Encoding AVCHD to a format suitable for Premiere Pro CS6

[John Ratard]

I am having a problem with AVCHD frame dimensions that are not being retained in decoded MP4. The resulting MP4 frames are cropped to show a partial image of the original.  I am editing in Premiere Pro CS6 and used HandBrake to decode.

I also do not know how to determine if there could be a problem with the frames of the AVCHD format that is responsible when the decoding stops before the decoding process is completed or perhaps the file structure as below.

x - Copy.m2ts

x. m2ts

x.m2ts 48000.cfa

x.m2ts 48000.pek

x.m2ts .modd

[Warren Heaton]

Transcode to ProRes 422 LT and set Sequence Video Previews to custom QuickTime ProRes 422 LT to match.  Export to ProRes 422 LT as well.  Delivery other formats only when necessary.

[John Ratard]

Thank you for your feedback.  I tried a few free transcoders that did not provide the necessary AVCHD conversions I needed.  I did not try transcoding to ProRes 422 LT since one of my previous inputs suggested I input my AVCHD file into my Premiere Pro CS6. Then without editing, Export to a suitable format in this case an mpg file.  I found that I could then edit the mpg file with Premiere Pro CS6.  I shall nevertheless try ProRes 422 LT.  However, I should have noted that I use a custom editing PC.  

[John Ratard]

My feedback on how I am succeeding with my previous post is so far not as I imagined.  For some reason, I am finding that the mpg file is resulting in duplicated sections throughout the file.  This requires wasted editing time.  I will try again to verify the results.

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

@John Ratard 

Try using Shutter Encoder (free) to transcode the MTS file to ProRes 422 LT QuickTime movie files.

If you drag and drop the AVCHD folder to the "Drag files here" window, delete any file that does not end in MTS before clicking "Start function".

Or, drill down to the STREAM folder inside the AVCHD folder and then drag and drop any MTS files.

Set the "Choose function" pop-up menu to Editing > "Apple ProRe"s and the secondary pop-up menu to "LT".

For the destination, click the "Change" option and choose a location on your storage media that can hold about 700MB per minute.

Then click "Start function".

I can't remember exactly when Adobe started to support ProRes natively in Premiere Pro.  CS6 should work fine, but you may need to download and install QuickTime from Apple and the ProRes Decoder from Apple.  Do this only if Premiere Pro CS6 does not recognize the ProRes .mov files on its own.

[John Ratard]

Thank you for your suggsetions.  After converting my  AVCHD as previously noted, I was able to finally export to MJPEG. Then progressed through the resulting output to remove all files that were not MJPEG and most duplicates, since I missed a few. Then imported that into PPro CS6.  I am progressing though further editing with the occasional missed duplicate clips that I removed.  So far all is progressing reasonably well.  I have not been able to avoid a few duplicates.  Nor can I understand how the duplicates resulted in the first place.  I simply transferred my AVCHD files from my Sony NEX-VG30 through Play Memories Home to my editing PC.