There is considerable loss of quality. DVD video becomes "jumpy" and sometimes sticks. Tried to convert file to AVI but programme crashes part way through the process. Have tried converting 5 minute sections and have the same problems. Now have 2 hours of video clips that may have to be re-edited in another programme! Not happy!
I am using Movie Edit Pro 16 Plus and my camera captures MTS video (AVCHD).
When I import any of these videos Movie Edit Pro 16 Plus prompts me a message stating that the video is basically very resource intensive, therefore it may playback with a certain amount of studder or jerk as it will more than likely over tax my system. It offers me the option to convert to AVI, which sometimes I do. To me, the quality loss is acceptable.
None of what I burn or edit comes out jerky, it is very smooth and I am pleased with the results. Perhaps there is more going on within your system then you may be aware of, maybe another editing software has caused some conflict with the codecs, there are numerous things that could be, and should be.
I know that it works for me on both my laptop and my desktop, I do not think the software is faulty.
Maybe you need to close down startup programs, it could be a resource issue if you are crashing.
I have been trying to export m2ts files to mpeg4. Mpeg2 would be much lower quality which negates the purpose of buying an HD camera. Anyway, it doesn't work. The programme crashes after trying for about 30 minutes.
I noticed that when playing the files normally in the editing pane, playback is smooth until a new file has to be read from the hard disk. The solution to that is probably a new SATA III solid state hard disk. I'm not keen to invest £500 in this if the programme still cannot process HD files.