Re: Questions about editing AVCHD (.mt2S) file in Vegas

Hi John! Thanks for the information, I was out of town for a few days....

I have read your reply a few times, and tried to render a short clip into various format as you suggested in the Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11. Here is a few questions hope you could help me a bit again... :)

(1) After I installed the Cineform codec, the Vegas 11 finally let me render the file into Cinform AVI. But the clip is only a 15sec file (original .mts file is only about 50mb, and I also rendered into .m2t as comparison.), and I was surprised that the resulting .m2t became about 55mb, but the Cinform AVI file became 500mb! So that means the cinform AVI file would take up about 2G per min?!....

this is the detail spec I used when rendering....

for the .m2ts:
output type: mpeg-2
1920X1080, frame rate: 29.97,
B-frames: 2 (don't know what this mean)
Filed order: upper filed first
Variable bit-rate with average at 25m/bps

for the Cinform:(I am actually just use the default setting)
1920X1080, frame rate: 29.97,
Pixel aspect ratio:1
interleave every .25 sec
render alpha channel
Encode format: YUV:4:2:2
Encode Quality: Filmscan1 (it has "low, midiem, high, filmscan1, filmscan2, keying" as possible choice)

(2) Many file type has a "Field Order" option, and it has "none-progressive scan, upper field first, lower field first". Does it makes any different which one I choose?

(3) In regarding to the bit-rate. My Canon HFM40 can take HD at max of 25m, but it said something about this kind of file can not be saved into an AVCHD discs, so I have been using the second highest bit-rate to shoot my video, which is 17m. In your previous message, you mentioned about the format I want to render into, the bit-rate should be at least the same as the original. My question is, setting it at the same rate is enough, right? If I set it at higher than the original, what would it help since there is no additional info in the original anyway?

Also, they usually let you chose to have constant bit-rate or variable bit-rate (with the average as the bit-rate that I want). Is there any difference I choose constant or variable?

(4) I have herd people saying the .mts, .m2t, and .m2ts files are all the same, is it true?

Because I saw the selections under "render as", there is a MainConcept MPEG2 format(creats .m2t files), and also a Sony AVC/MVC format that creats .m2ts files (this one produce a slightly smaller file). I am wodering if I am saving some of the files back to these format after simple cutting only (I tried to save as both, and the results are visually almost the same as original), does it matter which one I choose?

Thanks very much for your help!