Dear all,
I'm probably not the only person with a nice new AVCHD camcorder and a need for editing software. Due to the large confusion sourrounding the AVCHD media editing I have made the following list (incomplete) to at least get a feeling of what the different editing programs are capable of. I see many are still confused about what works in the different programs. And for a reason! The software manufacturers homepages are often difficult to decipher - what can actually be done?

This naturally does not include all programs and sub-features of the individual programs, but some central ones which I believe are important. We all think different features are most important, but lets stick to the here mentioned features and facts only please!
So! Can you help me complete and correct this table?

(Thank-you for all the help so far!)

All the best,
STJ


A.) Ulead VS 11
B.) Vegas Platinum
C.) Vegas PRO 8
D.) Nero 8 ultra
E.) Pinnacle studio ult.

No. Of video tracks:_________________A.) 6, ___B.) 4, ____C.) unlim., __D.) ?, ___E.) 2
16:9 aspect ratio movie/menues: ALL are capable of both!
Dolby 5.1 mixing & encoding:________A.) ok, ___B.) ok, ___C.) ok, _____D.) ?, ___E.) ok
Supports 24p editing:_______________A.) no, ___B.) ?, ___C.) ok, _____D.) ?, ____E.) ?
Supports 30p editing: ALL are capable of this!
Make/author AVCHD to DVD: ALL are capable of both!
Make/author AVCHD to Blue ray disc: _A.) ok/?, _B.) ok/No, C.) ok/No, __D.) ok/ok, E.)?/ok
Works with Canon AVCHD:__________A.) read, _B.) read, _C.) read, ____D.) ?, ___E.) read
Works with Sony AVCHD:___________A.) read, _B.) read, _C.)read/write, D.) read, E.) read
Works with Panasonic AVCHD:_______A.) read, _B.) ?, ___C.) ?, ______D.) read, _E.) read
Multi core processors supported:______A.) yes, _B.) yes, __C.) yes, ____D.) yes, _E.) ?
Cost (approximate):_________________A.) 100$, B.) 115$, _C.) 550$, ___D.) 80$, _E.) 129$

Vegas Platinum with the most recent upgrade does read Canon AVCHD. I believe it also reads Panasonic AVCHD but I can't test it as I don't have a Panasonic cam.

Keep in mind though that Vegas Platinum 8.0 only "reads" AVCHD. It does not "write" AVCHD. It only edits and converts your AVCHD video to Standard Definition. AVCHD output is not possible with it.

__________________
Ernie
Sony HDR-SR1 AVCHD HDD User

NERO 8 UE works with SONY (CX7) and multi-core processors (VAIO Duo Core and Mac Quad Core running XPsp2 on Leopard Bootcamp).

I should have added that NERO 8 UE only reads from a SONY AVCHD Camera (mine is a CX7).

30p editing should come as a freebie in any editing tool, because you can edit it in 60i timeline, just make sure that when you render final video, you select "progressive source".

I own an AVCHD cam by Panasonic and did use m2ts files from this cam in Nero 8 without any problem.

I also authored AVCHD disks (using DVD-R) with Nero 8. The software manual says that with Nero 8 you can author Bluray disk but my PC does not have a Bluray burner so I cannot offer any personal experience on this.

Nero 8 will edit native Panny .mts files.

Ulead VS11 Plus says it will, really wants to, but it is so taxing it makes editing unbearable if you have more than 5 files.

Pinnacle S11 will edit native Panny .mts files.

No need to run the converter to make them .m2ts, just copy the files to your HDD and start editing.

VS11P is an unusable resource hog with horrible user interface.

Agreed, I did like it for my old JVC Everio SD camera though. I liked their premade menus a lot.

I just got a Canon HF100 last week, so I spent the weekend desperately searching for the best editing solution.

I have an HP AMD Athlon Duo-Core 3GHz, with 3GB Ram and an Nvideo Geforce 6600 GPU with 256MB ram.

I could not get Ulead to recognize the .MTS files. When I went to their help page, the only AVCHD instructions referred to importing from a DVD camcorder. I tried changing file extensions to .M2ts, .M2t, etc. but with no luck having it recognize the files. I finally gave up on Ulead.

I had "heard" that the newest version of Sony Vegas supported all AVCHD formats, not just Sony as was the case in previous versions. However, the box and website still say "Sony AVCHD", so I wasn't willing to risk the cash on what someone who didn't use Vegas told me.

I bought Pinnacle Ultimate. (It even came with a free green screen.) It installed with no problems, but having to go through and unlock the various effects with the serial numbers provided in the box was a bit cumbersome. However, the effects do seem to work well and be very high quality. It also outputs to iPod MPEG4 format, which is great for sharing video with my friends. Pinnacle detected and read the .MTS files with no problems whatsoever. However, when I started editing, I ran into a big problem. I kept getting a warning message that I did not have enough graphic processor memory to preview/render 1920x1080 files.

In my previews, all I got was the first frame of the clip and the sound or just black screen and sound. You can't really edit if you can't see the video.

I successfully rendered out an unedited 10-second clip to Ipod format, and it took OVER 5 MINUTES! I attempted to render out a 10-second clip with added effects, but it took close to 10 minutes, and all I got was 10 seconds of black screen.

I ended up downloading the free trial of Elecard converter and changed the AVCHD files to HDV files. Pinnacle could not handle these files either. However, Windows Movie Maker seemed to handle them with no problem.

After editing a bit in Windows Movie Maker I exported the movie into a standard definition AVI just to check how Pinnacle would perform in Standard Definition. In SD with the AVI file, it worked flawlessly, and rendered things very quickly.

This afternoon I purchased an NVidia 8800 GT with 512MB DDR3 to see if I can actually preview 1920x1080p in Pinnacle. I have my doubts though.

I spoke with a representative from Adobe regarding AVCHD because we just purchased CS3 Ultimate about 2 months ago, and it doesn't support AVCHD or Blu-Ray burning. Their rep said they have no real plans at this time to support either, and told me he couldn't suggest a conversion program, but I might try searching online for "AVCHD Converter." I told him that he's an idiot, and that I hope Adobe decides to join the 21st century. (I'm sure by next year they'll have support for both.)

I'm checking the Nvidia upgrade and Nero 8 out tonight. I'll try to keep you guys posted on how they work.

Download a 30-day trial and see for yourself. Vegas 8.0b supports Canon's AVCHD, both 1440x1080 from the HG and 1920x1080 from the HF. Upgrades are free as long as major version is the same.

Trial version does not have avchd support, only in the full release.

The one I downladed, was able to load AVCHD.

I installed the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT Overclocked with 512MB DDR3 last night. The Vista Performance Rating of my graphics capabilities jumped from a 3.0 to a 5.9 (whatever that really means?).

I no longer got the warning message about not having enough graphics memory when I opened 1920x1080 files in Pinnacle, and I was able to preview short clips. However, after about 30 seconds of playback, the video started getting laggy and wasn't syncing up with the audio anymore. If you stop it and restart it, it runs fine for another 30 seconds or so. On the upside, I can actually see the frames in the clipping window, so the program is now functional.

It took 34 minutes to render out 1 minute of the 1920x1080 footage to a 1920x1080 60i WMV file. It took about the same to render it out to a small iPod compatible file.

It seems like at least somewhat of a success, but when I installed the NVidia card, my DVD-RW disappeared. And when I say disappeared, I mean disappeared completely. There's no sign it ever existed in the device manager or the bios. I tried uninstalling and DVD software that might be causing problems. I tried going into the regedit and using that trick where you delete "upperfilters" and "lowerfilters." I tried unplugging the drive, restarting the computer with out it. Then plugging it back in and restarting again in hopes it would detect it. I tried taking the Nvidia card back out and running a system restore to before the new drive updates, etc. No luck. My DVD drive is still completely MIA.

I had planned to test Nero, but spent all night in a futile battle to find my DVD drive, so I haven't gotten to that yet.

Once I get the drive back I'll test Nero and the free Vegas download to see how they run in comparison to Pinnacle.