Solved Rendering HD files

A few weeks ago I purchased a Panasonic HC-X920M camera. It can do 1080/50P (1920x1080/50P Also it will do 1920x1080/50i AVCHD is the file system
I am in the video business doing transfers of 8mm movie film. I have worked out how to convert the .MTS files made by the new camera to MPG2 files suitable for DVD Architect.

Many customers now want their 8mm movie films for viewing in High Definition eg. using a portable Hard drive. Having captured one of these movies I open the High Definition file on the Vegas 13 Timeline. The file has an extension: .mts. Having made some colour correction adjustments etc. I now want to render this file.
I can't find a rendering template that keeps the .mts files in the .mts format. Smart rendering is not working either. Every frame is being rendered which is time consuming. I still want to stay with the highest definition for the customer so they can view on their big LED television.

(a) What rendering template should I look for?
(b) Should I go for progressive (50p) or interleaved (50i) bearing in mind that 50p delivers the highest quality?

Hi Hans

#1. I don't think anyone in the film restoration business would be copying 8mm film to 50fps or 60fps video frame rates.
24fps, 25fps or 29.97fps would be the standard frame rates suitable for film conversion, since that would be the original frame rate the film was recorded in.
If you tried to capture film at a high frame rate, I would imagine it could produce weird ghosting effects. It would also destroy the "film look" and make the video look too unnatural.

#2. 1920x1080-50p or 1920x1080-60p is designed for capturing high speed activities like sport or for doing Smooth Slow Motion effects in your video editing program.

#3. I don't understand why so many people are seemingly allergic to using Blu-ray discs - the disc format specifically designed for 1080 HD video storage.

#4. Forget about trying to keep the same file extension your camera uses. Most final videos never use the same format the camera recorded to.

#5. Open up the Sony AVC/MVC Render As templates. In here you will find AVCHD options which you can manually customize. You can select a higher Frame Rate and also select a higher Bit Rate to render to.

#6. For viewing on a Smart TV and using USB storage device, you can render to the same format I just mentioned above or use one of the Internet 1080p templates under Mainconcept AVC/AAC or Sony AVC/MVC.

Regards
Derek.

Hi Derek: Very useful information. Went with Sony AVC/MVC render. Under this, there is a template for PAL (AVCHD 1920x1080) which works with 25fps.

I played back the file from this clicking on the TV button in Vegas 13. Small amount of jitter when panning. As you know I recently had my whole system updated for HD. Got the same file - copied it to ADATA 8 GB memory stick. Plugged into smart TV - file was not recognised and could not play it (I have experienced this in the past).

Copied file to ADATA portable HD - this time smart TV played it back without a problem. It looks like my smart TV (panasonic 50") does not like data sticks.
Another thing I found is that playing back a file directly to smart TV gives real smooth playback. I discussed this with a friend in our North Island (also a video producer) and he finds the same with his set-up.

Anyhow, thanks for your efforts!