Edius 5 downconverting, AVCHD to SD
 

There have been some long-winded workarounds published for down converting the AVCHD Edius timeline to SD using Virtualdub and so on. I've tried them and yes they work, but I'm finding it very difficult to spot the difference between a Virtualdub downconvert and the simple Edius two-click method that changes the AVCHD timeline into an SD (720 x 576) timeline.

Maybe there have been changes made in the background and now Edius 5.51 does a better job than version 4?

Maybe I'm missing something in that I'm comparing timeline frames in Photoshop. Maybe the Virtualdub method is smoothing pans, reducing artifacts or something?

tom.

shoot a slow pan across a brick wall, edit in HD and then change Edius HD timeline to SD and make a DVD

now do the same using Virtual Dub method

compare both DVD when playing on a DVD player connected to large CRT TV, Plasma or LCD

come back with your findings

Hi Anton - I gather from your post that what you're saying is a great big YES, there is a difference between the two downconvert methods. I must admit I do get some odd shimmering effects on hand-held footage when I've in-camera (Z1) down-converted a scene that includes roof tiles and brickwork, so I suspect these same artifacts are spoiling all the footage, even though sometimes it's difficult to spot.

Z1 footage suffers less anyway - full raster 1920x1080 EX footage and anything from a DSLR really shows this up in a most horrible way - I still think the VDub route produces the best result, the straight Edius downconvert is utterly unusable -- Antons TMPGenc route also yields excellent results.

Paul

Tom, I'm sure it depends a lot on your camera.

The Sony EX1 has native 1920 x 1080 sensor, so had twice the vertical resolution of most other cameras and was really problematic, at least until you wound back the detail settings!

Certainly videoing concerts with white lines right across a stage has caused me a lot of headaches (with Ex 1's), and I had to learn the Virtual Dubb method quickly!

The Panasonic HMC 150 I use for weddings now has a 1440x810 sensor, so has not the vertical resolution that causes most of the problems. So like all HDV type sensors, there is rarely an issue except for the rare tiled roof!

Certainly I find exporting straight from Edius HD timeline to SD mpeg file through Edius has been our normal method for years, and our clients love our quality. Maybe I've just been lucky!

Cheers,

Vaughan