The trial download is the same version (1.0h) as the latest version i've got, so if it doesn't work for you, there may still be a problem. In another thread someone wrote that they had problems with full hd video (1920x1080) while thin raster (1440x1080) worked ok. Which resolution did you try?

Btw: Upshift's output is HDV / MPEG2, which will fast import if the right bitrate etc. are selected. But it is still long-gop material, so you won't be able to create quicktime reference files from your sequences without transcoding (qt.ref files can't reference long gop media). If your workflow relies on reference files you might be better of transcoding to DNxHD / MXF in the first place. On the other hand you will need to transcode less footage if you're only transcoding the sequence and not all source material...

macjaeger:

The trial download is the same version (1.0h) as the latest version i've got, so if it doesn't work for you, there may still be a problem. In another thread someone wrote that they had problems with full hd video (1920x1080) while thin raster (1440x1080) worked ok. Which resolution did you try?

Btw: Upshift's output is HDV / MPEG2, which will fast import if the right bitrate etc. are selected. But it is still long-gop material, so you won't be able to create quicktime reference files from your sequences without transcoding (qt.ref files can't reference long gop media). If your workflow relies on reference files you might be better of transcoding to DNxHD / MXF in the first place. On the other hand you will need to transcode less footage if you're only transcoding the sequence and not all source material...

I have had problems with 1920 x 1080; have yet to do 1440 x 1080, however.  You've written that MC can fast import if the right bitrate, etc. are selected.  What settings are you using?

I may quote myself from your previous thread http://community.avid.com/forums/t/73011.aspx :-)

macjaeger:

In an other thread someone wrote that he also had problems with the full HD resolution but managed to do it in thin raster (1440x1080). I'm also usually running thin resolution, as that's what our first generation AVCHD cameras use. Here are some specs I had success with:

Source files are AVCHD (Sony) 1440x1080 / 50i (PAL) @ 15 mbps.

Conversion with Upshift to 50 Mbps, const. Bitrate, Keyframe 1, GOP Size 1, Interlace as Input (this is preset "Low Speed / High Quality").

Fast Import to MC as DNxHD-TR 120, project settings are 1080i/50, thin raster.

With older versions I had trouble because the audio part wouldn't be found or had wrong length, but your problem is just "not fast importing", right? I guess this might be caused by a mismatch of project setings and Upshift settings.

Upshift for me certainly seems to be erratic. With two out of five thin-raster files, it will do a conversion that Avid rejects. Try again, replace the existing files and it stands a good chance of producing acceptable files for import. So, still looking for the definitive answer. So far, conversion via Sony Vegas seems to be the most repeatable method. The problem is just the time it takes! Cheers, Stu.

macjaeger:

I may quote myself from your previous thread http://community.avid.com/forums/t/73011.aspx :-)

macjaeger:

In an other thread someone wrote that he also had problems with the full HD resolution but managed to do it in thin raster (1440x1080). I'm also usually running thin resolution, as that's what our first generation AVCHD cameras use. Here are some specs I had success with:

Source files are AVCHD (Sony) 1440x1080 / 50i (PAL) @ 15 mbps.

Conversion with Upshift to 50 Mbps, const. Bitrate, Keyframe 1, GOP Size 1, Interlace as Input (this is preset "Low Speed / High Quality").

Fast Import to MC as DNxHD-TR 120, project settings are 1080i/50, thin raster.

With older versions I had trouble because the audio part wouldn't be found or had wrong length, but your problem is just "not fast importing", right? I guess this might be caused by a mismatch of project setings and Upshift settings.

 

I tried the settings recommended by Macjaeger and they worked on a test file made at 1440 x 1080; they did not work on a file made at 1980 x 1080.  I have written New Blue asking if they know the cause of the problem and if there is a solution.  It seems to me that MC is very picky on what it imports.  Maybe that's a good thing; maybe a bad thing.  I don't know.  It is frustrating however.

On the subject of AVCHD I have a question.  My camera produces a series of files, I seem to recall about 2 gig each.  To make the full video the files have to be joined.  Does the breaking of the video into a series of files create timing issues or other issues when the files are recombined?  Or, can I disregard the multi-file issue as a potential problem in dealing with AVCHD?

stu.mccoll:

Upshift for me certainly seems to be erratic. With two out of five thin-raster files, it will do a conversion that Avid rejects. Try again, replace the existing files and it stands a good chance of producing acceptable files for import. So, still looking for the definitive answer. So far, conversion via Sony Vegas seems to be the most repeatable method. The problem is just the time it takes! Cheers, Stu.

Stu,

Are there any factors shared by the UpShift files that are accepted by Avid and not shared by those that are rejected (size /duration, action material vs. non-action material, first files converted vs last files converted, for example)?  Since you write that files tend to be accepted if reconverted by UpShift, I am guessing that there is not.  Have you tried importing a "bad" file a second time?  The problem could lie with MC just as well as with UpShift.  From what I have read on the board and seen through my own experience, MC will not accept 1980 x 1080 HD files created by UpShift.

I have been generally pleased with Adobe's Media Encoder.  And, HDMI import via a Black Magic capture card using Black Magic's capture utility has been promising though I have gotten some dropped frames (which I believe to be caused by the lack of processing power possessed by my dual core machine).

Avid MC _is_ picky about the file formats it can fast-import, i guess that is because the "fast import" is only re-packing the mpeg2-stream into a MXF container. Earlier versions of Upshift didn't work with my Sony AVCHD footage at all (or, to be more precise: MC couldn't import the files, while other NLEs could). I talked to Newblue about the problem, and they came up with version 1.0h (the latest one at the moment), which finally did the trick - for our specific type of AVCHD clips (mostly thin raster clips from first generation Sony HDD-Camcorders).

Try talking to Newblue about your specific Clips, probably they'll further evolve their tool - after all, it claims to handle any AVCHD material...

Of course it may as well be a limitation of MC, not being able to fast import full-hd HDV material. Maybe some Avid expert could shed some light on this?

Wm Warne:

Are there any factors shared by the UpShift files that are accepted by Avid and not shared by those that are rejected (size /duration, action material vs. non-action material, first files converted vs last files converted, for example)?  Since you write that files tend to be accepted if reconverted by UpShift, I am guessing that there is not.  Have you tried importing a "bad" file a second time?

William, the files are all derived from the same shoot, same camera, same memory card, shot within minutes of each other. The camera is Sony's pencilcam HXR-MC1P recording 9Mb/s at 1440x1080i.

I have tried to re-import the faulty files before re-Upshifting them and the import fails.

I have observed that Upshift sometimes "completes" the file conversion in a second (the trial version only converts 10 secs worth) and other times takes around 13 to 14 seconds for the 10 second output clip. It's mainly the "instant" files are the ones that do not import, although two that took the longer time also do not import.

If Upshift can have a repeatability, its speed of conversion, which, on a 10 second output, looks like around 130% of real-time, makes it the application we have been looking for (we are receiving 16 hours per day of media to ingest). The image quality also looks fine. Using Sony Vegas, the best we get is around 3 times real time!

This sounds like in your case the problem could be specific to the trial version - in all my tests with the paid version my results were reproducable, no randomness there.

If you like you can send me (some of) your clips and i can testdrive them through Upshift.

Matthias, it would appear that you are right about the problem relating to the trial version. The files I was trying to convert had groups of files in them that were from the same take, since the camera breaks each take down into contiguous 2GB files for storage on the FAT32-formatted card. So, although they looked like totally independant files, Upshift saw them as coming from the initial start-of-shoot file and followed the rule of only ten seconds from each file (take).

I have purchased the full version and have no such issues! The conversion quality looks better than the Sony Vegas route when imported into Avid with DNxHD120. I'm delighted! Many thanks for providing the solution to my AVCHD woes!

Thank you for your posts.

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stu.mccoll:

I have purchased the full version and have no such issues! The conversion quality looks better than the Sony Vegas route when imported into Avid with DNxHD120. I'm delighted!

I'm glad to hear that! Just to clarify: are you shooting in thin raster (1440x1080) or full raster (1920x1080)? At least some other users have reported issues with full hd material, and as we're going to invest in one or two additional avchd camcorders I'd really like to know if Upshift works with full hd as well. I'd hate to implement yet another workflow besides Upshift, after we finally have one straight forward tool to do the job...

[edit]

Sorry, I just re-read the full thread and now I know that you've been using a thin raster pencilcam...

GabeTe wrote the following post at 05-25-2009 12:20 AM:

So far I'm using TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress to DNxHD and works fine.

I was just looking at that product but I don't see any support for output to DNxHD.  Will it definitely do that?  I've heard converting the AVCHD files to DNxHD is better quality than converting to virtual P2.  Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Sorry, but your post is from 2009-05, now is 2010-11 and there's no way to ingest from hdmi to avid with an affordable hardware like blackmagick intensity pro, except we migrate to FC or Premiere.

AVCHD is not a complex format, it's exactly the opposite, it's developed to have a fast compressor and a fast decompressor, it's developed for surveillance, that's the reason it works as it works, and is a non destructive compresor, it's not as the compresors we're used to deal with.

Sorry but I don't believe what you're saying in 2009-05.

Is it possible that now i can continue using Avid?

Thanks, it's a hard thing to have to migrate to Tragical Cut.

I'm not sure what you mean about AVCHD being developed for fast compressing and decompressing. It is a form of MPEG-4. It was developed to minimize the file size at the expense of complexity. It takes far more horsepower to compress and decompress than, for example, MPEG-2. Also, I-Frames are usually much further apart in AVCHD. Nevertheless, it would appear that products such as Premiere running on today's hardware have no problem importing and displaying AVCHD on the timeline... Haven't tried with MC - I'd probably still go back to transcoding it to DNxHD just to make color grading and other operations smoother.

*** edit ***

Just tried with MC 5.0.3.6 - opening an AVCHD MTS file simply imported and converted it to DNxHD 120...

Was hoping that an AMA import would work but not yet... maybe next release.