kasperkamperman.com : creative media technology» Video – kasperkamperman.com : creative media technology

Convert AVCHD to other codecs for more fluent editing

kasperkamperman — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:36:24 +0000

The AVCHD codec is a very processor intensive codec. A lot of computers have problem displaying and editing 1080i video ( resolution 1920 by 1080 ) video. When editing video its important to have fast and smooth playback. You can also apply and preview effects a lot faster when not working with AVCHD. In this article some options to convert AVCHD to DV to work with AVCHD in a more fluent way.

In all the examples I use AVCHD 1080i50 ( PAL 25 fps ) as the source material.

Convert to SD (Standard Definition) video ( 720 x 576 )

If your end-product is a standard DVD, this is the way to go. Of course you’ll lose quality ( less pixels ) and you have to use more disk space ( less compression ).

The DV codec the most common codec for SD. Most videotools and encoders support this codec. Below the settings for MediaEncoder CS4.

You can also download the AVCHD transcoder from Panasonic (windows only) if you have a Panasonic camera. Make sure you keep the directory structure of your smartmedia card, since it doesn’t recognize single .MTS files.

Another alternative (Mac only) is to import your material (again keep the structure of your smartmedia card) in iMovie. It will convert it to video with the Apple Intermediate codec and a resolution of 960 by 540 pixels ( slightly better then 720 x 576 ). Counterpart is that the Apple Intermediate Codec isn’t available for Windows, so you cannot play it back under Windows.

Import the material as 960 x 540.

Right click on the video in the event library > 'Reveal in Finder'

Convert to Motion JPEG format anamorphic ( 1440 x 1080 )

If you want to keep the 1080i quality you can convert to the Motion JPEG A codec. Its a light intra frame compression format ( DCT compression like the DV codec ) and it supports HD resolution interlaced material. This codec is also used in some broadcast facilities to store HD content.

I chose for a pixel aspect ratio of 1.333 (HD anamorphic 1080) to keep the filesize down, and make playback more fluent. You can alter the quality to a higher value, but keep in mind that the datarate and the filesize get bigger really quick ( so editing gets less fluent ).

You could also use this codec for storing an project in high quality for archiving purposes, since its impossible to store HD edits in the AVCHD codec with CS4.

Codec Settings

Offline editing, Proxy video

If you want to keep the original quality you could first edit with a lower quality movie ( convert to an SD movie with one of the techniques mentioned before ) and then replace that with the original HD version.

A workflow is explained here : Quickly Edit HD Video in Adobe Premiere Pro with Proxy Video

Encode HD video for Vimeo or YouTube ( Media Encoder CS4 )

kasperkamperman — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:31:41 +0000

In this article you will find the optimal export/encoding options you can make voor YouTube/Vimeo HD quality movies. Media Encoder CS4 comes with a few standard presets, however they contain not always the best settings. In this article I assume that your source material is PAL video ( 25 frames a second ).

If you have the newest ME ( Media Encoder ) you’ll have a YouTube Widescreen HD preset. I started modifying this one. Make sure you select H.264 as the video format.

Video settings ( video tab )

Setting	Explanation
TV Standard : NTSC/PAL	doesn’t matter for web video. Don’t click it however since it will change the Frame Width/Height values to SD video size.
Frame Width/Height : 1280 x 720	HD 720p resolution. If you cannot set this witdh and height, please check if the Level ( see below ) is set to 3.2.
Frame Rate [fps] : 25	Same rate as the source material you’re encoding ( to check open the file in Quicktime and press CMD+I ( osx ) to see the frame rate properties. Choose 25 fps when you encode PAL video, choose 30 fps when you encode NTSC video.
Field Order: None (Progressive)	Always choose None(progressive) for web video (since it doesn’t support interlacing). ME CS4 will automatically de-interlace interlaced source material.
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels	Always square pixels for web video.
Profile : High	The ‘High Profile’ has better compression methods, so it gives a better quality ( but uses more computer power as well ).
Level : 3.2	This H.264 Level supports a resolution of 1280×720. Wikipedia gives a good overview of the different H.264/AVC Levels.
Bitrate Encoding	Choose ‘VBR, 2 Pass’ for better encoding efficiency ( better quality for the same filesize ). If you want faster encoding pick ‘VBR, 1 Pass’.
Target Bitrate	The average bitrate the encoder can use in Mega bits per second. This multiplied by the time gives an indication of the file size. One minute of video with this setting would be : 5 Mbps * 60s = 300 Mbps. 300Mbps/8 ( from bits to bytes ) = 37.5 Mb.
Maximum Bitrate	The encoder can use a higher bitrate for difficult parts in a video image ( lots of movement, noise) to improve the quality. This implies directly that other ’simple’ parts are encoded with a lower bitrate than the average bitrate.

Audio settings ( audio tab )

In the audiotab you don’t have to make a lot of changes. The audio codec used in combination with H264 is AAC ( Advanced Audio Coding ). Depending your demands you can change stereo to mono ( a bitrate of 64 kbps would be sufficient then ), when you want good quality stereo music it’s better to choose 128kbps or higher ( the higher the bitrate, the better the quality ).

Use 44.1 kHz as an audio bitrate, 48 kHz ( most camera’s record with this frequency ) can give distorted audio playback with YouTube/Vimeo now and then.

Export settings summary

Look at the settings in the Export summary and compare them with the summary above. Make changes when necessary.

To save this preset you can press the disk icon next to the preset name ( automatically changes to Custom when you changed an existing preset ).

Final note

The encoded video will be re-encoded in Vimeo or YouTube. However with these settings you have good quality HD movie as reference and for archive purposes.

Adobe Premiere CS4 Cheat Sheet mac

kasperkamperman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:14:48 +0000

Adobe released a nice shortcut look-up application called “Adobe Shortcut App for Creative Suite”. Really useful but the included Cheat Sheet doesn’t show the most necessary shortcuts.

So I’ve decided to make a new Cheat Sheet with the ( in my opinion ) most useful keyboard shortcuts for Premiere CS4 (Mac).

Download : Adobe Premiere CS4 Cheat Sheet

Go to : Adobe Shortcut App ( air application )

No related posts.

Render HD and SD movies for Vimeo with After Effects CS3

kasperkamperman — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:46:07 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Update : See my new tutorial on encoding settings with CS4 :
Encode HD video for Vimeo or YouTube ( Media Encoder CS4 )

A tutorial on how to render a composition in After Effects CS3 for Vimeo or You Tube. In CS3 there is not a good preset to render HD video in the H264 format ( mpeg4 ) that’s used by most video sites.

With these settings you can upload your video with a good filesize – quality ratio to a video service.

Used specifications for HD :

video codec : H264 – audio codec : AAC
framerate : 25 fps
resolution : 1280 x 720
bitrate : 3000 – 5000 Mbps
profile : baseline – level : 3.1

Used specifications for SD ( Apple iPod video large preset ) :

video codec : H264 – audio codec : AAC
framerate : 25 fps
resolution : 640 x 360
bitrate : 1400 Mbps
profile : baseline – level : 3.0