[dwinson]

Hi all,

I have just bought a Canon HG10 and am now looking at editing my first footage. I am shooting at the highest resolution (why not - disk space is cheap) but my first go at editing using the bundled Ulead MovieMaker software has been problematic. When I play the clips the video playback can't keep up with the audio.

My question is, is the problem likely to be the lack of grunt of my PC (a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 with 3GB RAM) or the software? I'm quite happy to invest in either hardware or software to get a usable editing solution (though probably not immediately), but where would my money be best spent?

I've read quite a few other threads related to this and it seems that AVCHD needs fairly high-end kit (for a home user) to edit. People are saying good things about iMovie on the Mac. Should I consider getting a Mac for this? I don't have any Windows/Mac prejudices - I'd rather just use the right tool for the job.

thanks in advance,
David

[JUS]

I'm in the same boat. I pondered windows PC's for an age....Been a windows user since the start.

But I thought the only things I use the PC at home for are surfing, videos, Photos and itunes...so decided to look at an MacBook Pro. I watched the ILife video on apple which blew me away. I'd highly recommend watching that.

I went into an apple shop today with my external HDD full of AVCHD waiting to part with some serious cash...but unfortunately the guy in the shop couldn't get it to recognise the format ...he's promised me it'll be fine by Friday.

I sure you can do it because it mentions it in the vid and manual.

[dwinson]

Thanks, I watched the apple video and it looks great.

I upgraded my Nero 6 to Nero 8 last night because it supports AVCHD, but the playback was even worse than using Ulead.
Someone at work said he saw a feature on the Gadget Show where they were comparing a high-end Windows laptop with a MacBook for editing HD video - the Mac won hands down.

So I guess I'd better start saving for that iMac!

Let me know how the AVCHD files work on your new Mac - I'd be interested to find out what spec you need to go to to get it working ok.

David

[dwinson]

...found the gadget show clip:

clip

[Ikki]

I have just been going through this and have finally come up with a setup that works well.

I upgraded my system to:

Intel quad core Q6600 clocked at 3GHz
2GB Corsair DDR2-800
SATA 2 HDD
SATA DVD-RW
MSI Neo2 FR mobo
Nvidia 7300GT graphics (high end not needed for this)
650W PSU

Rendering speed is at or better than real time and compositing is a process without delay. When rendering a 1h long piece of video, it was using over 2GB of memory, so I may upgrade to 3 or 4GB.

For software, I have found Sony Vegas 8 Platinum to be the best compositing/rendering software (somewhat a personal choice) because it works well, is easy to use but powerful and deals with the HG10 AVCHD files well. Vegas also makes full use of all 4 cores when rendering which helps speed things up considerably. I also use it's companion, Sony DVD Architect studio 4.5 to set up and burn the DVD.

These are not expensive pieces of software, Vegas is about £69 and DVD Architect about £25.

I couldn't get the bundled Ulead software to work properly, I didn't like Premiere at all and it can't handle AVCHD.

I hope that this helps.

[Smurkenstein]

Originally Posted by Ikki

When rendering a 1h long piece of video, it was using over 2GB of memory, so I may upgrade to 3 or 4GB.

Careful with that ram - its always good to have more, but for a 32 bit windows, there is a limit on total addressable capacity for the system (think its 3.4Gb) and an even smaller per application limit (I think its just over 2 Gb, but please dont quoute me on that). Unless you have a 64bit OS.

Heh, I'm assuming you have windows.

[Ikki]

Yes, I know about the limit with 32bit Windows.

I also run Linux and while I intend moving to a 64bit version, a number of 32bit distros like Ubuntu have kernels that will handle 4GB happily.

[Rodney McKay]

Originally Posted by JUS

I went into an apple shop today with my external HDD full of AVCHD waiting to part with some serious cash...but unfortunately the guy in the shop couldn't get it to recognise the format ...he's promised me it'll be fine by Friday.

I sure you can do it because it mentions it in the vid and manual.

The problem here is that iMovie cannot import AVCHD from the .MTS files that you most likely moved from the camcorder's hard drive or memory card to the external hard drive. iMovie '08 can only import AVCHD from the camcorder itself (which has to be attached to the computer).

A workaround that I've heard about (although not tested) is to create a disk image of the camcorder's HDD or memory card, which you can then mount and that should be recognized by iMovie as a camcorder.

[senu]

Originally Posted by dwinson

Thanks, I watched the apple video and it looks great.

I upgraded my Nero 6 to Nero 8 last night because it supports AVCHD, but the playback was even worse than using Ulead.
Someone at work said he saw a feature on the Gadget Show where they were comparing a high-end Windows laptop with a MacBook for editing HD video - the Mac won hands down.

So I guess I'd better start saving for that iMac!

Let me know how the AVCHD files work on your new Mac - I'd be interested to find out what spec you need to go to to get it working ok.

David

The Problem is not Nero or PC/Mac per se
AVCHD simple doesnt play or edit on modestly specced Computers
Get a mac by all means but as for the mac/PC thing : dont get sucked in the hype
I have a simple intel Core Duo PC with 1Gb of ram which has no problems with AVCHD
My other P4 3.0Ghz struggles a bit though!!

[t.w.h]

I have a intel core2 duo cpu E6750 2.66ghz with 4gb ram (3327mb showing on 32 bit Vista OS) and a Nvidia Geforce 8500GT graphics card. Do you think this will be ok for editing AVCHD.

[redsox_mark]

Yes - I can edit it with a core duo 2.4 laptop, 1 GB memory, no special graphics card.