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April, 2025

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System Req's for AVCHD?

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holyDINOSAURS
Posts: 7038 - Karma: 639
So I'm in the process of buying a Panny HMC-150 which shoots 1080p to SDHC cards using AVCHD at 21mbps. I've looked around but haven't gotten very consistant answers as to what kind of system power im looking at.

I'm editing with Premiere CS3, so ill be transcoding it to DVCProHD. i'm running 2.0Ghz AMD Turion w/ 3gb of RAM. I have edited DVC easily off an HVX200, if i transcode, will the footage react the same? From what I've heard you need a really powerful system to edit AVCHD smoothly.

I'm basically looking for people who have actual experiance using it.

Thanks
16 years ago
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.jr
Posts: 5313 - Karma: 356
Im on a 2.4ghz prooooo, with 4gb of ram.. Its slow, but tolerable.

Im working with 1080p/21mbps sdhc as well, but considerable less controls. Canon HF S100.
16 years ago
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holyDINOSAURS
Posts: 7038 - Karma: 639
ok so if i lower out the bitrate and/or res it probably should be workable. I'm mostly just shooting for website so even 720p should be good. thanks man, anyone else?
16 years ago
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dowalibeast
Posts: 3339 - Karma: 207
This doesn't apply to Premiere but I am currently working with some AVCHD footage converted to Apple ProRes 422 and its really smooth. I only have 2 gbs of ram as well.
16 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61942 - Karma: 126,561
Yeah, shooting 1080 only sick if you are making blurays.
16 years ago
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KarmaInitiative
Posts: 2028 - Karma: 174
if ur pc isnt fast enough, you could try proxy editing
16 years ago
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holyDINOSAURS
Posts: 7038 - Karma: 639
just so im clear...

taking the footage and compressing and resaving as super low res files.

editing those files in a project with project settings that are the same as the quality you want to export

once your finished you Offline the clips in the timeline and link them to the full res clips, then export?

def a good idea, but what if my NLE (PrCS3) doesnt support .mts files?
16 years ago
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Holte
Posts: 10751 - Karma: 7,996
AVCHD sucks soooo bad for post workflows. Even Premiere CS4 (which supports AVCHD natively) crashes all the time with those damn files. If you're really committed to the camera, I would get CS4 and encode all your footage to an I-frame codec in After Effects before you edit. If your system isn't fast enough for HD editing, edit offline through proxies, but don't expect to edit AVCHD files in any form without having a miserable time.
16 years ago
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