MP4 & MOV file import/playback issues with MEP 2014 Premium

Metallica4Life wrote on 8/27/2014, 10:14 AM

Hi everyone, I have recently bought a new PC in the hope of it helping my return to video editing, and to easily edit Full HD 1920x1080P footage and exporting for creating professional blu-ray's.

My PC Spec :

Windows 7 64-bit Professional
AMD A8 3.9Ghz Quad Core (can overclock to 4.2Ghz)
1TB Harddrive
8GB Crucial 1600Ghz DDR3 RAM
Radeon HD6450 2GB Graphics Card (arrives this week)
Pioneer BDR-TD04 External Blu-Ray writer (arrives this week)

Camcorders :

Panasonic HDC-HS300 (AVCHD 4.0 @ 17mbps)
Toshiba Camileo X400 (MPEG4 @ 6-8mbps)
Speed HD-120T (MOV. @ 6-8mbps)

Now the problem I have been having is importing MOV. & MPEG4 footage into the timeline,
as it just causes the program to crash/freeze. I have yet to receive my Panasonic AVCHD camcorder,
it should be arriving tomorrow, but it should be fine importing the AVCHD files.
What I decided to do is convert the MOV. & MPEG4 files into AVI-HD 1920X1080P 30fps @ 12mbps files,
however I would much rather not, as it would be time consuming.
Is there any codecs that MEP2014 can use to import/playback these file types?

Also when it comes to exporting to create a Blu-Ray disc at highest quality (25GB SL), does the software use smart rendering for the main export in preperation for the Blu-Creation software?
I used to just edit/export my master files as AVI uncompressed using MEP16+ and using Sony DVD Architect 5.0 to create my DVD's, only using the MPEG-2 codec at the final stage.

Any advice/help would be much appreciated,

kind regards,

Dan.

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 8/27/2014, 1:59 PM

Looking at the computer spec there are, IMHO, a couple of issues -

You need to at least double the amount of RAM you have - 8GB is not really enough for HD editting
HD6450 2GB Graphics Card - on my old computer I have had a significant performance hit using a 2GB graphics card - I found a 1GB card better.

. . . . What I decided to do is convert the MOV. & MPEG4 files into AVI-HD 1920X1080P 30fps @ 12mbps files, . . .

Not necessary - MEP supports MP4, AVCHD, MOV files are supported providing you have Quicktime installed.

I would also recommend fitting a second hard drive to hold all the video files and to render to.

With video from two or more cameras in a project it is best to ensure that the recording framerates (fps) interleave setting (progressive, interleaved top field first and interleaved bottom field first) are the same on all cameras.

This avoids issues with 'pull down' which usually exhibit as 'jerkiness' particularly in panning shots or were there is across screen movement where you have different framerate and de-interlacing artifiacts when mixing interlaced and progressive video.

. . . . exporting to create a Blu-Ray disc at highest quality (25GB SL), does the software use smart rendering . . .

Yes if you turn it on in the program settings (Video/Audio tab) and it is necessary.

. . . . I used to just edit/export my master files as AVI uncompressed using MEP16+ and using Sony DVD Architect 5.0 to create my DVD's, only using the MPEG-2 codec at the final stage. . . . .

Not necessary to export MEP handles everything for you, the exception being some programmable actions eg return to Chapter menu after playing a chapter selected from a Chapter menu page

HTH

John.

Metallica4Life wrote on 8/27/2014, 3:09 PM

Hi there John mate,
thank you very much for the great advice! I was already considering adding an extra 8GB thankfully,
and thats great about the Smart rendering option, didnt realise it was in the menu settings,
I shall take a look and select it. To be honest I never really used to trust such a setting as I always thought it would re-render the master and mess with compression etc.. so I'm glad its there to use.
I have an old external 250GB USB 2.0 harddrive that I'll be using a little, but wont be archiving much,
only essential projects, but I will be of course adding to the 1TB in near future.
I only ever shoot in 1080 Progressive, so I'm hoping that all my footage shall be fine in terms of frame-rate/motion playback, shall be using the multi-cam feature to likely fine tune/match contrast/balance etc..
Thats also cool about the exporting to Blu-Ray authoring stage, Ill just have to place my faith in the software, as Ive never authored a project from it before, but this newest premium version is awesome!
I'm little concerned over your comment regarding the graphics card, as Ive already ordered the 2GB model, with the assumption that more is better in regards to the 1GB increase, so I just hope the onboard GPU works well with this 2GB card, as it does state it will do, so I will just have to pray it does!

Thanks again John, you've been great help, cheers!

Metallica4Life wrote on 8/27/2014, 3:13 PM

Just a quick sidenote too John,
I happened to download the latest version of Quicktime earlier today in the hopes that it would solve my MOV. playback issues, but sadly it didnt, so I am at a loss there. However I have already begun to convert my first HD project from MPEG4 into AVI-HD (1080P @ 29.97fps, 16mbps) and they playback fine for editing, so may well use this method for the MOV. files I encounter too. Thanks again.