transcoding AVCHD to Pro Res for editing

[Jvasey354]

I have AVCHD files (1920x1080 30p) created by the Sony NX5U and would like to use either Premiere Pro or Adobe Media Encoder to transcode to Pro Res in the hopes that Pro Res would retain the original camera timecode.   I have Final Cut Pro 7 on the same computer and was told that the five flavors of Pro Res that are installed would show up in Adobe as options for transcoding.

The idea would be to possibly grab the Pro Res file and bring it over to Final Cut Pro...which at the moment is unable to preserve original timecode on the Pro Res transcode that it performs. 

However...

When I tried opening Adobe Media Encoder as a standalone app, none of the presets reflected a Pro Res preset...and when I tried to create a custom one, the drop down menus were not revealing the flavors of Pro Res as an option.

As anyone successfully transcoded to Pro Res using the PP or Media Encoder and could share the recipe?   I would prefer to edit in Pro Res and not native AVCHD.

Thanks for any help...John

[Colin_Brougham]

ProRes will only be an encoding option if you select QuickTime as your format, and only if you're using Premiere on a Mac (which you are, I'm assuming). After you select QuickTime under the Format dropdown, go to the Video tab, and click the Video Codec dropdown; ProRes should be there. If it is, you can select it and then click the Codec Settings button to setup the codec particular to your export. If ProRes isn't there... well, it's not going to be anywhere else.

However, even if this works, you might have bigger problems: last I had heard, Premiere does not read the timecode of AVCHD files, and instead resets the timecode of each imported clip to 00;00;00;00. This doesn't make for a good proxy workflow, obviously. You could set the start timecode of each imported clip manually, but that could be tedious. The first step would be to import one of your AVCHD clips and make sure that timecode is actually preserved before beginning the transcoding process.

EDIT: it appears that CS5 WILL read the timecode of the AVCHD files, so long as they are contained within their original folder structure (might actually have to be on the card where they were recorded). I found this thread on DVInfo that suggests you might have some luck...

[Jvasey354]

Thanks, Colin...your tip had me exporting with Pro Res rather quickly.  And even better news...

Original camera timecode was successfully transferred by Adobe Media Encoder over to the ProRes files!!   I brought the ProRes into FCP and it was the first time that the AVCHD timecode had been preserved.  

A few glitches I have to investigate futher...

ProRes 422 hung up a few times during the encode...but then kept going.

ProRes LT hung up a little bit, not as much as 422.   However, when I brought the LT files into the FCP timeline, I saw a gamma shift when I paused playback and then started play.   I did not see this shift in the 422 footage.   It may have something to do with the bit rate video processing settings in the FCP sequence settings, but hopefully I will find a solution. 

In any event, thank you for the tip...it gives me hope that this might be workable for now...John

[Colin_Brougham]

John,

That's great to hear! I'm sure many AVCHD users will be glad to know that timecode is now available in a project; it wasn't that way before, as I recall.

My guess on the ProRes "hangs" would be due to the fact that ProRes is 32-bit and, as far as I'm aware, the QuickTime components that Adobe uses are 32-bit, as well. Since Premiere Pro CS5 is a 64-bit application, this presents a bit of an issue; for example, with the AVI container, a codec MUST have a 64-bit flavor in order for Premiere to be able to import, playback, and export to that codec. Any more, 32-bit just doesn't cut it (pun somewhat intended).

With QuickTime being 32-bit, and no choice but to support the format and its multitude of codecs that are used frequently in the post-production industry, Adobe created a bit of a "bridge" between CS5 and QT. You're on a Mac, so I don't know how to (or if you even can) look at currently running processes, but on the Windows version of CS5, when importing a QuickTime file, a program/process called "Adobe QT32 Server" runs in the background. Basically, this is a sort of interpreter between the two architectures, and thus, enables the 64-bit application to work with the 32-bit codecs. Now, with any sort of translation or interpretation, there's bound to be some overhead when it's taking place, so I would surmise that the hangs you were witnessing were a result of this hand-off. This is, of course, based on no real knowledge of program coding, so take it with a grain of salt! If one of our increasingly-regular Adobe haunts wanted to chime in, we'd love to hear from you

Not so sure on the gamma issue, but QuickTime has long had a history of gamma shifts--though that usually pertained to QT on Windows. Perhaps the FCP forums might have some better idea :shrug:

Anyway, glad you're finding the workflow, um, workable. Good luck!

[Jvasey354]

Colin,

Your explanation about the "intermittent hang times" with the transcode sounds very logical.   If it is something dealing with the different bit rates, perhaps it will be addressed in the future by Adobe and Apple.   I will continue to try experimenting a few more times with longer ProRes outputs, but I am encouraged to see the timecode carried over.   It gives me hope that AVCHD can be used in more professional ways!

I will further investigate the ProRes LT change in gamma issue on the FCP forum sites.

Thanks for all your thoughtful input,

John

[christinalano]

To convert AVCHD files to Applr ProRes, there are two options which can achieve this task.

Option 1:Clipwrap
Clipwrap focuses on rewrapping video files to Quicktime .mov and personally it is not the best program for you to converting.

Option 2 Aunsoft MTS Converter for Mac
In my opinion, you should get a professional software which has the functions of deinterlacing and converting to guarantee the quality of output video files.
As for this professional AVCHD converter, i recommend Aunsoft MTS Converter for Mac which is good at converting MTS/M2TS video to other editable video formats, like Quicktime MOV for editing on Final Cut.
To solve the issue of interlacing, this software can deinterlace your video files automatically once you import video file into this software.

http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap
http://www.aunsoft.com/mts-converter-mac/

[Orytek]

Actually clipwrap converts avchd to a QT wrapper without transcoding so you don't lose any quality in the process.

So from there you can place it into your editor or convert to ProRes directly, or your favorite de-interlacer and avoid double transcoding.

Option 2 that you mentioned is nothing more than one of the many generic chinese encoder products that are flooding the web with the same product using open source software under many different names..

It is not even similar to clipwrap and you would get better results from a few freeware encoders.

[davids61543246]

As per the time code issue, yes, transferring the entire folder structure from your capture card does allow you to see the time code in Premiere CS5 (Windows in this case).  Thanks to Colin Brougham for the help on this one.

[Guest]

old thread, don't know if your problem has been solved or not. But about this AVCHD problem, the easiest way is to use some free apps to help you. but the quality I am not sure about it. you can try mts converter from pav, many of my clients used this app .