AVCHD to DVD to play in standalone BluRay player

[iBrody]

My parents have a 13" 2009 MBP, and have just purchased a Panasonic SD60 HD camcorder.

They are pretty useless with technology so trying to explain the cons of purchasing an HD camcorder to edit footage fell on deaf ears and they purchased the camcorder regardless.

Now, apart from plugging the camcorder directly into the tv, which is all they have so far managed to do, will the following be easy enough to do if they want to archive the footage?:

1. Plug the SD60 into the Mac
2. Open Toast Titanium and select AVCHD Archive option under video
3. Burn a DVD's worth of footage (pending the original file size)
4. Play the disc back in the DMP-BD65 BluRay player that I have bought them for xmas which has AVCHD playback built in

Which leads me to my 2nd question, if I convert the footage to mpeg2 to edit and archive on to DVD to play on any standalone player, will I be able to retain either 720p or 1080i or will the footage be limited to 720x576 in PAL? My guess is that for a normal DVD player to recognise the footage it will need to be downsized but let me know if there's a way round this...

Also, will down-sizing the footage degrade the quality (I realise that it won't be in HD, but will the footage contain motion artifacts/pixelation by converting the footage in general)?

Software that I currently have installed includes Toast Titanium, iMovie, iSkysoft iMedia Converter, Handbrake, iDVD and Final Cut Express. Will a combination of these be up to the job to convert, edit and author? And if so which combination is recommended?

Not sure whether the software that comes with the SD60 is Mac compatible, and as I live quite far from them I haven't had a chance to test any software with the camcorder yet.

Cheers in advance

 

[dizzie1]

Hey, boss. Sorry, but I doubt your folks will ever get it to work. You'll end up doing it all for them. While the DVD will reduce resolution, quality can be kept with the right bitrate or quality settings - perhaps 4,000 kbps constant or 5,000 variable or 62% constant quality. Sorry - not familiar with Toast's settings.

If you have to leave it to the oldsters, the best they will be able to do is burn the files to a disk, and load them to an HCSD and play it from the camcorder to the TV. Also, some Bluray players may be able to play the pure AVCHD file, such as the LG players.

Good luck!!!

 

[iBrody]

Hey, boss. Sorry, but I doubt your folks will ever get it to work. You'll end up doing it all for them. While the DVD will reduce resolution, quality can be kept with the right bitrate or quality settings - perhaps 4,000 kbps constant or 5,000 variable or 62% constant quality. Sorry - not familiar with Toast's settings.

If you have to leave it to the oldsters, the best they will be able to do is burn the files to a disk, and load them to an HCSD and play it from the camcorder to the TV. Also, some Bluray players may be able to play the pure AVCHD file, such as the LG players.

Good luck!!!

Thanks for the advice. Yeah I have bought them a Panasonic BD65 Bluray player which can play AVCHD files, so I guess I could try plugging the camcorder to my or their MBP, open Toast which has an AVCHD to DVD archive option (or I guess I could extract the files first and use DVD-Rom (UDF)) and then play the disc in the Bluray player that way.

 

[dizzie1]

Does it record to HCSD card? My old Panasonic BD had and SD card slot in it that would play some manufacturers' AVCHD files straight out of the camcorder. There was a good thread at AV Science Forums on the player and which manufacturers' cards it would take, I believe.

 

[Greydad]

Hi, new to the forum, sorry to just jump in but I also have a Panasonic camcorder and a house full of Macs of various flavours. The Pannie records AVCHD to SD card in my case but has a USB interface also. From iMovie in iLife '11 I can read in the AVCHD files via USB and play around and edit them as much as I want and then export to any other format or DVD or whatever. Blu-ray not possible yet but I'm looking into that, may need to move to Final Cut Pro and an external blu-ray writer

I have a Pannie TV as well and the SD card just plugs in and plays directly on that too, no problems.

Anyway, not sure that helps and it may be I don't understand the issue here but just to say Macs and AVCHD don't appear to be a problem although you may need to invest in iLife '11 to get the latest iMovie for it to work.

Cheers

Neil