Here is an example of extremely useful error message from Corel Video Studio Pro X2. I thought only Windows BSOD messages were this useful.

By the way, if you think there are software out there that can handle all sorts video formats for HD, Corel Video Studio Pro X2 is not one of them. But it definitely can do thigs out of the box as long as you are not expecting to tinker with profiles and such. All I did in this case was to import an existing profile, change one attribute (audio) and try to use it. Oh, and to create or update the profile, you need to run the application as administrator. That’s right. It doesn’t save your custom profiles under your profile folders.

Two days ago I installed the latest edition of Corel VideoStudio, the Pro X2. I have this first generation HD Camcorder, the Sony HDR-SR1 with lots of videos on it. I tried to convert one of the videos that is about a minute long and was recorded in 30 fps 1080i (1440×1080). It took almost 5 minutes to convert it in to WMV HD with strereo audio.

I played the converted video and noticed clear skipping of frames. I had used the same dimensions and fps for the ouput but the input and output were not showing the same kind movements. People were almost jumping from location to location. I tried coverting to 1080p but the output was limited to 1440 pixel wide as was in the input. I guess scaling requires a lot more resources at this resolution and they did not implement it.

So far I have downloaded and tried Ulead MovieStudio Plus 11, Cyberlink DVD Suite and Nero 7 Ultimate Enhanced. Every one them has options to edit and burn AVCHD but none would work. I used videos from Sony HDR-SR1.

Ulead errors out with unspecified error unless you have small clips. It allowed me to convert up to 2 small clips of less than 5 minutes in length. If you select more it consistently errors out. But so far this is the only product that was able to create HD-DVD files and disks even though in small clip sizes.

Cyberlink has options but would not even recognize the file types. Don’t even go there.

Nero is much easier to use. If it worked, this would be the best product because it is so intuitive to use. I opened Nero Vision and imported the clips and went ahead and tried to create files on to hard disk. It goes to the screen where it says preparing to record. It took about 600 MB of memory and very high processor usage for about an hour. During this period I could not do anything else. So, I left it open overnight. In the morning I checked and the system was still not responding. The application would not even close. I had to restart the computer. After coming back from work today, I tried with a single clip that was about 3 minutes long. Same effect. I restarted the computer after 30 minutes of hog.

Right now I downloaded Sony Vegas 7.0e which is supposedly AVCHD enabled. But I have no plan to buy it because it is too expensive. I will test it and post my results here for others who are willing to buy. I am not a professional reviewer, so don’t read too much in to my posts. These are just my experience with very complex software with not much of documentation. Note that Sony Vegas MovieStudio Platinum which is cheaper did not have any AVCHD option.

Here is an update on Vegas 7.0e. The image speaks for itself.

Here is another one.

More…

Here is the image of memory usage by Vegas 7.0e while rendering AVCHD in to WMV.

Sony is such a poor software maker. First off, they did not have software to edit the AVCHD stuff that comes out of their HD Camcorders. I heard that Sony Vegas now supports AVCHD editing. Based on my experience with all the crap I got from Sony’s software division, I would not pay money to buy it. How many of you had bad experience with bundled software that comes with Sony Vaio laptops or Sony computers? I had many and that is how started installingclean Windows XP on all my computers. All outsourced crap I think.

This is another one. The tools come with Sony HDR-SR1 can convert AVCHD to mpg files. The problem is, it won’t play in Windows Media player. There is a ton of mpg files on my hard drive from other tools, mostly converted from AVI files and they play in WMP just fine. After almost 6 months of having this camcorder, I am still frustrated.

http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm

If you have Camcorders like Sony HDR-SR1 and newer models you may want to look at this one.

I recently purchased the new Sony HDR-SR1 camcorder from Sony. It comes with a software installation disk. This is the only software that can handle the format used by this camcorder – AVCHD. This software is not compatible with Windows Vista. There is a bunch tools the installer will install on your system. Many of them will install fine. Sonic UDF reader will outright fail to install. Sony handycam utility will install without any problem but will not function. When you try to run, an empty message box with one button that says nothing will popup.

I have no clue what this message box is trying to tell me. I am going back to Windows XP to do my camcorder stuff – there is nothing much you can do with AVCHD at this point, but just upload it to your PC – and then come back to Vista for other things because I like to work on Vista.

See one of my earlier post on this subject for more details.

One of my new toys for this holiday season is a new HD Camcorder from Sony, the all new HDR-SR1. Many features on this camcorder are new. It is a 1080i HD camcorder. It has a 30 GB hard drive. It also records in AVCHD format. What the heck is this AVCHD format? Turns out that this is a new format developed by Sony and Matsushita, the parent company of Panasonic. Fine. Now I would expect there be some software available from Sony to do some kind of editing for this format. Not yet. No one has support for editing this format as of today. Most of the video editing software that I downloaded and tried does not even recognize the files generated by the camcorder.

I looked around and found that there are some workarounds available to get this converted to WMVHD. I am not convinced about that because the links never worked. Here is what Sony says about the support for this format in leading Video Editing Software (not the high end kind). Sony Vegas also will not support AVCHD until 2007 spring.

Sony says PS3 can play the DVD/Blue Ray disc created by the burning program supplied with the camcorder. May be another reason to buy a PS3

I hope Microsoft will start supporting this format in xbox 360 or Zune software so that I do not need special software to handle this and can view it on my HDTV using xbox 360. Some expert on another blog said you need Windows Vista to watch your video on HDTV using xbox 360. Well, you don’t. All you need is Windows XP with Windows Media Player 11 or Zune software. I can view all my pictures and Videos including high definition (WMVHD) and play music using the Windows Media Player 11 on xbox 360. It would be nice if I can get support for AVCHD in xbox 360 through some mechanism.

Update: I have seen many people claiming that TMPGEnc 4.0 Express can open the files generated by the Sony HDR-SR1 camcorder. I don’t think that it is the case. From my initial tests it did not open the m2ts file. Here is a screen shot. I will post more details if I am able to get it working somehow.

Update 7/7/7: I have posted a bit more information about how to convert and burn AVCHD here. As of this writing the software are not that good. I am hoping that they will fix those issues in the coming months.