks.
Clean, well-lit, tripod shot footage with noise filters and professional cleaning can compress very well. Professional BD sometimes go as low as 6mbps in scenes. Home movies have more noise and shake, and need more data to be compressed.
50 minutes fits, with a bitrate of 11.5mbps, with audio in 448kbps Dolby Digital.

Panasonic AVCHD 1080/60p -- now we need 60p AVCHD support + 24p

According to Panasonic, they have the world first AVCHD 1080/60p HD camcorder, the HDC-TM700 featuring Panasonic advanced 3MOS technology.
With 96GB of internal memory and a SDXC slot (up to 64GB) the HDC-ATM700 yep it can record 1080/60p video in AVCHD but at 28Mbps.
It also include an 18x iA Zoom and a 12x optical Zoom, a 3” Wide Screen, an a 14.2Mpix Censor for still pictures. Like any descent camcorder the HDC-TM700 got a manual focus ring and Panasonic state of the ART O.IS.

Steve. Just bought this camcorder today. Would be very grateful for your guidance with these questions:
1) For this camcorder, which one of your publications covers importing 1080p60 AND 1080i60 into iMovie, "Ins and Outs" or "Editing AVCHD" or both in order to achieve the highest quality iMovie output for Blu-Ray DVD burning? Asked another way, will this camcorder necessitate an update to those publications?
2) Also, since the HDC-TM700 produces MP4 H.264 files (isn't that correct?), can't they be ingested directly by iMovie without using Quicktime to convert the files from AVCHD to MP4?
Thank you -- Rick

How do download using 7 from AVCHD camera to computer?

Hi,
Got Cannon VIXIA HG 20 camera and have installed Premiere Elements 7. Its a hard drive 60 GB camera I tried using GET Media, used the AVCHD button but the only drive that shows when I go to pull it off is the SDHC card. The hard disk drive does not show up to pull the video off of. When I use the ImageMixer3 softweare both drives show up.
Is there something I need to do to have the hard disk drive show up? tks

> The more I read about AVCHD the more I realize it's a lemon design.
It's not as bad as it sounds. The design gives way cheaper cameras with very good quality images. For example, the Canon HF-10 (under $600) is a memory-based model with an SDHC slot. The downside is that the internal memory (15Gb) will hold only two hours at the highest resolution, but that's more than I had on some tape-based DV camcorders. With a certain class of SDHC card, you can extend that to whatever the card can hold (I think 32Gn is the largest SDHC card so far?). It's a small and light (soda can size) camera with no moving parts and nice extras like a mic-in plug.
The pain with PE7 is that it doesn't see the camera's built-in memory - only the SDHC card, even though the OS sees both. So what I have to do is use the supplied software (Pixela SE) to download the files to my PC, or use the camera menus to move the files from the internal memory to the SDHC card, from where PE7 can pull it (or I can yank the card froim the camera and stick it directly into my PC card reader).
I've used camcorders for almost 30 years (Panasonic VHS, JVC VHS-C, Sony Eight) and liked my last - a JVC mini-DV model, but realized when I shot my daughters wedding last year and saw it on the big screen that it was time to move up to a higher-def camera. I'm not wealthy, so I was looking closely at price v. performance and that seemed to fall squarely in the AVCHD camp. Personally, I like the Canon form and wase of use as a camcorder, and can only hope that it isn't obsolete before Adobe get their act together.
- Robert

Output quality from AVCHD 1080/25p source? (Canon HF100 PAL)

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