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Sony PMB output formats?

post #1 of 15
3/31/10 at 7:34am
Thread Starter 
I'm a AVCHD newbie seeking help; about to purchase a new Sony cam.

I learned that Sony PMB software can produce mpeg2 but does anyone know what the resolution is? I found a Japanese website that just says "SD format".

Sorry if this has already been posted but I've already spend a few hours on Google and AVS but haven't found the info I need.

Thanks in advance!
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post #2 of 15
3/31/10 at 1:04pm
From all that I have seen you can convert AVCHD using pmb to mpeg-2 or wmv. There are 2 settings for mpeg-2, (high quality), and (standard). I have no idea what that translates to in resolution...sorry. WMV is VGA conversion, 640x480.
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post #3 of 15
3/31/10 at 1:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elai1108 View Post

I'm a AVCHD newbie seeking help; about to purchase a new Sony cam.

I learned that Sony PMB software can produce mpeg2 but does anyone know what the resolution is? I found a Japanese website that just says "SD format".

Sorry if this has already been posted but I've already spend a few hours on Google and AVS but haven't found the info I need.

Thanks in advance!

Stray thought - this was essentially a "what?" question without a "why?" explanation. You might get more advice if we knew what the goal was here...
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post #4 of 15
4/2/10 at 1:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Gull View Post

Stray thought - this was essentially a "what?" question without a "why?" explanation. You might get more advice if we knew what the goal was here...

Appreciate the advice.

The goal is to convert the native M2TS file to HD MPEG format (1920x1080 if possible) for PC viewing and upload to Youtube. I've read about Tipard M2TSconverter and it looks like it will do the job, but if PMB can do the job then I can save a few bucks.

Thanks!
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post #5 of 15
4/2/10 at 4:58pm
Sorry, PMB doesn't support any conversion to HD on any file formats, though they do have a "publish to YouTube" option (don't know if it is HD, but I doubt it).

There are many options for converting AVCHD files to a format that can be uploaded/viewed with more modest PCs, including some free ones (example: Live MovieMaker on Windows7, Expression Encoder + some free codecs, etc) if you're not looking for anything fancy.
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post #6 of 15
4/2/10 at 6:01pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ericjut View Post

Sorry, PMB doesn't support any conversion to HD on any file formats, though they do have a "publish to YouTube" option (don't know if it is HD, but I doubt it).

There are many options for converting AVCHD files to a format that can be uploaded/viewed with more modest PCs, including some free ones (example: Live MovieMaker on Windows7, Expression Encoder + some free codecs, etc) if you're not looking for anything fancy.

Thanks very much for your help!
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post #7 of 15
4/2/10 at 7:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elai1108 View Post

Appreciate the advice.

The goal is to convert the native M2TS file to HD MPEG format (1920x1080 if possible) for PC viewing and upload to Youtube. I've read about Tipard M2TSconverter and it looks like it will do the job, but if PMB can do the job then I can save a few bucks.

Thanks!

Got it. I can help a bit with that. Note that I have PMB 4.2 that came with the CX500V and PMB 5 comes with the CX550V, so it may have additional features.

1. PMB itself has two menu choices for conversion:
a. Convert to WMV and Save...
b. Convert to MPEG-2 and Save...

2. It also lets you trim an AVCHD clip at both ends and saves it in the same format.

3. You can also open a clip in external software (it presumably passes the file name as an argument to whatever you invoke).

4. I think it can also take HD video and create an SD DVD from it - that is, it can downconvert HD to SD, but this may only be to disk.

You should be able to go to this link which is the online PMB support guide.

http://guide.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/pmb/100_06/4200/us/

There are instructions for converting down the page, but they don't give details on the resulting format's resolution etc.

Now the good news that someone taught me a few weeks ago. Some but not all of your Sony AVCHD clips will upload straight to YouTube with no prior conversion. I have successfully uploaded about 10 clips. Once uploaded, YouTube will create four versions and make them available: 1080p, 720p, 480 and 360.

What I found is that the M2TS clips of up to about 125MB-150MB in size upload pretty reliably. Once you get towards the upper end of that size range, the uploads tend to fail pretty reliably, or the upload itself "succeeds" but the file fails to process.

I used to routinely use an NLE editor (Corel's VideoStudio) to re-render my clips in 720p format, which uploaded successfully but had some deinterlacing artifacts at times. Now, for those M2TS clips that fail to upload directly due to their size, I convert them to MPEG-4 HD format in the Corel software, and those seem to upload reliably up to the YouTube size and time limits. Note that the YouTube processing of anything at 1080p takes longer than a clip uploaded at 480 or 720p.

So short clips upload unedited OK - for longer clips, you may need conversion software if you're trying to upload full HD, or maybe the MPEG-2 or WMV conversions in PMB would work fine if you are OK with uploading lesser resolutions.

I used to always try to watch clips at their highest resolution, but YouTube can be slow even on a fast PC with a fast Internet connection. So I find myself watching a lot of clips at the 480 (non-HD) setting even though 1080p versions are available. If you care about a clip a lot, you'll want to make sure it posts at full resolution. If not, you might be able to get away with using the AVCHD as is for small uploads and maybe PMB to WMV or MP2 otherwise. Don't take that last as a statement of fact, though . It may work but I haven't tested those conversions.
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post #8 of 15
4/2/10 at 7:05pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Gull View Post

Got it. I can help a bit with that. Note that I have PMB 4.2 that came with the CX500V and PMB 5 comes with the CX550V, so it may have additional features.

1. PMB itself has two menu choices for conversion:
a. Convert to WMV and Save...
b. Convert to MPEG-2 and Save...

2. It also lets you trim an AVCHD clip at both ends and saves it in the same format.

3. You can also open a clip in external software (it presumably passes the file name as an argument to whatever you invoke).

4. I think it can also take HD video and create an SD DVD from it - that is, it can downconvert HD to SD, but this may only be to disk.

You should be able to go to this link which is the online PMB support guide.

http://guide.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/pmb/100_06/4200/us/

There are instructions for converting down the page, but they don't give details on the resulting format's resolution etc.

Now the good news that someone taught me a few weeks ago. Some but not all of your Sony AVCHD clips will upload straight to YouTube with no prior conversion. I have successfully uploaded about 10 clips. Once uploaded, YouTube will create four versions and make them available: 1080p, 720p, 480 and 360.

What I found is that the M2TS clips of up to about 125MB-150MB in size upload pretty reliably. Once you get towards the upper end of that size range, the uploads tend to fail pretty reliably, or the upload itself "succeeds" but the file fails to process.

I used to routinely use an NLE editor (Corel's VideoStudio) to re-render my clips in 720p format, which uploaded successfully but had some deinterlacing artifacts at times. Now, for those M2TS clips that fail to upload directly due to their size, I convert them to MPEG-4 HD format in the Corel software, and those seem to upload reliably up to the YouTube size and time limits. Note that the YouTube processing of anything at 1080p takes longer than a clip uploaded at 480 or 720p.

So short clips upload unedited OK - for longer clips, you may need conversion software if you're trying to upload full HD, or maybe the MPEG-2 or WMV conversions in PMB would work fine if you are OK with uploading lesser resolutions.

I used to always try to watch clips at their highest resolution, but YouTube can be slow even on a fast PC with a fast Internet connection. So I find myself watching a lot of clips at the 480 (non-HD) setting even though 1080p versions are available. If you care about a clip a lot, you'll want to make sure it posts at full resolution. If not, you might be able to get away with using the AVCHD as is for small uploads and maybe PMB to WMV or MP2 otherwise. Don't take that last as a statement of fact, though . It may work but I haven't tested those conversions.

Thanks very much Tom! This is VERY helpful. I'm going to pick up a CX500V soon so I'm sure I will have more questions shortl!
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post #9 of 15
4/3/10 at 9:06pm
I have done this and I can say that when recorded in widescreen mode it will convert the file to mpeg 720x480 at just over 9mbps. Which is the same as if you were recording in SD. I have not done non widescreen but I would assume it will convert it to 640x480. WMV convertion quality is very bad and not even worth doing IMO.
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post #10 of 15
4/4/10 at 12:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elai1108 View Post

Thanks very much Tom! This is VERY helpful. I'm going to pick up a CX500V soon so I'm sure I will have more questions shortl!

You're welcome. Also, in case you don't know this already - if you want to check out the camcorder manuals before you have the cam itself, all of them can be downloaded from the Support section of the SonyStyle website. Just go to your model and there will be a link to manuals, instructions, marketing spec sheets, etc. I read the 550 manuals all the way through when I was trying to see how it differed from the 500.
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post #11 of 15
4/13/10 at 8:22am
Thread Starter 
Hi Tom,

Just want to let you know I received my 500V last week and have been very impressed so far. I had originally considered buying the 550V but could not justify the extra $400 investment (I got the 500V for $700).

I shot some footage of my 3-yr old daughter, transferred to PC, uploaded to YouTube and copied it to PS3 for viewing. The process was smooth overall; PMB is a nice tool. Watching the clips on my 52" Sony LCD TV, the image quality is noticeably superior to my previous cam (HDR-HC3 MiniDV). The color and detail is simply magnificent! I also love being able to watch/delete clips on the cam without tranferring to PC; this completely eliminated my concern with "wasting" valuable tape space for footage that I may not want to keep later.

I want to thank you for all the help you provided; it really made the purchase/learning process so much easier.

The only issue I've run into so far is playing back clips in PMB. The playback is very choppy/stuttering. It's possible that my PC is under-powered but I would appreciate any insight you might have. Perhaps a setting is incorrect?

Thanks again!
E-
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post #12 of 15
4/13/10 at 3:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elai1108 View Post

The only issue I've run into so far is playing back clips in PMB. The playback is very choppy/stuttering. It's possible that my PC is under-powered but I would appreciate any insight you might have. Perhaps a setting is incorrect?

Try playing the files in slideshow mode and see if that helps. What is your comp. specs?
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post #13 of 15
4/13/10 at 4:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BeagleEyes View Post

Try playing the files in slideshow mode and see if that helps. What is your comp. specs?

Thanks for the tip.

My desktop is an old Dell (5+ yrs old); no desire to upgrade right now since I have a more powerful/current notebook that will take its place in the near future.

Dimension 8250
P4 2.4Ghz 533fsb
768MB PC1066 RDRAM (non-ECC 16-bit)
80GB Seagate 7200RPM
BFG GeForce 6600GT OC AGP 128MB
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post #14 of 15
4/13/10 at 4:55pm
From the manual

P4 2.8Ghz min 3.6Ghz or faster recommended

Core Duo or Core 2 Duo 1.66Ghz or faster recommended

memory

win XP 512mb. 1Gb or more recommended

win vista 1Gb or more

So your definitely underpowered. Slideshow mode probably won't help much. I have about the same age Gateway system with P4 3.2Ghz with 1GB mem and even mine struggles slightly. And they are not worth upgrading. I plan on replacing mine sometime this year.
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post #15 of 15
4/13/10 at 9:22pm
You should try to use Mirillis Splash Lite to playback those files, it might do a better job than PMB for playback.

It's completely free and a very nice and simple player: http://www.mirillis.com/splash.html
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