AVCHD video support

[pfcurtis]

I have searched these discussion groups for AVCHD and found one post with an unhelpful reply.

Camcorders recording AVCHD video are now very common. Sony, Canon and Panasonic have a choice of models recording on HDD, DVD and flash memory. Most of the well known video editing software available has been updated or is in the process of being updated to accept this video format directly from the camcorder. All these camcorders use USB2 instead of Firewire.

Unfortunately, my favored editing program, Videowave, is not included in this group and I cannot find any hint that there is something in the works! I see that Videowave is still version 8, do we have to wait for version 9 or 10? If so how long is the wait?

I also searched to find out about support for H264 output. Once again the answers were not helpful. It may be possible to customize the settings to get the format, but it would be nice to have a bunch of presets for the hardware that uses this format including iPhone, Apple TV and PS3.

[ggrussell]

Camcorders recording AVCHD video are now very common.

Depends on your definition of 'common'. As far as I know, none of these camcorders are supported as capture devices with Media Import. As for the file format, AVCHD is just MPEG 4 and you should be able to use those in Videowave if you have the proper codec installed.

[pfcurtis]

Depends on your definition of 'common'. As far as I know, none of these camcorders are supported as capture devices with Media Import. As for the file format, AVCHD is just MPEG 4 and you should be able to use those in Videowave if you have the proper codec installed.

I assume that you do not follow the High Definition camcorder announcements. As I said, all three of the big names have AVCHD camcorders and from what I read, there are more to come.

Why are "none of these camcorders" supported. Nero supports AVCHD and so do many other editing programs, including iMovie 08 on the Mac platform.

AVCHD is not just MPEG4, it is a species of MPEG4 and Videowave does not attempt to import it. If it is the same as MPEG4 why do all the other editing programs make a point of highlighting their support of AVCHD. And, yes AVCHD does require special CODECs, that is what I expect Roxio to supply to make Videowave work.

[ggrussell]

I assume that you do not follow the High Definition camcorder announcements.

I follow most of the new releases. AVCHD is still fairly new and there aren't that many models when compared to other types like miniDV, miniDVD and SD Hard drive models. In fact, HiDef camcorders are still a very small percentage of the 'overall' camcorder market.

 

Videowave V9 have been out almost a year and V10 will be released sometime soon. Videowave 9 does support hidef editing and output, but is very limited. MyDVD 9 supports Blueray burning (BDAV).

 

If it is the same as MPEG4 why do all the other editing programs make a point of highlighting their support of AVCHD.

It's called marketing.

[pfcurtis]

I follow most of the new releases. AVCHD is still fairly new and there aren't that many models when compared to other types like miniDV, miniDVD and SD Hard drive models. In fact, HiDef camcorders are still a very small percentage of the 'overall' camcorder market.

 

Videowave V9 have been out almost a year and V10 will be released sometime soon. Videowave 9 does support hidef editing and output, but is very limited. MyDVD 9 supports Blueray burning (BDAV).

 

It's called marketing.

Let's see. I decided to look at B & H, New York as a typical camcorder retail store. Here is a list of the all the high definition consumer camcorders they have for sale:

 

Mini DV Tape

Canon HV10

Canon HV20

Sony HDR-HC5

Sony HDR-HC7

 

HDD MPEG2

JVC GZ-HD7

 

DVD AVCHD

Canon HR10 (New)

Panasonic HDC-DX1

Panasonic HDC-SX5 (And Flash - New)

Sony HDR-UX7

Sony HDR-UX5

Sony HDR-UX1

 

HDD AVCHD

Canon HG10 (New)

Sony HDR-SR1

Sony HDR-SR7

Sony HDR-SR5

Sony HDR-SR8 (Gray Market)

 

Memory Card AVCHD

Panasonic HDC-SD1

Panasonic HDC-SD3 (Gray Market)

Panasonic HDC-SD5 (New)

Sony HDR-CX7

 

It is reasonable to say that the majority of the camcorders on sale are AVCHD. The Canon HV20 is very popular, but not enough to overwhelm the other models. Aslo note that Canon's newest model is AVCHD.

With the exception of the JVC, all the HDD, DVD and flash card models are AVCHD.

Remember, this thread was about support for AVCHD (which is high definition video). My question was directed to Sonic/Roxio - I am not certain what your role is in this forum but I do not like your sarcasm and the implication in your resposes that I do not know what I am talking about!

[cdanteek]

As its name implies, AVCHD uses an MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video codec. AVC's greater compression efficiency (when compared with the aging MPEG-2 codec used in HDV camcorders) allows AVCHD recorders to capture the same video using less storage.

 

cd

[Larry]

........My question was directed to Sonic/Roxio ...................

This is a users discussion group that they sponsor, and rarely do one of their moderators answer questions. If you'd like to direct the question directly to them, try the options given on their Contact page.

[pfcurtis]

This is a users discussion group that they sponsor, and rarely do one of their moderators answer questions. If you'd like to direct the question directly to them, try the options given on their Contact page.

Thanks for letting me know. I assumed(?) that with "John at Roxio"s name at the head of the discussion, that there was some Roxio involvement.

Incidentally, I note that a new version of EMC is due out next week, according to a poster on another thread.

I hope that Videowave is updated from version 8 and adds support for AVCHD import.

[ggrussell]

I am not certain what your role is in this forum but I do not like your sarcasm and the implication in your resposes that I do not know what I am talking about!

I'm just a user like yourself and you're reading WAY too much into what I post. There is no 'sarcasm'. Just the facts as I SEE them. 20 models of AVCHD (some of which are old models already) still is a very small percentage of the OVERALL camcorder sales worldwide.

 

EMC 9 still doesn't support JVC .MOD files natively and that line has been out much longer.

[pfcurtis]

EMC10 has just been announced. Someone asked the same question on the EMC10 forum and received an answer from "Tom at Roxio". It appears that Roxio is still working on adding AVCHD support.

EMC10 can edit and output HD video. HD capture is limited to HDV and MPEG4 camcorders.

[ggrussell]

Like I post in the forum, I downloaded two AVCHD files. Videowave 10 will not even edit them so appeara to me like there still is no support at all.

 

So what is so difference between AVCHD and MPEG4 HD? Wikipedia has this:

H.264 is a standard for video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC (for Advanced Video Coding).