AVCHD to DVD for use in PS3

[J-Dub]

Newb here...

I have a Sony HDR-XR500V camcorder and I am looking to take the HD videos I have and burn them onto a standard DVD (still in HD). I already have a DVD burner and since DVDs are cheap, that seems like a good way to go. From my searching it seems that this can be done but the lower capacity DVDs just won't support 2 hour long movies, that is fine for me. I want to create short HD home movies that I can be viewed on a PS3. I have found that the PS3 will support AVCHD, which is what my camera creates, so here is my question. If I want to do any editing of the AVCHD files I believe I will have to buy a software package (like Vegas or one of many others available) to edit the AVCHD files before burning them to the DVD? Of course it would be nice to also have the ability to create a menu, this probably also requires the additional software package?

Appreciate the help.

JW

[DeadDog]

I don't know if you have a PC or a Mac but for my Mac I got Toast. You can only do basic editing (cut out parts, shorten length, etc.) but it creates a Menu and will burn the .mts files to a dvd and the PS3 reads them just fine. Everything is still in great looking HD.

I found that most other programs have issues with having to convert the HD files to SD before editing. Toast seems to work best if your not looking to do a lot of heavy editing. Hope this helps.

[J-Dub]

I have a PC.

I have been able to convert to SD without issue, I think I have that part down.

Thanks for the info.

JW

[red_5ive]

AVCHD is spec'd for DVD media, so as long as the final result is in AVCHD format with an m2ts container it should work just fine, in which case you will also need dvd burning software that supports UDF 2.5 or greater.

[plee]

If you do plan on editing then Vegas is the one of the least expensive packages out there. One thing to remember, editing AVCHD will require some decent CPU when it comes to re-encoding it back out.

[J-Dub]

OK, so I did ask in haste. I was able to use the PMB software that came with the video camera to manipulate the videos (cut to length) and able to burn a DVD with AVCHD files. I was also able to create a menu and it was all pretty easy. I am going to head over to a friends house to test on a PS3, I am optimistic everything should go smoothly (in HD).

Sorry for the dumb questions and thanks for the help.

I have been using this PMB software for a few weeks now and it has been a huge bonus for me to have, it justifies the camera price (a bit). I like the way it analyzes all of the previous pictures I have on my PC and displays them in a calendar view.

EDIT: Oh, and I did all of this on my laptop T7500 2.2Ghz Core 2. It took about 20 minutes to encode (or re-encode?). Other than the encoding everything was pretty quick.

[J-Dub]

Hey I just wanted to say that everything went really smooth, as in it worked. I played the standard DVD with the AVCHD files on the PS3 successfully. The video appeared to be HD to me, the quality appeared to be excellent by my untrained eye. I am not sure how to tell how good the quality is (technically) but I assume it would be equivalent to a BD???

Again, sorry to ask before I tried but figured I would update the thread in case anyone else is looking for this information.

Cheers,
JW

[kevinbr100]

Originally Posted by J-Dub

Hey I just wanted to say that everything went really smooth, as in it worked. I played the standard DVD with the AVCHD files on the PS3 successfully. The video appeared to be HD to me, the quality appeared to be excellent by my untrained eye. I am not sure how to tell how good the quality is (technically) but I assume it would be equivalent to a BD???

Again, sorry to ask before I tried but figured I would update the thread in case anyone else is looking for this information.

Cheers,
JW

yea you are right, the quality is identical, the only difference is you get considerable more space on a bluray disc. also fyi you can plug your camera directly into a ps3 via usb, and play the files from your camera, you can also put the files on a computer running a mediaserver across a network, and play them via a ps3 that way as well.

[red_5ive]

Originally Posted by kevinbr100

yea you are right, the quality is identical, the only difference is you get considerable more space on a bluray disc. also fyi you can plug your camera directly into a ps3 via usb, and play the files from your camera, you can also put the files on a computer running a mediaserver across a network, and play them via a ps3 that way as well.

This is how I play my AVCHD discs. I just pop the disc in the PC and stream it using PS3 Media Server. After my first PS3 died, I've been too scared of it happening again and losing a family video having to send it in for repair. If my dvd drive dies, big deal I'll pry it open and buy another one for < $40.

[lildon24]

I use freeware program called tsmuxer or multiAVCHD.. all it does convert all your AVCHD files to mts or mts2 without re-encoding and it takes about less than one minutes. And then you can burn them to blank DVD as Data Disc DVD by using program like Nero or ImgBurn and your PS3 can play it natively.

[lildon24]

every video frames on your AVCHD DVD are the same as what u seen on your camcorder. 1080p to 1080p, 1080i to 1080i, 720p to 720p. not matter what... u can also convert 1080p/1080i to 720p.

if u want to use Video editing program, If u got a Mac use Final Cut Pro.

if u got a PC , use Avid or Sony Vegas 9.

if u on a low budget go buy Cyberlink's Power Director 9

[cj-kent]

The problem with editing HD 1080i video is that it typically has to be rendered back out. And if you're doing that in AVCHD format the encoding times can be horrible if the clip is even of modest length - especially on a PC (no offense). So be sure to allocate time in the evening for rendering. If you have a Mac (and you should if you're going to do HD video editing on a regular basis), you should get Final Cut. However, that program does cost around $1300. There is a cheaper version called Final Cut Express that will handle HD content equally well, but doesn't have all the bells and whistles Fin Cut Pro has. You could try that out. But let me reiterate - BUY A MAC!! Best of luck to you.

[MovieWolf]

Had some great avchd and they played fine in our new sony 570 bluray player....
then firmware update last night killed that.....
any ideas?
Im SUPER PISSED!!!

[highdefw]

My workflow starts with capturing footage in hdv using a canon xha1. Then I import and proceed to edit and tweak using Final Cut Studio. After that I export my final uncompressed video/movie. Depending on the size, I will split where necessary. Finally I simply drop the footage into toast and burn onto a dvd under the avchd format.

P.S. Depending on the footage, if it is converted properly, you don't even need to burn the footage if you have a ps3. If your video is h264 and audio is under the AAC codec in an mpeg4 container (.mp4), you can drag your video onto a flash/hard drive and that will load instantly on a ps3.

To test it out, download a 1080p trailer from trailers.apple.com, then using quicktime, export the movie to mp4. Set the video and audio as "pass through". It should only take a couple seconds to convert.

Hope this helps.

[oudinmelanie09]

if you wanna to burn MTS to DVD, firstly you you have to convert the MTS files to MPEG and then use DVD burner to burn it on DVD.

the MTS converter which i use is Aunsoft MTS Converter,it can convert MTS files to other common MPEG, AVI,MP4,MKV and ect. directly.

Good luk
Oudinmel

[sophiamake]

1.convert the MTS files to MPEG
you can use the Brorsoft MTS/M2TS converter to convert the MTS files to MPEG, i use ir for long time ,very good
2.use DVD burner to burn it on DVD

hope it can help you .