Sony HDR-UX1 AVCHD/H.264/MPEG-4 Sample Clip

[Jerry Jones]

As I've mentioned in the other thread, the Sony HDR-UX1 is an AVCHD/H.264/MPEG-4 camcorder that records to DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R Double-Layer.

To "capture," I put the disc into my laptop's DVD drive.

Then I use Corel VideoStudio 11 Plus's "IMPORT FROM DVD/DVD-VR" capture plug-in to transfer video on the disc to my laptop's hard disk.

When this transfer is finished, the native .M2TS files on the disc become .M2T (H.264 inserted into an MPEG-2 "transport stream" wrapper).

Here's a sample:

http://www.jonesgroup.net/media/h.264/boiserose.m2t

It's a red rose in the Boise Rose Garden.

The file is pretty big so I'll have to remove it in a few days.

Until then, you may want to download it to get a look at AVCHD high definition video.

I have more samples that I'll put up later.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Hulk]

Thanks for sharing Jerry. I don't want to get greedy but if you get some time can you grab a shot with motion? Perhaps a water shot, or horizontal pan, or a car driving by, or a rack focus shot if the manual controls are good enough to do that.

But I know shooting test scenes and uploading does not make a fun afternoon so whatever you can do (and have done) is much appreciated.

- Mark

[Jerry Jones]

Ask and ye shall receive.

http://www.jonesgroup.net/media/h.264/traffic.m2ts

(Traffic moving toward and past the camcorder.)

This one is in the .M2TS format captured by the Sony Picture Motion Browser software.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

Thanks for sharing Jerry. I don't want to get greedy but if you get some time can you grab a shot with motion? Perhaps a water shot, or horizontal pan, or a car driving by, or a rack focus shot if the manual controls are good enough to do that.

But I know shooting test scenes and uploading does not make a fun afternoon so whatever you can do (and have done) is much appreciated.

- Mark

[Jerry Jones]

By the way, one thing I've noticed is that the motion seems to look better when played by the Sony Motion Picture Browser software out to my TV.

When I encode this video to be "HD DVD" compliant, I see...

1. softening (to be expected as a result of the transcode)
2. the typical MPEG-2 double image flutter on edges

It looks okay, but not quite as good as the native playback.

This is why I'd prefer native capture, native editing, smart rendering, and H.264 authoring to disc.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Hulk]

I think the clips look very good. Definitely deserving of the "HD" label.

Editing with my system is quite responsive in Vegas 7e. Much better than I anticipated given the reported overhead for AVCHD.

[Jerry Jones]

So Vegas was able to even read the .M2TS files?

VideoStudio can't read those.

VideoStudio has to capture from the camcorder to .M2T.

Then VideoStudio can work with them.

I don't think Vegas can burn "HD DVD" or "Blu-ray Disc" yet, right?

VideoStudio can burn to the "HD DVD" format.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Hulk]

Both clips you uploaded dropped into the Vegas timeline without any hitches. And as I said I was surprised that moving about the timeline was pretty snappy. I could move the cursor and scan frames pretty easily. I do have a very fast system though.

Right now it looks like the only HD export option in Vegas is called "HD Blu-Print" which is an MPEG-2 BR supported format.

With your clips and adding some color correction (curves) and light sharpening just to really push things 12Mpbs seems to give very good results. There is a slight improvement in going to 16Mbps.

I tried to upload my completed renders but can't seem to get the links working on my website. Strange as it never happened before.

Oh yeah, I can also export to Sony MP4 format but Showtime 3 won't playback the file so I don't know if the file is corrupt or Showtime 3 can't read it. I have a feeling it's the former since Showtime 3 plays any other MP4 file.

- Mark

[ND66]

.....I do have a very fast system though.

Core 2 Duo E6400 o/c 3.2GHz

I assume it has to be stable for you, what type of cooling did you use?

In the summer I’ll be upgrading to something that can handle AVCHD editing.

Thanks, Andy.

[Jerry Jones]

In the summer I’ll be upgrading to something that can handle AVCHD editing.

One really doesn't need a fast computer to edit AVCHD.

I'm using a laptop with only a 2.4GHZ AMD Athlon 64 chip.

Nothing to write home about.

Yet, I can edit AVCHD files easily.

VideoStudio 11 Plus does have one nice feature in this regard.

It's called "Smart Proxy."

It lets you down-convert your HD source files to any small-frame format you wish to choose for editing.

Then -- after editing is finished -- your final export links back to the original HD files, which is quite clever.

So slow computers can edit AVCHD with this software.

The only real problem is that some of us believe there's too much double-image "flutter" on the edges of subjects in motion after the AVCHD "transport stream" files have been converted to HD MPEG-2.

Virtually all consumer software packages currently on the market force you to transcode your AVCHD/MPEG-4 source files to HD MPEG-2 for editing.

I'm not sure about Pinnacle's Studio 11, but I suspect that software does the same.

Even when I'm working with the raw .M2T AVCHD transport stream captures on my relatively slow computer, I can edit them without any problem.

When I play them in full resolution, I do notice that the motion isn't smooth because my computer isn't so fast.

But if I down-convert them using the "Smart Proxy" feature, then editing is a breeze.

If we can simply resolve this double-image "flutter" on subjects in motion issue, then we'll just about have the major problem licked.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[ND66]

Thanks Jerry for this detailed explanation.

Andy.

[Hulk]

I assume it has to be stable for you, what type of cooling did you use?

In the summer I’ll be upgrading to something that can handle AVCHD editing.

Thanks, Andy.

Andy,

I did quite a bit of research before building this system and it is 100% rock solid stable at default Vcore of 1.350V. I've run Prime95 for 8+ hours to make sure and in the 7 months since I've built it haven't experienced one crash. CPU Temps max at 52-53 under heavy video editing with both cores loaded. I did spent a considerable amount of time researching every component to make sure I had no weak links. If you do build an overclocking rig don't overlook the power supply. I really like the Seasonic models for their stable output, efficiency (around 85%), and quietness.

I'm using the Thermaltake Big Typhoon for CPU cooling. It works very well and is virtually silent as the 120mm fan runs at 1100RPM. I can actually run the system at nearly 3.5GHz with a small Vcore boost but it's really not worth pushing it to the extreme to risk instability. This is my main system and I need stability.

Plus, running at 3.2GHz means I'm running at 400x8=3200 which keeps the FSB and memory in spec.

When the Quad prices drop to $266 in July for the 2.4GHz model I may pick one up and see if I can get it up to 2.8 or 3.2. But the cooling on those things is pretty demanding from what I've read. Right now Vegas will utilitize both cores and as I said editing performance is really good. I can only imagine how great it would be with Quad cores.

In terms of my old P4 3.06 my benchmarks show that it would take a P4 around 12GHz (!!!) to equal the performance of my new system. And that estimate assumes linear scaling of FSB and memory performance, which is of course impossible.

When editing normal DV I can apply heavy processing such as two color correction filters, cropping, and unsharp mask and still preview at about 20fps with a full screen preview. That preview was about 4 or 5 fps on my P4 3.06. Needless to say I'm very impressed with the Conroe core.

[ND66]

Lately, I've been eyeing the Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz 4M shared L2 Cache processor, just for that purpose.
It has a nice 4Mb L2 cache and over clocks easily.

And definitely don’t want to spend 2~3 grands on video machine that will be worthless in couple of years. I’m due now, but I’m still looking both ways, PC and HD Camcorder has to be the combo. Yet, the HD is still evolving, so I’m pushing the upgrade back a little.

So far I like the Jerry’s Sony Camcorder, the one he posted clips from. Just need a rig to work with those HD files, or whatever format they’ll end up being if something new comes buy. And the faster it would be, the more sleep I will get…. .


I have 3 college funds to build up, can’t afford the Pro stuff for my hobby anymore….. .

Thanks for all the tips, greatly appreciated.

.