Editing AVCHD/mts/m2ts

[Chaos]

So we just bought a Canon HF20, and while I can easily backup stuff from the camera to my laptop, I don't know of any easy way to edit the videos themselves. The software that came with it (Pixela Imagemixer) likes to die when I try to use it. I have Sony Vegas Pro 8.0c, but I can't seem to find any good setup for it to run, and everything is really choppy as well. Any ideas? Plans for a Bluray burner are coming as well, but I'd like to edit them for now. Thanks.

The file extensions are .mts and .m2ts. HD compressed files, etc.

[speck123]

All I can say is that you'll need a pretty fast PC to edit 1920x1080 content. It should be fast enough to play it back smoothly, at the very least.

Software wise, I really can't give any recommendations myself, as it has been quite a while since I actually did any serious video editing. The last edit I did do, I just wrote an AVS script and previewed it using MPC-HC.

[swraman]

I use Premiere Pro to transfer thevideo to the computer, but as long as you are transferring via FireWire it shouldnt make a differnence cause its lossless.

Then I use a program called MeGui (Media Encoder Graphical User Interface) ti cinvert the 1080i video into 720p x264 video. It takes up a lot less space (~4-5000Kb/s) and doesnt sacrafice much quality.

After that I used TSMuxer to burn this to a Blu-ray/avcHD DVD disk. Gets a few hours of decent quality 720p video to a disk.

[Cold Fussion]

Originally Posted by swraman

I use Premiere Pro to transfer thevideo to the computer, but as long as you are transferring via FireWire it shouldnt make a differnence cause its lossless.

Then I use a program called MeGui (Media Encoder Graphical User Interface) ti cinvert the 1080i video into 720p x264 video. It takes up a lot less space (~4-5000Kb/s) and doesnt sacrafice much quality.

After that I used TSMuxer to burn this to a Blu-ray/avcHD DVD disk. Gets a few hours of decent quality 720p video to a disk.

I've never gotten a Megui encoded video to have the sound in sync with the video.

[ChaoZ]

I've been using Premiere Elements and found it ok for editing. I'm only handling 720p files off of my Sanyo Xacti though, but it is AVCHD h.264 (or some variant).

When editing, Premiere uses a low-res, low frame-rate version to preview and then renders out when saved. I like how it works. I am running a moderately powered Core 2 Duo rig though.

The video profiles within Premiere Elements (and I assume Pro) kinda suck. Once you choose one for a project, you cannot easily change it to another. Also, the system bogs down a bit. On the whole, the system is easy to use, but contains a tad too many cheesy effects, aimed at vacation videos.

I'll be very interested to hear alternatives. One day I will try Final Cut Express as well.

[swraman]

Originally Posted by Cold Fussion

I've never gotten a Megui encoded video to have the sound in sync with the video.

Your probably using an mpeg as the input file, right?

if so, your audio source is most likley not the same length as the video source.

the mpeg container auto fixes these things as it plays, so you cant tell one is longer or shorter than the other.

Does it start out in sync and get out of sync as it goes on, is it a set time out of sync the entire video, or does it start out of sync and get even MORE out of sync as it goes?

If it is the first, i wrote a quick little tutorial a while back on another forum:

So you have an MPEG file but when you convert it to a better format the audio and video go prograssivley out of sync.

This is because of eerrors in recording, the video has dropped frames and such that make the audio and video tracks different lengths.

The reaon the original file isnt like this is because the MPEG format can fix these errors on the fly, while others can not.

All the proggys here are free (except one, but it has a nice trial period).

First: Open the MPEG in DGIndex, and File>"Save Project and Demux Video". This splits the mpeg into 2 files, a *.m2v (mpeg2 video) and *.mp2 (mpeg2 audio)

Second: Use whatever program you use to convert video (meGUI most probably). This will be your final video.

Third: Open the new video file in virtualdubmod. Streams>Report. Find the total length of the video stream, you'll this is what you'll use in the next step.

Fourth: Open the *.mp2 file in an audio editor that can time warp, I sugest GoldWave which is free for 150 commands. In GoldWave, go Effects>Time Warp. Type in the total time of the video in the second box for changing the total length of the audio. Export it as a WAV.

Fifth: Convert the WAV to AC3 using meGUI.

Sixth: Use MKVMerge GUI if your converted video was a mkv file, or avidemux if it was an avi file. Mux the AC3 audio with the new video.

Done.

if its any of the other out of sync problems, id suggest just converting the video, and opening the Converted video and original audio streams in a program like Premiere Pro. There it is easy to cut and shift and timewarp audio so it is perfectly in sync with the video. Then whenits in sync, remove the video track, and export the audio. COnvert this exported audio to AC#, and mux it to the video!

and yes, I have done this type of thing mannny times...plenty of exp with video encoding/ripping/converting/burning.