AVCHD camcoders

Since "the first real' AVCHD camcoder become available sometimes in May 08 I looked at what would it take to edit and play AVCHD. All Windows software that claims to have AVCHD support is laughable. PowerDirector comes as the winner but it is laughable still - it would cut AVCHD only to export it by transcoding (same with Nero only PowerDirector has at least some timeline), SONY product... well SONY just don't know how to write software period. Since on Windows they still don't get it that transcoding HD is unacceptable (and not so much because generation is lost but more because it would take forever - even 720p to 720p transcode could be done on Q6600 at 12fps = 2.5xT at best and with 1080p we are talking 6xT)... Well since they still don't get it, until Adobe release CS4, the only working solution is still Final Cut on Mac.

Final Cut would chop AVCHD in no time, however any effects are not visible until rendering and that takes forever (25-30 min on MBP for 2 minute material), and since effects would require a transcode Premiere beats FCP for material that requires adjustments. The workflow is to chop AVCHD in FCP and do post in Premiere or otherwise on Windows transcoding with meGUI since Premiere would display effects rightaway and has better picture adjustments.

FCP will open MPEG-1 from SONY, but would be unable to decode audio and ffmpeg would error out on video when I try to rewrap.

On Mac the only way to transcode arbitrary video is ffmpeg. (Handbrake does better job but works only with MPEG-2 MPG wrapped). Instructions are here, but apparently quality suck (still need to further verify). ffmpeg could crop and resize with "-croptop 60 -cropbottom 88 -cropleft 252 -cropright 252 -s 720x480 -aspect 720:480" and could cut with -ss -t .It is slower then Handbrake 21/20 vs 40/25 on 480p even with -threads 2 and needs to be installed with "sudo port install ffmpeg +lame +xvid +x264 +a52 +faac +faad +dts"

The following would crop and resize "Globe Trekker" ffmpeg -i /Users/zander/Globe\ Trekker_Extra_South_England.mpg -an -croptop 60 -cropbottom 88 -cropleft 252 -cropright 252 -s 720x480 -vcodec libx264 -deinterlace -b 900k -partitions all -me umh -subq 6 -trellis 1 -refs 1 -coder 0 -me_range 16 -level 30 -bt 900k -maxrate 10M - threads 2 England.mp4 ffmpeg -i /Users/zander/Globe\ Trekker_Extra_South_England.mpg -acodec libfaac -ab 96k -croptop 60 -cropbottom 88 -cropleft 252 -cropright 252 -s 720x480 -vcodec libx264 -deinterlace -pass 1 -b 900k -partitions 0 -me epzs -subq 1 -trellis 0 -refs 1 -coder 0 -me_range 16 -level 30 -bt 900k -maxrate 10M -threads 2 England.mp4 and the following would do 720p->480p(wide) ffmpeg -i /Users/zander/Movies/720p/Christmas\ Party.mov -an -aspect 1280:720 -s 720x480 -vcodec libx264 -pass 1 -b 900k -partitions 0 -me epzs -subq 1 -trellis 0 -refs 1 -coder 0 -me_range 16 -level 30 -bt 900k -maxrate 10M -threads 2 Christmas-orig.mp4 ffmpeg -i /Users/zander/Movies/720p/Christmas\ Party.mov -acodec libfaac -ab 64k -pass 2 -aspect 1280:720 -s 720x480 -vcodec libx264 -b 900k -partitions all -me umh -subq 6 -trellis 1 -refs 1 -coder 0 -me_range 16 -level 30 -bt 900k -maxrate 10M -threads 2 Christmas-orig.mp4