Cineform

When companies say that their stuff is supported, they don't always say how well.

Just seen Jim's reply - AVCHD is not supported in CS3.
The new Main Concept Mpeg Pro HD v3 plugin brings AVCHD support to CS3 but the AVCHD footage is an absolute pig to edit on the timeline. Much easier to go via HDV (as mentioned above)

What about this?:

http://www.mainconcept.com/site/consumer-products-4/mpeg-pro-hd-7850/f eatures-7861.html

MPEG PRO HD 3

Plug-in for Adobe® Premiere® Pro

Features

Compatible with Adobe® Premiere® Pro 2.0 and CS3:

* MPEG Pro HD 3 now works with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and is still compatible with previous versions of Premiere Pro 2.0.

Real-time capture to MPEG:

* Capture from various analog and digital sources. Eliminate rendering time by capturing directly to the format you'll be editing.

MPEG import:

* Import and edit existing MPEG files.

Native MPEG editing with smart rendering:

* Edit MPEG material without unnecessary rendering - only changed frames are rendered.

IEEE 1394:

* IEEE 1394 output during editing and scrubbing.

Sony MXF Support:

* MXF file support for Sony XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX.

H.264 support:

* Easily import and export H.264 video.

AVC-HD support:

* Easily import and export AVC-HD video.

DV support:

* Edit MPEG and DV material with equal ease.

AAC and Dolby® Digital support:

* Import and export AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), as well as Dolby® Digital audio stereo and 5.1 in high-quality, low bit-rate.

Ultra-fast performance:

* Edit with up to real-time performance at DVD resolution.

Sony PSP and Apple iPod presets:

* Export projects by using default profiles for Sony PlayStation Portable and Apple iPod.

Smart requantizing:

* Convert material from one MPEG format to another (for example from MICROMV to DVD-compliant MPEG-2) without re-encoding - save time and prevent quality loss.

Native support for the latest HDV camcorders:

* Import, capture, edit and export video footage in 720p or 1080i from your Sony, Canon or JVC HD camcorder. Of course, you can also play the videos back to the camera again.

Supports Intel® Core 2 Duo technology

Even Sony Vegas -whilst supporting AVCHD - suggests that you render the clips (using a vfw avi HDV preset = BIG files) BEFORE you use them on the timeline. If you dont the native AVCHD scrubs and plays like a bunch of 2 second stills. AVCHD in PP CS3 (with MC plugin) is exactly the same. I came to the conclusion that the AVCHD must be rendered out to HDV and then edited - and that works pretty well. By the way, the plugin will get you over the SD (mpg) incompatibility with the footage from the Sony SR7.

> Why does Adobe not step up to the plate and offer support for this format.

I was given footage today shot with this camera, as well about 7 discs from the straight to DVD cameras... The quality is
b very poor.

This is why it is not supported, the quality is terrible. My old Sony Mini DV with a single CCD is better than this. I do not understand why people would want to shoot with a camera that yields disgusting pictures.

I am re shooting the video myself with a proper camera, the HVX 200. Now that is quality.

>I teach a video production class at a local University and have always used Premiere as the editing software of choice.

If you want your students to be truly prepared for working in the outside post-production world, do them a favor and move to FCP. That's where the serious work is being done. Premiere "Pro", while it had great promise, is not keeping up (understatement), and there are few indications this course will change. I'd love to be proven wrong, but the secrecy policies in place at Adobe apparently prevent them from communicating openly about current or future product development. Users are left without a clue. This policy would be tolerable if PPro was holding its own against the competition, but under the circumstances, I think we deserve an explanation of their intent.

Oh, and FCP will edit AVCHD.

> Oh, thanks for clearing this up. All this time I thought a quality video education course should concern itself with things like composition, camera angles, lighting, sound, editing technique, story telling skills and so forth.

What are you doing on these forums??

Good God man, you just complain about everything and your answer to everything is "go buy Final Cut!". How does that help people????? They need to spend thousands of dollars to do that, instead of suggesting something that stupid why not try help with issues concerning ADOBE PREMIERE...

Can you do that? Or will ProRes handle that!??? Cocky *******

> Seriously, what on earth does the camera have to do with any of that?

That's why they shot Feature Films with cameras like that; AVCHD is the way for Spielbergs next film.....

My point exactly.

AVCHD is a joke, for little kids.

Why people waste resources on it is a mystery...

>Good God man, you just complain about everything and your answer to everything is "go buy Final Cut!". How does that help people?????

Well, Sammy, in my own, odd little way, I mistakenly thought that trying to initiate discussion beyond the myvideowontplayinpremierewhatdoido thread was a good idea. Bad me. At some level I must have been under the delusion that a little noise from the gallery might just "inspire" Adobe and improve things for all of us. You may see me as a traitor or specifically a "Cocky *******" (thanks for that), but I'm on your side, too. We all want PPro to be the best it can be.

And to keep this on-topic, if you've done any reading you'll know that AVCHD
i is
a promising compression scheme. Most cameras using it throttle the data rate so low that it doesn't hold up well, but that could change.

Thanks, guys. It's been fun.

How does the low bitrate in AVCHD manifest itself guys - is it typically artifacts in fast moving shots? What should I look for or shoot? (just been experimenting with different 'quality' settings on a sony consumer avchd cam - which I assume just changes the bit rate. Tks

Absolutely Harm - When using the AVCHD I always uses 'best' setting (and 60G gives me 5 hours anyway) No, I was just experimenting ... to try and work out for myself what is gonna get better when higher bit rates (24M) are eventually incorporatd in the AVCHD cams