need nowto reduce hd avchd to decent SD, (color problem)

[rockyj]

My mts AVCHD home videos are huge. I used 'format factory' experimenting with converting to lower size but it seems the first frames or start of the video have bad color problems.

Being a newbie I could use some pointers or links on how to make smaller shareable files from my HD's. Maybe a faq. I seem to have missed it here if it is on site.

TIA

[Ghitulescu]

AVCHD uses one of the best compressions available.

I wonder why would one shoot in HD just to convert into SD, when SD camcorders are way cheaper than the HD ones?

According to the recording modus, it may go up to 17 (or 24) Mbps, which amounts to around 100-150MB per minute, or 6-8 GB per hour. Is that huge?

[yetanotherid]

AVCHD uses one of the best compressions available.

I wonder why would one shoot in HD just to convert into SD, when SD camcorders are way cheaper than the HD ones?

It seemed fairly self explanatory.
"I could use some pointers or links on how to make smaller shareable files"

rockyj,
There's lots of software which will convert the files for you, all with various learning curves, but the first question would be what format are you trying to convert the files to?
Given you're converting the files in order to share them do you have a preferred output format? DVD, AVI, MP4 etc?

It's a bit hard to know why you were having colour problems with the first few frames but some converting software will allow you to select only parts of the video to convert, so is skipping the first few frames an option?
AnyVideoConverter is another all-purpose converter similar to Format Factory. In the mean time you might want to give it a try. There's a free version available on the website (you'll find it with Google). But post back with some more information if you can.

[rockyj]

Huge for uploading or emailing.
I see 23MB for a 17sec clip which I see is in the range Ghit said.
so about 162 MB for 2 minute clip at DSL upload peeds is almost an hour (dsl upload is quite slower than download).

I have no preferred format to convert to mainly because I am not familiar with the best to use. You'll have to tell me what you think is most acceptable for downsizing. I figured the psychedelic lead in frames may be a common problem that is possible to fix. I didn't know. I'm somewhat dangerously familiar with audio compression using previous and post frames to compress the current frame and the use of leadin 0's for compressing the startup but I don't know much at all about video.

I'll try the AnyVideoConverter, to see if that handles the startup frames better. thanks

[yetanotherid]

The format you'd use would generally depend on how the person receiving the file will play it. If it's just on a PC something like AVI containing XviD will probably be the safest (well converting to a Windows Media format would be the safest but you'd probably go to hell for it) followed by MP4 containing h264. The latter will give you smaller sizes for a given quality. Being HD you'll need to reduce the resolution to help reduce the file size. How low you want to go will depend on how small you want the file to be.

So try AnyVideoConverter, use it to reduce the resolution as well (a width of 640 or less might be fine for emailing) pick an output format and see how you go. If the files are still too big reduce the resolution and/or the bitrate etc. Post back if you need further help.

[rockyj]

oops yetanotherid, I was a bit misleading.
I did try AnyVideoConverter and it does fine but FormatFactory wasn't the problem in the first place.

I had converted all my mts files to m4v with handbrake for my iPad and I had used the m4v file for the conversion. The orginal recorded mts file converts ok. Apparantly the compression or conversion from the converted and compressed file was the problem.

Anyway thanks for the suggestions and I like AnyVideoConverter better for now. I'll play with them both in the suggested format. I can now easily downsize from 23 to 5 MB and probably do better than that and keep a decent clip.

[yetanotherid]

If you're familiar with Handbrake then HDConvertToX or MeGUI are both worth trying. I mainly suggested AnyVideoConverter as it's a more "click and convert" program, similar to Format Factory.

I guess you're familiar enough with it all to get the results you're after.

Have Fun.

[setarip_old]

@rockyj

Hi! need nowto reduce hd avchd to decent SD...I could use some pointers or links on how to make smaller shareable files from my HD'sThe most "universal" format for sharing SD video is standard DVD. Therefore, I'd suggest to you that the simplest solution would be to use MultiAVCHD...

[rockyj]

any video converter doesn't seem to handle my files. There are the AVCHD lite used by panasonic. They double the framerate by just doubling the frames and I think the converter is not handling it but format factory seems to handle it ok.

[Ghitulescu]

Google for AVCHD lite and you'll find plenty of guides ;) and answers.