Thx. Problem is the DVD authoring software you mention is WAY too expensive for a simple amateur like myself. I just want to put clips of my family outings and such on a disc, in HD with some decent menu's so my wife/family can navigate them easily.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
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AVCHD on Mac, WAY better on Windows7 !
- Thread starter lapino
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If you need to output to HD rather then SD, I found this post:
"Before wasting the money on an external (or internal) BluRay burner, you should consider using what you already have. Did you know that if you buy the BluRay plug in for Toast you can burn up to 25 minutes of BluRay on a normal DVD disc with any DVD burner? I don't know about you but I don't want to watch a family movie longer then about 10 minutes so that should be plenty. Also consider the cost of media... $10 (Blu-ray) vs. about .30 cents (for a standard DVD)."
"Before wasting the money on an external (or internal) BluRay burner, you should consider using what you already have. Did you know that if you buy the BluRay plug in for Toast you can burn up to 25 minutes of BluRay on a normal DVD disc with any DVD burner? I don't know about you but I don't want to watch a family movie longer then about 10 minutes so that should be plenty. Also consider the cost of media... $10 (Blu-ray) vs. about .30 cents (for a standard DVD)."
Didn't say they weren't. There is always iDVD that you can use which comes with your Mac. I haven't used it yet so I do not know the limitations of what it can or can't do. But it should be able to do pretty much most of the things you want it do to.
The root of the issue here is that you want to use AVCHD in such a way that most professional software isn't aimed at. Though I will agree that could be doing a much better job with GPU acceleration, and I hope that both the next version of FCS and snow leopard add it.
This is from another thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/707675/
To add to this, one reason why I think Win7 might have a better handle on this is because this format is reasonable new 2006-2008? Maybe someone can chim in here also, but hasn't this just become a readly available and used format in the camcorder industry? I mean jvc used .mod format etc. Which you have to convert in order to bring it in to some editing programs too.
I am hoping that SL will be able to handle this format a little better.
Edit>> Here is the link to wiki on the format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD
Take it for what it is worth.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/707675/
To add to this, one reason why I think Win7 might have a better handle on this is because this format is reasonable new 2006-2008? Maybe someone can chim in here also, but hasn't this just become a readly available and used format in the camcorder industry? I mean jvc used .mod format etc. Which you have to convert in order to bring it in to some editing programs too.
I am hoping that SL will be able to handle this format a little better.
Edit>> Here is the link to wiki on the format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD
Take it for what it is worth.
I think a lot of what is missed here is despite the fact that you may able to edit AVCHD natively using Windows7 and Vegas, AVCHD isn't exactly the most desirable codec to edit to begin with. It uses H.264 compression, which is a delivery codec by design.
Yes, it would be convenient to be able to do this natively on a Mac, but I suppose we'll just have to wait for the next generation of FCE/FCP and hope that they'll (finally) have an overhauled interface and code base with support for GPU acceleration. Final Cut has only gotten facelifts and added features over new versions since FCP 1.0, but largely the same underlying 32-bit Carbon code has remained.
The present gripes with AVC on the Mac are similar to ones experienced with HDV several years ago. Back then, a lot of machines (Mac and Windows alike) couldn't handle cutting it natively because the CPUs were too slow (and at that time, GPU acceleration only really applied to gaming).
Yes, it would be convenient to be able to do this natively on a Mac, but I suppose we'll just have to wait for the next generation of FCE/FCP and hope that they'll (finally) have an overhauled interface and code base with support for GPU acceleration. Final Cut has only gotten facelifts and added features over new versions since FCP 1.0, but largely the same underlying 32-bit Carbon code has remained.
The present gripes with AVC on the Mac are similar to ones experienced with HDV several years ago. Back then, a lot of machines (Mac and Windows alike) couldn't handle cutting it natively because the CPUs were too slow (and at that time, GPU acceleration only really applied to gaming).
Software support and hardware acceleration - if you've got a purpose designed chip, which is doing nothing but en/decoding AVCHD, as opposed to chips being tied down with an OS and a dozen other things, it'll do its job, no fuss, no mess. Though it's worth pointing out that better chips could allow higher quality AVCHD recordings, or more options in recording.
Yes, GPU acceleration of both rendering and video playback has been in use for quite some time. Windows has had an advantage in graphics acceleration for just about all of graphics cards being a standard feature in computing. It has has native mode support (works like a gpu, not a cpu) for many of these functions which is much more efficient than CUDA/OpenCL is.
What is with the rude responses in this thread? Try opening a raw avchd file in Win 7, vs opening it in OSX. Just opening it for playback. See what happens.
Now check out all the options for editing NATIVE AVCHD on Windows vs OSX. Just look! I can sort of edit my AVCHD files on my mac if I transcode them. I had a 15 minute file that was about 1.9 gigs. After transcoding, which took a few HOURS, that file was now about 10 gigabytes large. Unacceptable.
I had to go back to my Windows machine to do my editing, and that is not what I want to do.
Will this be fixed in Snow Leopard?
Now check out all the options for editing NATIVE AVCHD on Windows vs OSX. Just look! I can sort of edit my AVCHD files on my mac if I transcode them. I had a 15 minute file that was about 1.9 gigs. After transcoding, which took a few HOURS, that file was now about 10 gigabytes large. Unacceptable.
I had to go back to my Windows machine to do my editing, and that is not what I want to do.
Will this be fixed in Snow Leopard?
Actually it sounds like you choose to go back to windows, since the transcode did work. You didn't have to.
Even when Apple talks about SL Monday morning at the Apple Developer Conference, we likely won't here about this. If/When they choose to support native AVCHD editing in iMovie and FCE, they will release it specifically for those editors.
However 15 minutes of video took hours to transcode. This does not work when I have hours of video to edit. I shoot a lot of stuff. So therefore to be in ANY way efficient I HAD to use Windows. Should I really spend DAYS transcoding for hours of video? Do you realize how much time and space that takes?
On windows, I copy the native files over to my disk, and start watching and editing immediately, and it flies. Windows Media Player 12 plays back the raw files and they look flippin amazing. So it's more than just editing in apps. What about quicktime playing these files? I hope 10.6 fixes this. I really do. Anyone who thinks the current solutions are acceptable are crazy folk.
Out of curiosity, what are your hardware specs?
I agree, waiting hours to get to work is a little nutty, at least for the consumer. Pros have good reason to use codecs designed for editing.
For what it's worth, I agree that not even being able to play AVCHD clips in QT Player (and having to install third party players instead) is more than a bit sad. Then again, most Windows users aren't on Win7 and are therefore in the same (or a strikingly similar) boat.
What I am wondering about, though, is why it's taking "hours" to transcode a 15-minute clip in OSX. Should take no more than 1.5x clip time, i.e. 22 minutes or less. Still not as convenient as dragging and dropping files, but not hours of inconvenience, either.
I have 3.5 year old iMac core duo and conversion of 15 minutes takes longer than 15 minutes, sure, but nowhere near hours. If it takes that long on your machine just to convert, I cannot imagine editing AVCHD natively would be a smooth experience. I don't think you are comparing apples to apples. Your windows machine sounds more powerful hardware wise.
In any case, I am curious. iMovie editing can go way beyond simple trimming. When Vegas edits AVCHD, what are its limits? Based on other posts, it seems Toast can handle basic editing as well as burning HD disks.
The biggest drawback of a conversion for me is the diskspace. I wish there was a way to get iMovie not to decompress sections of the movie that the user knows will not be edited, as either it will stay as a separate clip on its own or whatever transitions etc that is needed will be applied before or after that clip, not during.
In any case, I am curious. iMovie editing can go way beyond simple trimming. When Vegas edits AVCHD, what are its limits? Based on other posts, it seems Toast can handle basic editing as well as burning HD disks.
The biggest drawback of a conversion for me is the diskspace. I wish there was a way to get iMovie not to decompress sections of the movie that the user knows will not be edited, as either it will stay as a separate clip on its own or whatever transitions etc that is needed will be applied before or after that clip, not during.
Okay, but you didn't answer my question about the transcode time issue. What software are you using?
Because it takes FOR FREAKING EVER on any laptop or iMac to import/convert the damn files, and then they take up the entire fraking hard drive since they baloon in size with NO quality improvement.
The question is more why Apple has NO NATIVE SUPPORT FOR AVCHD, the standard for video now. WHY???? Is it because they are too cheap to pay the stupid MPEG license and would rather force their customers to live in a world where .MTS files don't load into QT Player... where it takes ten hours to simply do basic edits on a couple hours of video and then save it onto an external HD in a format recognizable by BD players... where I have to explain to my customers that Apple mysteriously fails to fully support the most common video camera standard at the level we have come to expect from Apple?
It really makes Apple look bad, as does their lack of Blu-Ray as an option... Fing pathetic... !! What are they thinking, seriously? What is the damn reason for this? Is there some actual reason, like Sony denied them a license? Or they didn't feel like paying it?? Whatever the reason is, IT'S RETARDED!! QUIT SMOKING CRACK APPLE! Your kool-aid can't possibly taste that good.
-=DG=-
Posted from my Palm Pre, which gets reception inside of buildings and comes with free GPS navigation software.
What a jerk!! It's people like you that make people hate Mac users. Snobby, arrogant, and bone-headed. You are defending Apple's choice to not support AVCHD-- a very poor choice since people specifically buy Macs with the expectation they will be SUPERIOR for things like video-- just because it's Apple and you religiously believe anything they do is done the correct way because it's Apple. Well quit snorting lines of the kool-aid powder... !
Apple needs to get back in the lead on stuff like this ... I GUARANTEE there are people who have returned their Mac and bought a Sony just to get AVCHD and Blu-Ray support.
Indeed! It's very annoying to see AVCHD so poorly supported on my Macbook Pro, a laptop I bought specifically to do photo (great) and video work (bad) on the road.
I love my MBP and OSX is great to work with, but the lack of native AVCHD support is really disappointing. I hope there will be native AVCHD editing on the new version of Final Cut, but so far there's no sign that it will have that feature.
I love my MBP and OSX is great to work with, but the lack of native AVCHD support is really disappointing. I hope there will be native AVCHD editing on the new version of Final Cut, but so far there's no sign that it will have that feature.
LOL! Come to the party late and insult people. That will make you look good.
I never defended Apple, wasn't being arrogant or snobby, or bone-headed. I may have been a little cheeky though.
Go get a sense of humor.