Vegas & AVCHD
 

I have read that Vegas only handles AVCHD at 17 mbps. Is this still the case for the latest Pro9d 64bit ?

If this is the case, what is the point in shooting at 24mbps if it is transcoded back to 17 mbps ?

RonC.

It is still the case. The Sony AVC encoder has not changed at all - and will not be until Vegas Pro 10 comes out.

Also, you might not even be able to import 24 Mbps AVCHD footage directly into Vegas without a transcode to an intermediate format anyway. Hence, we recommend Cineform for this purpose.

Thanks Randall. This is most disappointing as had I known this before, I would not have upgraded to 9 and just kept going with v8.

Virtually all my clips have been shot at 24Mbps. So now It looks like I would have been better off just buying Cineform instead of upgrading to Veg.9.

RonC.

Ron,

Keep in mind that "24 Mbps" AVCHD refers to the video's maximum bitrate. This means that the video's average bitrate is not 24 Mbps - but rather closer to 21 Mbps. Likewise, "16 Mbps" AVCHD has an average video bitrate closer to 15 Mbps.

Also, I noticed artifacts on video footage shot with my year-old Sony CX100 camcorder when the recording mode is set to FH (1920x1080, 16 Mbps). This is due to both the sensor (whose effective captured resolution is only about 1380x1040) and the mediocre upscaling performance of the camcorder's internal electronics. I had to lower the recording mode to HQ (1440x1080, 9 Mbps) to get a usable image from that camcorder.

- Oh really? Where did you get that from?

Interesting . .

Grazie

There has been no official announcement about Vegas Pro 10 yet. However, I expect Sony Creative Software to update the Sony AVC encoder to handle the higher bitrates, and the program itself to natively handle AVCHD bitrates higher than 17 Mbps. The current Vegas Pro 9.0e still uses the very same Sony AVC encoder first introduced with the original Vegas Pro 9.0, whose Sony AVC encoder is not much changed from the one that came with Vegas Pro 8.1. As such, the encoder made Vegas crash when using export/output bitrates above 16 Mbps.

Randall, interesting comments. I have a Canon HF-S10 and when I play the 24Mbps files directly to my HD TV via the camera, the quality is absolutely stunning. Even my very critical son, was surprised by the quality of the Tennis I had shot from a near front row seat showing Serena Williams etc. At first he thought it was HD TV. - so I have no qualms about this camera.

Remember that we are in PAL land here in *Oz. - (Peace AT Last !), as far as TV quality is concerned.

RonC.
*Oztrailya !!

I hope Sony announces Pro 10 soon and that it is a substantial upgrade. I really like Vegas and am proficient with using it. I don't want to switch to another NLE but some of the competitive products have some compelling new features. I hope Sony realizes how much they are falling behind. One compelling functionality I hope they don't ignore is CUDA support. It makes a huge difference. Come on Sony; we need more of a reason than just loving you to hang around!