Jerky AVCHD Video in PE7

I have a Panasonic HDC SD5 HD camcorder and have imported AVCHD footage into PE7. The camcorder video quality and the and PE7 project settings are aligned at the 1440/1080 PAL settings. My computer is a duo core with 2 Gb Ram.

My problem is that the play back after importing into PE7 is jerky and therefore impossible to edit. Yet I have loaded the same footage in Studio 12 and the HD Writer program provided with the camera and playback and edit is fine in both those programs. I have also tried it on another computer and got the same result. This seems very strange!



I am comfortable with PE7 and love its usability and would really like to be able to advance to editing in hi def - previously I have been converting the AVCHD to SD mpeg2. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Jerky AVCHD Video in PE7
Adobe states you must have a quad core processor with 4 gig of ram to edit AVCHD. I have an i7 processor with 6 gig of ram and when I edit AVCHD videos the sound cuts out and the time line doesn't show all the video frames. I also have a 512 meg video card. I feel sorry for those with less power as it is probably painfull to edit AVCHD.
Jerky AVCHD Video in PE7
Thanks Paul. These specs from Adobe are prohibitive for an entry level program. I cant fathom how the other 2 programs seem to handle things OK and Adobe doesnt.

Paul %26amp; Michael,

I have been having the same problem that Michael describes. After reading Paul's post, I just went back to Adobe specifications page and it states that a dual core processor and 2 GB ram are required for AVCHD. Paul, where did you get the information on quad core and 4 gig ram? I am running a dual core 2.5GHz with 4 gig ram and it is impossible to edit AVCHD because of the jerky display.

Ron, Sorry I was looking at the faqs in this forum instead of the official spec requirements. http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b699a8/8



I did though try to run the app on a dual core laptop and it was just too jerky which is why I got a new computer. Some people though may have not have that issue. It may be the video drivers...

I think the recommendations in are FAQs are much more ''real world'' than Adobe's minimums, by the way, Ron.



The challenge is that Premiere Elements edits hi-def in its native video rather than with an intermediary codec.



Did you see Robert's method for tricking Premiere Elements into proxy editing? it's in the FAQs at the top of this forum.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b726ee



Also, there is software that will convert AVCHD to less intensive, traditional HDV.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b78d01

Thank you both for your imput.

Hi All,



AVCHD editing is a tough job for every software. AVCHD files are very complex streams and just having a strong processor with overloaded RAM might not give you perfect results at times. it is also required a well maintained system which is defraged consistently and keep good amount of free disc space. also if any high memory/CPU consuming app. is running is background, must get rid of it. I think it will take some time for hardware and software support to b strong enough.



thanks

Daniel

As has been mentioned, AVCHD is tough. Unlike DV-AVI, it uses the CPU (extensively), RAM and the system's I/O (hard disks and controller, basically). If any one of these is weak, playback will take a major hit. Most other formats rely on the I/O most heavily, but this one, you need ''beef'' in all quarters.



Even with a Quad-core, and 4GB's RAM, if one is working from, say a single HDD, they STILL may not get good playback. Multiple 72k RPM physical disks, setup properly with a good controller (SATA II with multiple chips is good), will also help. Having the media on a RAID (setting depends on what one wants from a RAID, and the number of disk in the array) will likely help, also.



Unfortunately, AVCHD is being touted as a ''consumer'' format. However, the smooth editing of it requires more than a ''consumer'' system, or a workaround. That is a big difference and a big ''gotcha'' for many.



When I make the move to HD capture and editing, it will be with dual Quad-cores, 16GB RAM (64-bit OS, probably Win7), and tons of HDD's with media on a RAID 50 controller card. Not an inexpensive system, to be sure, but one that will easily handle all forms of HD material.



Hunt

I'm with Michael! I have a more powerful PC and am trying out PE7 for editing 1920x1080i 25 PAL. I have just posted a problem on the forum https://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b7aa93/14

It seems that AVCHD is not something that can be edited even on a high end PC, at least with PE7. Please tell me I'm wrong!

I can edit AVCHD on a low end computer using PRE7. The limitation is that I can load only about 20 minutes of it on the timeline and I can only use transitions that are simple.

With my Quad core PE7 will start to struggle on projects of an hour. This is generally not a problem for me as most of my projects are 30 minutes or less. For these projects PE7 works flawlessly with even heavy effects.

I had a quad core (QX6700) system with an Asus P5NE-SLI motherboard, and it would not edit 1920x1080 AVCHD clips smoothly. I upgraded to a newer core-i7 CPU and motherboard/memory and now it edits fine. But even with a Quad Core Core2 series processor, my older computer, which was still pretty fast, could not edit 1920x1080 AVCHD clips smoothly. It would handle 1440x1080 AVCHD clips fine, but would often slow to a slideshow with the 1920x1080 clips.



So you do need a fairly fast processor when editing AVCHD clips, even an older quad core might not be enough.