Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

Tom, have you tried the trial version of Adobe Elements to see if it has any other export options that may work?

Ron

Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

It's taken me over 30 days to get to this point so sadly I can't try that out. But I'm pretty confident that this is simply a Bitrate issue... and between FCPX, Compressor and Streamclip, if anything's going to work, these three programs can handle it.

I've noticed that the original footage has a bitrate of 147 mbits/s, as does the h264 conversion I tried. I'm quite sure this is why the PS3 streaming is choppy....regardless of the PS3 media server which seems to be transcoding just fine.

The big remaining question is... IS there any way to get that bitrate down to something that can be streamed over a fast network while preserving the "Blu-Ray" quality of the original footage. It's hard to imagine that in 2012, my only solution is to burn a Bu-Ray.

Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

147mbps is a strange number. Your camera I think has a maximum bit rate of 24mbps. All the Bluray disc I make are in that range too. I could understand 14.7mbps as an average number which should easily pass over your network. I am beginning to think the issue is the Mac Mini is not powerful enough to transcode realtime and send over the network. It only has one hard drive and I am not sure how much memory you have either. Result could be a lot of drive activity and memory swapping. My older PC with a dual core processor was also not powerful enough to play AVCHD reatime for editing. However with either the Intel graphics or the AMD video processor ( not sure which one you have) it should be able to play AVCHD files. You need some MAC expert to help I think as we PC users are short on input now.

There is no way to compress further than AVCHD and preserve the same quality as this is already a very efficient codec. Going to MPEG2HD at similar bit rates you may not notice much difference depending on your subject but technically it will not be as good.

Ron Evans

Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

Just to make sure we're not getting our bits and bytes mixed up.. I meant to say the rate it 147 mbits/s.

I also tried this with my 8 core with 32 GB of RAM doing the transcoding... same result. Also keep in mind, I tried this with an large mp4 with a data rate of 205 mbits/s...which doesn't require trans coding and that also had the same result.

I'm prety sure this is a network streaming issue. I did copy files from one computer to another at 56 MB per second, so I'm assuming the PS3 can also get data that fast... so I'm still unsure why streaming is so choppy.

Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

Have you tried different media servers on your MAC?

Ron Evans

Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

Use a format no larger than 25 mbits/sec for streaming on a local wired network.

Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

Actually, I tried 47mbps (47000 kbps) and it's completely smooth. BUT, the quality is still no where close to being as good as the Full Quality of the original (or the BluRay that I burned of the original)

So tell me if you think this statement is true:

There is really no way to stream full BluRay quality over a LAN.

Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

I can stream 28mbps 60P mts files from my Sony CX700 from my WIN7 64bit PC over my network to my PS3 and they look just like the originals played directly to the same TV. Files are simply registered with Windows Media Player. They are then seen by the PS3 which will play them. I still think you have a Media Server or MAC issue.

Ron Evans

Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

FWIW: BD Video movies have a maximum data transfer rate of 54 Mbit/s, a maximum AV bitrate of 48 Mbit/s (for both audio and video data), and a maximum video bit rate of 40 Mbit/s.

HDV stream is about 25 Mbits/sec, about the same as the max AVCHD rate from camcorders like the XA10. Camcorders like the XF300 have a 50 Mbit/s rate as well.

FastEthernet is 100 Mbits/sec (regular Ethernet was 10 MBits/s). But Ethernet is only cabable of attining perhaps 50% to 70% of that rate as through put in the real world. GigaBitEthernet is corrspondingly faster, but everything in the chain has to be capable of that speed.

Note sure what the 147 Mbits/sec is, but it sure sounds like Apple's ProRes 422, a somewhat compressed but still lossy internediate codec used by Apple/FCP, not a native format used by typical camcorders or playback gear- and not all that friendly to things outside the world of MACs. That may he issue.

Re: Please Help - Preserving AVCHD quality off camera
 

Yes my network is a Gigabit network with my editing PC on a Gigabit switch on one segment in my room. The PS3 is on the main router in another room.


Ron Evans