AVCHD to DVD issues

Artful Dodger

Artful Dodger

macrumors 68020
I'll say that this isn't my idea of doing this a quick and dirty way but for the people I video seminars for this will work (as requested by them). I don't agree but it's not my call per se.

I've been recording using my Canon HF-S21 which has been a champ. I store all my video as an iMovie archive for a weekend until I get home and then it's time to start the editing process. I record in the standard def. mode on the camera as far as quality goes because they don't want or need HD quality so it's 60i & SD.

So the issue(s) are the time it has been taking for iMovie to do it's thing with the AVCHD files and then off to iDVD for the finish. All they want is the raw footage, no edits just give what was recorded. The whole idea is cutting down the time since the original footage ends up being about 16 hrs. total recorded.

The time it's taking for about 1.5hrs. to run the process is around 5hrs.+ and since no edits are needed how can I cut the time if at all? Again this normally doesn't bother me but they other guy that records uses something on the windows side that can complete this process in about real time.

I've tried sending just the files over to Toast 10 which encodes and burns to DVD in real time which is great, it also gives jagged lines and not the nice and smooth look (of course) as the iMovie>iDVD process, not so great.

I'm not sure if it's because I'm not checking off something in Toast or it looks like that on my 42" LCD or the last, you get what you get using Toast.

Any tips or tricks would be great other than having the other guy handle the video to DVD end of things :cool:
 
Well if they are looking for the raw footage, you have to keep in mind iMovie has to convert it from AVCHD to a proper format, then send it to iDVD to convert once again for DVD. If you are sending raw footage just use a burning program to burn the original files, not a video DVD- a Data DVD.

But it sounds to me like you want to send them unedited footage but in dvd format?
 
Yes that would be correct. They want the footage on a dvd and then just a copy of the iMovie archive that I do to off load the video from my cards.

It's as if I go a few rounds explaining to them the way it is but it doesn't sink in, laughs. It's not like taking a photo and getting semi instant gratification but I'm sure everyone in here has gone through this at some point in time.

I have been doing it the right way and I'm plenty aware (they can't get it through their heads) of the time involved it takes for iMovie to convert the files of AVCHD. I had a long weekend which ended up being about 32 hours of video and the whole process (the right way) ended up being about 80 hours when all was said and done.

The big reason for just giving them the footage on a dvd is if someone wanted to watch the video because they were sick and missed said event, it would be at least for them, easy to borrow a dvd and take notes, then return the dvd.

I had been doing the iMovie, let it convert, edit out what the presenters wanted left out, send using the share to media, then open in iDVD, make a simple yet nice menu, let it render and burn to DVD. Then archive the final project, backup on two to four hard drives and dvds if possible.

I hate to say it but if quality isn't their concern that's fine I'm just not sure how to do it half-assed per se. I did try to just take the MTS file and burn it since there would be 3-4 files using Toast but I may have missed a better way for this purpose.
 
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