Workflow! Formats, Edit, Organize, etc « Videomaker Community Forums

Jay_Z
Member

Hey All,

After years of photography, I have moved into doing more video with my Canon Vixia HF S100 - now I have a growing library of AVCHD files! Just built a rockin video editing system and trying to get things organized.

Do you know of resources to read more about workflow after capturing the video?

For example, do you keep the MTS
files, do you convert these files to another format? Or, keep them in
this format - I was using the Pixela software to transfer from camera
so now I just have a folder of these files but want to organize but
keep in a proper format as well. When using video editing software, do
you edit this as is, importing the MTS file?

I also have a Canon 7D DSLR, but these files are in a .MOV format.

Any info, resources, answers, suggestions would be much appreciated.

Posted 2 years ago #
XTR-91
Member

Working with AVCHD natively, unless the setup is absolutely ideal, is a very daunting task. MTS is a file representation of the MPEG-2 TS (transport stream) format, which is a format typically resulting from HDV (High-def tape based) camcorder capture. Personally, I'd look into finding a good, free video converter online and converting the AVCHD files into the high bitrate MPEG-2 TS format. A common mistake that many people make with AVCHD is converting to DV-AVI, the closest to raw and nearly stripped-down format. All DV-AVI is standard definition. As mentioned above, converting to the MPEG-2 transport stream format is probably your best bet.

http://www.avchdconverter.org/

Posted 2 years ago #
composite1
Moderator

Jay,

In addition to what XTR said make sure your editing software has whatever codecs you plan to convert to installed. If it doesn't you can also find the proper codecs online. Unfortunately, the more reliable places that offer the codecs will do so for a fee particularly if it's designed to be compatible with your specific software.

H.Wolfgang Porter, Composite Media Producer
Dreaded Enterprises Unlimited, Inc.
http://www.dreadedenterprises.com

Posted 2 years ago #
Jay_Z
Member

Right now, I am using Premiere Elements 8.0(Win/PC of course) with my video editing system (Intel Core i7 920, 12GB Ram, 3 drives, 1GB Graphics) - so this should be able to do about as well as any system!

I am so used to photography - sorting images, using Adobe Lightroom for workflow, minor editing and cataloging and quite familiar with file type - jpg, raw, cr2, dng ... so, this is entering a new area with understanding how these files will be organized, whether to keep them in raw format or if there is a need/reason to immediately convert.

If possible, it seems I will keep in the original/out-of-camera format and if needed for editing I will convert to MPEG-2 TS format.

Right now, my files fall into two categories - family recordings that I want to keep archive for long term (maybe less editing in the near future - i.e. recording of father speaking about childhood, growing up, etc kind of stuff - the replacement of the old audio recordings that I can archive for family) and events that I will integrate photo/video to create 5-10 minute short videos.

I appreciate the feedback and thoughts on this. It doesn't seem as though there is the depth of online resources in this area (vs more professional video or compared to photography/lightroom/photoshop types of resources I am used to). I know this is a growing segment - hopefully soon there will also be more local user groups directed more toward this in Seattle!

Posted 2 years ago #
sweileman
Member

Wonder if I could jump in and ask a couple of questions. I also have a Canon HF100. I have a quad system so can edit the MTS files natively without much issues, but like Jay_Z, I'd like to use Bridge to catalog my clips so have been following threads dealing with converting. It was mentioned that converting MTS to MPEG-2 was the perferred method to go. I grabbed a trail version which XTR-91 links to and did a small group as a test.

First think that jumped out at me was the decrease in file size; the MPEG's seem to be around 65% of the orignial file size. Have I lost much quality? I can't tell on my monitor, but down the road it might be something to consider.

Thanks for your advice.

Posted 2 years ago #
wilqen
Member

The best way to go, is to transfer your AVCHD files to cineform codec. You can buy Cineform Neoscene from videoguys for a little less than $100 bucks, and trust me, you will LOVE it. It is an intermediate codec, and is completely lossless. It works specifically with Adobe Premiere to convert AVCHD to intermediate codec. You could store/archive your files in that codec, turn them into mpeg2 for DVD, or H.264 for BluRay. Also, let me point out a few things. AVCHD = HD. Mpeg2 = SD. You could edit your AVCHD files natively in Premier, just like mpeg2, but it probably wouldn't be much fun. I would NEVER convert AVCHD files to Mpeg, which is what m2ts is. You will lose quality that way, because you would actually be down-converting HD to SD, but, if you are only recording in standard definition (in-camcorder) than that choice isn't so bad. You should be recording to AVCHD in your camcorder at the highest 24mbps bit rate. The camcorder you have, (Vixia HF-S100), puts out great HD images. Also, AVI files most certainly can be HD. There are several YUV 422 AVI codecs out there. AVI files are quite large because they have very light color-space compression. no long-GOP, or any other intra-frame type compression. That is why they are so easy to edit. Lots of compression = hard to edit, takes lots of horsepower. Less compression = easier on CPU, and larger file size, but eventually harder on the hard drive. that's why I use Cineform's intermediate codec. The Best of Both Worlds.

Posted 2 years ago #
sweileman
Member

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain. I'll take your suggestion and look at Cineform Neoscene. Again thanks.

Posted 2 years ago #