Does anyone here know about editing AVCHD format video?

Northwind
Northwind Posts: 14,675
edited December 2009 in The Crudcatcher
I just recently got a Panasonic TZ7 digital camera, which is great but all the videos I've done so far are in AVCHD. The camera comes with a really, truly awful editor which can do nothing but crop footage (and even that badly) but nothing capable of converting to a more user friendly format.

I'm in the middle of cutting together a video filmed mostly with my Helmet Hero (in .avi) and I want to add a wee clip from the TZ7. Windows Movie Maker can't deal with AVCHD though. So, I've used Handbrake to convert to MP4 and then MediaCoder to convert to avi, so that Windows Movie Maker will handle it all.

So. That's a gigantic pain in the ass, and leaves a pretty low quality video. There's got to be a better way but mostly, it seems to involve upgrading to Windows 7 or buying an expensive video editor. Any better ideas?
Uncompromising extremist

Comments

  • bobs bikes
    bobs bikes Posts: 589
    i use pinnacle studio 11 for all my videos etc.
    it will handle all formats and does a good job. very power hungry though.
  • blister pus
    blister pus Posts: 5,780
    Double check it doesn't record a standard definition MPEG-2 file and store it somewhere away from the AVCHD file. Some Sonys do. Or check the recording options for standard definition recording.

    AVCHD is Sony / Panasonic thing, init. So you'll want a converter / editor if dealing with it. So i'd bite the bullet and find an easy all in one solution that does it all for you. Fortunately you can download and run the trials on most of the software. I'd start with the trial Corel VideoStudio X2 and see if it does exactly what you want, how you want. You can pick it up for around 35 quid and it's got more cool sh!t than you can shake a stick at.

    Free trials page: http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/ ... 2796555406

    there are plenty of other options, cheaper and more expensive, but that's great value if you plan on getting into this lark as a hobby.
  • redvee
    redvee Posts: 11,922
    If you can get the recorded file as MPEG then virtualdubmod can be used to edit the file. I've been using it for years and still not used all the teaks I can do to a videoclip.
    I've added a signature to prove it is still possible.

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