Re: AVCHD Editors
 

I tried the free download for Power Director 9 and was unable to import any AVCHD files, whether from my computer (PMB) or directly from my SR11. Nor could I produce any product in AVCHD. Is this because I had the free trial version?

Re: AVCHD Editors
 

i use avid studio seems to work fine

Re: AVCHD Editors
 

PowerDirector 9 works very well with AVCHD clips. That includes the trial version which is simply a time limited application, 30 days I believe. It is also fast if you have a compatible GPU card from Nvidia or ATI.

Re: AVCHD Editors
 

If that be the case for PD9 trial, how do you capture/download the AVCHD files? I have tried capturing files directly from my SR11 to no avail. The program recognizes the camcorder, but will not capture any files from it. Likewise, I have tried dragging AVCHD files from PMB to PD9, and again no success. The only way I could use my AVCHD files from anywhere on my computer was to change the file to Mpeg2, and then PD9 would accept it.
What am I doing wrong?

Mike

Re: AVCHD Editors
 

Cant you just dump the AVCHD files in to a file in your computer, then bring them in to PD9 from there?
Works for me!

Re: AVCHD Editors
 

No Jack, I couldn't do that. Don't know why, unless it was just because it was a trial version.

I really want to like PD9, but I have heard from others that the final video product when outputting to AVCHD on DVD, is not that good. I recently had the free trial, and I produced a regular DVD from AVCHD video files, and the results were pretty good. I never got the chance to see what it would look like producing an AVCHD DVD, and that is what I am really interested in. So far, Nero produces the best AVCHD DVD video that I have seen, but Nero is too limited for what I want to do. Pinnacle does alright, but I have used it for several years and am looking for something better (especially in the music library department), but not having to pay big bucks for.

So, how good or bad is PD9 when producing AVCHD DVDs?

Re: AVCHD Editors
 

For "music library" SmartSound is hard to beat, and can be used with just about any NLE you can drop a WAV file onto a music or sound effects track. I purchased a $29.95 plug in for Pinnacle Studio 15 and that allows working on the music from the NLE.

The "ScoreFitter" music that Pinnacle supplies with Studio is not really good, sounds thin and lacks richness and dimension. The plug in comes with a free download of SmartSound's Sonic Fire "Express Tracks" edition which really works well. A couple years ago I got their "Scoring Edition" free with a two album purchase and that comes in handy when I "score" something being edited in another NLE that doesn't have a provision for SmartSound. The "Scoring Edition" has a timeline for the music and a small video window you can play a smaller resolution version of the video segment being worked on.

It's pretty slick, when done, export as a WAV then bring that into your NLE and drop it on the music track.

A couple of folks have mentioned Edius. I'm slowly learning Edius Neo 3, I don't know how many tracks you can use (I've only worked with 3 video tracks so far), and while I have a bit of a "learning curve" with Edius I am very impressed with the quality of what it does. It will easily handle the OP's AVCHD as well or better than anything else.

I'm running Avid's Pinnacle Studio 15 Ultimate Collection and Edius Neo 3 on a new HP H8xt with 2nd generation Core i7 2600 processor, 8GB RAM, and Nvidia 530 2GB graphics card. Both AVCHD (17Mbps) and Canon DSLR MOV (25Mbps if I remember correct) literally fly on the timeline with both NLE's.

The computer makes a difference.

Re: AVCHD Editors
 

Good information. Thanks Bruce. I will take a look at SmartSound. I will also see if Neo has a trial version to try. Know very little to nothing about Neo.

Mike

Re: AVCHD Editors
 

Just got an e-mail announcement that Nero 11 is available. Wonder how much that has changed, if much at all.