Premiere Pro CS6 and AVCHD - Should I upgrade or wait?

[Keith Moreau]

Hi All

I currently use Premiere Pro 5.5.2 on a Mac Pro and OS 10.7.3. Most of my footage now is AVCHD, from various camcorders, including Sony FS100 as well as several Panasonic and Canon at 24P, 30P and 60P at 17mb/s to 28mp/s bitrates and LPCM and AVCHD audio. I also do use XDCAM EX and Canon DSLR H.264 footage.

I'm really wanting to upgrade to CS6, it looks fantastic, however I have heard reports of various bugs that make it work less efficiently or not at all with AVCHD footage. Maybe the latest upgrades fix these issues, but I'd like to get some input from people who have actually used CS6 with Mac OS 10.7 and AVCHD files. I don't want to transcode first, this was my primary reason to switch from FCP to Premiere Pro a couple of years ago, don't want to go back!

Thanks much for any and all advice you can give me.

-Keith

[NobodyVideo]

The user friendliness is awesome and the reason why I upgraded, but if AVCHD is your concern (which is the only format I work with these days)....there are no new improvements with this format.  Adobe Premiere implemented this format in 5.0 and some tweaks in 5.5.

Best wishes to you.

BTW:  I quit with the upgrade every two years game and bought the cloud version for $30 a month.

[John T Smith]

Read http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1004369?tstart=0

Adobe is working on the problem... I have not, yet, seen anyone say the problem is fixed

[excited_Genie16B8]

Things got a little better with the 6.0.1 update, but the issue is essentially still there.  If you have spanned clips, you may want to wait a little longer because you really will need to transcode those to work in CS6.  If you don't have any spanned clips, then by all means, upgrade now.  CS6 offers some major improvements.  (And some annoyances, but overall still well worth it.)

[UlfLaursen]

Jim, wich format would you recomment trancoding to if one would choose this?

Thanks

Ulf

[excited_Genie16B8]

UT files.  It's a free, lossless codec you'll have to install yourself.  But they play nice with Adobe software, so it's OK

[UlfLaursen]

Thanks Jim - will get it 🙂

Ulf

[Nancy_sWorld]

Jim,

Please forgive my stupid question. How can I install UT codec on PP CS5.5? I am tired of losing quality when I render native AVCHD file into anything else in PP's list of formats. Specifically, the problem is uploading to Youtube, which degrades quality beoynd belief. I tried all the combinations of formats/codecs and not yet happy with anything. Can I install UT codec to PP 5.5? Can I render/export final project in this codec? Once again, sorry for naive questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[excited_Genie16B8]

Download the codec and run the executable.

However, the files will likely be FAR to large for a YouTube upload.

[Nancy_sWorld]

Wow, you are fast! Thanks! I am willing to try large files, I am just sick and tired of YT degradation. YT does not play well with AVCHD native files. Any other suggestions on the best formats/codecs to export AVCHD files? I used to like .m2ts in Sony Vegas Pro, but PP does not have quite the same format.

[John T Smith]

I think this Lossless Codecs http://forums.adobe.com/thread/875797 has links

[Nancy_sWorld]

Thank you!

[UlfLaursen]

Nancy

I'n not Jim but I have played with it too.

You dwnload the installer, and install it on the PC whenyou export you find the codec under AVI files ad you chose the UT codec.

I think it is pretty fast to encode, the files are not huge, and the quality is good

Ulf

[Nancy_sWorld]

Ulf,

Thank you! I am hoping I found what I have been looking for a long time now! Thanks for the fast responce!

[Nancy_sWorld]

I will shoot another question. Does replacing PP composition with AE compositions (plus applying filters) degrade quality? I never noticed so, but know I wonder...

[excited_Genie16B8]

That would depend on the filter.

[Nancy_sWorld]

Mainly RedGiant Looks, which I could use in PP, I just prefer some text options in AE more.

[excited_Genie16B8]

Well, the grain option of that effect would cause a loss of quality, but then that would be the desired outcome of using it.

[Nancy_sWorld]

Thanks, Jim. No grain used. Just basic exposure/gamma/color contrast etc. Anyways, going to try out UT codec today. Thanks again for all the help! 

[BlueScarecrow-VQhbmI]

AVCHD files will never be supported by Adobe until it becomes profitable. Until then they will spin and dance and tell you your computer processor is too slow, or you don't have enough ram or you have the wrong operating system or you have to transcode or buy some more software or hardware... Just like Avid.

I lost thousands of dollars with Avid and wound up throwing my Avid Media Composer in the garbage. Funny... there it seemed to fit fine.

Complacency and greed killed Avid and now it looks like complacency and greed have their sights on Adobe.

Remember: There is a season for all things.

[Kevin-Monahan]

BlueScarecrow wrote:

AVCHD files will never be supported by Adobe until it becomes profitable. Until then they will spin and dance and tell you your computer processor is too slow, or you don't have enough ram or you have the wrong operating system or you have to transcode or buy some more software or hardware... Just like Avid.

I lost thousands of dollars with Avid and wound up throwing my Avid Media Composer in the garbage. Funny... there it seemed to fit fine.

Complacency and greed killed Avid and now it looks like complacency and greed have their sights on Adobe.

Remember: There is a season for all things.

I wish you could see how hard we are working on this problem. When there are issues affecting a lot of our customers, we definitely know about it. If that issue is taking a long time to fix, know that there are often times other parties holding up the show. On behalf of Adobe, I apologize that this problem is persisting. We hope to find a fix as soon as possible.

[Keith Moreau]

Kevin, thanks for your post. Wow, I posted this 7 months ago and the spanned AVCHD problem still isn't fixed in CS 6? That's incredible. Tell me I'm misinterpreting your answer.

Thanks much!

-Keith

[Kevin-Monahan]

Keith Moreau wrote:

Kevin, thanks for your post. Wow, I posted this 7 months ago and the spanned AVCHD problem still isn't fixed in CS 6? That's incredible. Tell me I'm misinterpreting your answer.

Thanks much!

-Keith

Hi Keith,

As an editor that came into the world of software engineering, yes, it is incredible how long things take to fix, change, or upgrade. As I mentioned, sometimes there are road blocks that we have no control over, so that takes more time. This is on my Top Issues list, meaning that it is a top priority for the community. Again, I'm sorry this issue is affecting so many of our users.

[BlueScarecrow-VQhbmI]

Hope? Hmmmm.

I was hoping to make a career for myself in video production. I invested 10 years and thousands of dollars in Avid and got the same runaround that's evident on this forum. Everytime the software crashed Avid told me to buy something else; that same thread is evident here also.

For a huge conglomerate like Adobe, with all of it's resources, to sit back and hope to find, wish to discover or stumble across a solution is absolutely unconscionable.

The thousands of people that have invested in Adobe need a little better treatment than that.

Ps.

Along time ago I wished out loud in front of my Grandmother.

My Grandmother told me... "Wish in one hand and spit in the other; and see which one fills up the fastest.

God... I love forums.

[Kevin-Monahan]

BlueScarecrow wrote:

Hope? Hmmmm.

I was hoping to make a career for myself in video production. I invested 10 years and thousands of dollars in Avid and got the same runaround that's evident on this forum. Everytime the software crashed Avid told me to buy something else; that same thread is evident here also.

For a huge conglomerate like Adobe, with all of it's resources, to sit back and hope to find, wish to discover or stumble across a solution is absolutely unconscionable.

Pardon me, I didn't mean to say we hope to find a fix. We have a fix. We are just waiting for third-parties to fix their stuff, so we can fix our stuff. Let's hope it gets into an update or CS Next. In the mean time, yep, file a bug report: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish