AVCHD general questions

[JPR]

Hi
I am new on the site and new in movie making. Kindly bear with me as I catch up (hopefully)
Camera: Canon HF10
Computer:
Processor AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 620 Processor 7.1
Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Gaming graphics 2431 MB Total available graphics memory 6.3
Primary hard disk 188GB Free (466GB Total) 5.9

1. PE8 seemingly struggles to handle AVCHD. Must I just be patient with the long rendering times? Should I rather convert to AVI and if so, do I loose definition and what converter do you recommend.
2. Clips in the preview window has for some reason enlarged 4 times. This happened more or less after the recent patch I downloaded from Adobe or it may be that in my eagerness to maintain high definition, I changed to the wrong settings. Kindly advice.
3. Steve's basic tutorials show a host of title templates and menu templates that I do not have. Where to those come from and do I have to purchase them separately? If it is only a matter of downloading them, kindly provide the website.
JPR

[Paul LS]

Hi JPR... a big warm welcome to Muvipix.

It is not so much PE8 that is struggling with the AVCHD but your processor. To edit AVCHD without getting frustrated you really need a quad core processor. Your best option is to convert the AVCHD to another format... if you want to edit in high definition then convert to HDV MPEG2 or if your final export will be to standard definition convert to DV-AVI. You can use PE8 it self to convert the files and then bring them into PE8 for editing.
Regarding your scaling issue. Firstly what project setting are you using? This needs to match your video. So you should be using one of the AVCHD presets. If so the clip will fit the frame. If you use a standard definition preset and deselect Scale to Frame then the video will be enlarged on the timeline. You would just see a portion of the frame in the preview monitor.
The menu templates are on the DVD... you need to install the "Extra Content" in order to install them.

[Steve Grisetti]

Welcome to Muvipix, JPR! And thanks for checking out our Basic Training tutorials.

As Paul says, short up replacing your computer with a quad core, converting AVCHD to an easier format to edit will save you a lot of headaches. This month's Steve's Tips article offers some great suggestions for converting very formats to more efficient ones.

You'll find it among this month's bundle of media, tutorials and helps!
http://muvipix.com/products.php

[JPR]

It is not so much PE8 that is struggling with the AVCHD but your processor. To edit AVCHD without getting frustrated you really need a quad core processor. Your best option is to convert the AVCHD to another format... if you want to edit in high definition then convert to HDV MPEG2.

Thanks Paul. I thought I had a core quad processor?????
If I convert to MPEG2, do I loose definition? Something in me doesn't want to here about loosing definition. I want to go for better definition but quite frankly, only because it sounds nice, not that I can see much of a difference with my own clips and on my own monitor.

[JPR]

Regarding your scaling issue. Firstly what project setting are you using? This needs to match your video. So you should be using one of the AVCHD presets. If so the clip will fit the frame. If you use a standard definition preset and deselect Scale to Frame then the video will be enlarged on the timeline. You would just see a portion of the frame in the preview monitor.
.

Settings: High definition: 1080i
Time base: 29.57 frames per second
frame size 16:9
Is this what it should be?

[nkummer]

HI,
Just so you know, you do have a quad core processor. The processor is at the low end in terms of processing power, and that may be giving you a hard time, but the rest of your system seems fine. PRE should use all the cores automatically, but to check, while it is rendering pull up a monitoring tool to see what percentage of the CPU is being used. You should see all four cores near 100%. I can't remember the name of the monitoring tool (I am at work), but AMD does make one and it is available on there website. I use it at home.
Regards,
Norm