Converting AVCHD

[Hp61]

Hi Guys,

If I convert an AVCHD file (recorded from my camcorder) to an intermediate file (hi-def MPEG or Cineform AVI) to use in PE*, and then export back to record on a blue ray — or as an AVCHD file do I lose quality?

Which is/are the best intermediate file codecs to use and maintain quality?

Steve - thanks for the tutorial.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

This sounds like one for you PaulLS.

[Hp61]

by Paul LS » Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:41 pm

The HDV MPEG2 standard stipulates a bit rate of 25Mb/s and the quality is the same as AVCHD at a bit rate of 16-18Mb/s (about what AVCHD camcorders produce)... so the quality is about the same. it is just that AVCHD is more highly compressed and so you can get the same quality at a lower file size with AVCHD.

However as AVCHD is more compressed it requires a lot of processor power to edit it smoothly... as HDV MPEG2 is less compressed it takes less processor power.

I found this in PE7. So I understand that the quality is the same. How about Cineform? Is it a good program to use? Again do you get the same quality as AVCHD?

[Paul LS]

If you are using PE8 then as you say... if you convert to an intermediate then on final burning to Blu-ray the video will be trancoded again. The quality will depend on the intermediate codec that you use and the number of transcodings/conversions. It is better to use a less compressed intermediate codec, like Cineform, if you are going to do a number of converions. However if you are just doing the one conversion and then burn MPEG2 should be fine. If your AVCHD bit rate is fairly high, above 18Mb/s then it may be worth converting the AVCHD to a higher bitrate MPEG2.. increase it from say 25Mb/s to 30 or 35Mb/s. The higher the bit rate the higher the quality... assuming your initial video has a high bit rate.