My computer will edit 3 AVCHD 24mbs streams (.mts files) simultaneously in real-time!

I built this $2,000 ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 / Intel Quad Core i7 computer in hopes of being able to edit 15 minutes of AVCHD 24mbs video stream footage in real-time with Sony Vegas 9 Pro without using proxy files. I output AVCHD streams to many different formats including 32mbs Blu-Ray, DVD, internet 56k, and 8mb HD streams. To eliminate conversion degradation, I wanted to complete my edits with the raw AVCHD footage and do all my final renderings from that master.

My hopes have been realized. This machine will edit at least twenty nine minutes of raw AVCHD .mts stream files without stuttering and sound and picture going out of sync. However, after cutting the raw footage and I start adding effects, envelopes, overlays, picture in picture, etc., the stuttering and picture lag begins again. So tweaking the final edit can still be a pain, but by selecting short (ten seconds or less) segments for previewing there is very little stutter, and by checking the "Render loop region only" box in the "Render As" dialog, I can test render settings rather quickly.

All in all I am quite pleased with this build.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• AVCHD
• .mts
• real-time
• NLE
• video
• editing
• computer
• ASUS
• P6T
• Deluxe
• V2
• Intel
• Quad
• Core
• i7
• 920

[danielcdecarli]

well, editing is not a big deal when you didnt add any effects. Maybe what you need is software which would make your pc faster. CCleaner, advanced system care, etc. Try these and see how much faster your PC can be. Good luck.

[JerryKumpf]

@danielcdecarli:

There are lots of video effects applied. Two pictures in Picture, color correction, and pan and scan. Still plays silky smooth in preview mode. Admittedly, it won't play back full frame HD smoothly with all the effects active. but I have my preview monitor set to Half quality, and I can ram render a minute and a half of footage within a few seconds to preview critical sections in full glorious HD. Don't need the PC crap you are pushing. with your spam.

[patmck2]

when you edit with AVCHD, is it 1920 x 1080i 50 or 60i? If so, when you output it to blu ray, do you see all the 50 or 60 interlaced frames on a big tv or do you only see 30 or 25 frames?

[JerryKumpf]

@patmck2 what you will see will depend on how you render the final file. If you render it as 60i you will see 60 interlaced frames top to bottom or bottom to top depending on how you choose to render. If you render as 24p or 30p you will see those frame rates. I can't see any difference in picture playback quality on my TV between 60i and 30p. The quality of the picture seems more dependent on the bit rate than anything else, i.e. the higher the bit rate the better quality picture I get.

[JerryKumpf]

@JerryKumpf UPDATE! I just read the minimum specs for CS5.5. It says one needs a Raid 5 as well as a GTX580 or better gpu in order to edit native AVCHD files. I am sure the GTX580 would have performed better in my system had I a raid installed.

[danielcdecarli]

@JerryKumpf Well if you have the money, go for it! (You already went) Good job dude!

[JerryKumpf]

@fearFlashback : I installed a GTX580, and downloaded CS 5.5 for a trial run. Sony Vegas on a GTX250 still plays back 24 mbs HD .MTS streams much smoother than CS5 with the GTX 580. Render times were a little faster in CS5, but the quality of video output is still higher with Sony Vegas (different codecs?). Anyway, I returned the GTX580 and will pass on buying and registering CS5.5. I'll give Premiere a try again next release after they've given the mercury playback engine a tuneup.

[patmck2]

when you edit with AVCHD, is it 1920 x 1080i 50 or 60i? If so, when you output it to blu ray, do you see all the 50 or 60 interlaced frames on a big tv or do you only see 30 or 25 frames?

[JerryKumpf]

@thereape420 I agree with you about the video card, but I tried CS5 and it doesn't edit nearly as smoothly as Sony Vegas 9 pro. I like some of the native plugins that come with CS5, but other than that Sony Vegas works faster and smoother than the "mercury" engine of CS5. Granted, I don't have two NVIDIA 480 Cudas, but I imagine the improvement I would see in CS5 would be seen in Vegas. Any way, I am saving my pennies for a hot swappable raid array and new video cards.

[thereape420]

a very nice build but if you are really looking to boost your editing performance you need to get premier pro cs5 and an nvidia card with cuda enabled the editing you are doing is a piece of cake when cuda is enabled..I have the same build but I have gtx 480 I sold my 5870 and bought a 480 just for editing performance...and yeah you can get the premiere pro cracked on websites ya now