AV Un CC de AM rsta n W din or g kfl ow

Editing AVCHD with Pinnacle Studio Ultimate version 12

when it counts

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................... System Requirements .................. Transferring AVCHD Footage To Your Computer.............. Copying AVCHD Footage To A Hard Drive............. Transferring AVCHD Footage Directly From The Panasonic AG-HMC70 Or AG-HMC150 AVCCAM Cameras To Your Computer......................................... 3 3-4 4 4 5

Editing with Pinnacle studio Ultimate version 2 .................... 6

Importing Your AVCHD Footage............... 7

Output options........................................................................................................... 11
Output To iPod Or iPhone............... 11 Output To YouTube.............. 13 Output to an AVCHD Disc.................. 15 Output To A Blu-ray Disc ............... 19 Output To A DVD Disc................ 22-25

The AVCHD Workow archiving...................................................................... 26

Archiving To Hard Drive.............. 26 Archiving To Blu-ray Disc............... 26 Archiving To Inexpensive SD Cards ................ 26 Archiving To Digital Linear Tape................ 26

INTRODUCTION TO EditinG avchd with pinnacle studio ultiMate version 12

This paper will discuss a typical AVCHD workflow for editing with and output from Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12. This is one of the easiest and most comprehensive AVCHD editing systems available on a Windows based PC. Besides editing the native AVCHD footage, we will examine various ways you can output your footage to an AVCHD disc, Blu-ray, or even a Standard DVD disc. We also look at alternative delivery such as iPod and You Tube. In addition, archiving options including copying your content onto a hard drive, Blu-ray, Standard DVD discs or even back to an SD card are presented.

system requirements for pinnacle studio ultimate Version 12

Minimum System Requirements:
NOTE: Items highlighted in Bold are recommended for importing, editing and exporting HD footage in the AVCHD format Windows XP SP2 (SP3), Windows Vista (SP1) Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon 1.8 GHz (2.4 GHz or higher recommended) Intel Pentium HT or AMD Athlon 2.4 GHz or 1.6 GHz Dual core required for Windows Vista Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz or higher required for 1440x1080 AVCHD editing Intel Core2 Quad 2.66 GHz or higher required for 1920x1080 AVCHD editing 1 GB system memory recommended 2 GB required for AVCHD, recommended for HD and/or Windows Vista DirectX 9 or 10 compatible graphics card with 64 MB (128 MB or higher recommended), 128 MB required for Plug-ins (for Magic Bullet Looks: Pixelshader 2 required, Intel GMA integrated graphics not supported; for VitaScene with HD: 512MB recommended) - 128 MB required on Windows Vista (256 MB or higher recommended) - 256 MB required for HD and AVCHD DirectX 9 or higher compatible sound card 3 GB of disk space DVD-ROM drive to install software Optional: CD burner for creating VideoCDs or Super VideoCDs (S-VCDs) DVD burner for creating DVD, HD-DVD and AVCHD discs on standard media Blu-ray burner for creating Blu-ray discs Sound card with surround sound output required for preview of surround sound mixes Capture Options: Import from AVCHD camcorders (requires USB 2.0 and a UDF driver) Output Options: Output to DV, HDV or Digital8 tape (requires camcorder with FireWire Input port and a PC with a DV/FireWire port) Output to analog videotape (requires DirectShow compatible video device or video card with TV-output) Output to Apple iPod and Sony PSP formats

Import Formats: Video: AVCHD, DV, HDV, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DiviX, MPEG-4, 3GP(MPEG-4), WMV, Non-encrypted DVD titles Audio: MP3, MPA, WAV, AC3 Graphic: BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX, PSD, TGA, TIF, WMF Export Formats: Video CD (VCD) or S-VCD with optional CD burner (CD-R or CD-RW) AVCHD, Blu-ray BD, HD-DVD, DVD disc with optional disc burner (incl. dual layer) Apple iPod and Sony PSP compatible (MPEG-4) formats DV, HDV, AVI, DiviX, RealVideo 8, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Flash, 3GP, WAV, MP3 files Dolby Digital 2 channel and 5.1 channel audio

TransferrinG AVCHD footaGe to Your CoMputer.

When you are ready to transfer your AVCHD footage from your camera to your computer, the easiest method is to simply remove your SD card from the camera.

KEY POINT # - COPY PROTECT YOUR SD CARD.

Your SD card has a small little slider on the left hand side of the card. Push this slider down to write protect the data on your card. This is a critical step to protect your footage before you insert the SD card into your computer.

Many PCs have a SD card slot. If this is the case, simply insert the SD card into your computer. Some PCs do not have a SD card slot. In this case, use a SD-toUSB reader/writer like this one.

Just insert your SD card into the reader and connect it to a USB port on your computer. It will appear as a hard drive volume on your computer. You will now be ready to open Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 and begin editing native AVCHD right from the SD card! There is no need to transcode!

CopYinG AVCHD footaGe to a hard drive

STEP #1 MOUNT THE SD CARD ON YOUR COMPUTER.
Many people prefer to copy their footage to a hard drive before editing. This frees up the SD card so that you can immediately use it again. Many PCs have SD Card slots. If so, just insert your SD card. If your PC does not have a SD card slot, use the SD-to-USB reader. Once your SD card is mounted on your computer, it will appear as a removable hard drive under my computer (on a PC).

STEP #2 OPEN THE SD CARD FILES.

In either case, open up the hard drive. You will see a folder named Private. Simply drag and drop that folder to your hard drive. It will then copy all your footage. Do not try to copy from any other folder.

transferrinG avchd footaGe DirectlY froM the Panasonic AG-HMC70 OR AG-HMC150 AVCcaM caMeraS to Your coMputer.
You can of course, transfer your AVCHD footage directly from your camera. The next few steps will show you how to do this. Unfortunately, this ties up your camera and precludes you from shooting with it while you are transferring. Note: AVCCAM cameras do not have a Fire Wire output, only USB.

Step 1 connect Your Panasonic caMera via a USB cable to Your coMputer.
Note: You will need to also connect your camera to an AC power supply.

Step 2 - turn the caMera to the PC on position

On the AG-HMC70 camera this is accomplished by moving the record button to PC.

On the AG-HMC150 camera you must push the mode button on the back of the camera. The light will change from Cam to PB for playback, push again and the PC light will turn on.

STEP #3 TRANSFER THE FILES.

The camera will appear as a hard drive on your computer. Simply copy the contents of the Private Folder as shown earlier. You will now be ready to open Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 and begin editing.

editinG with Pinnacle studio ultiMate version 12

STEP #1 - OPEN STUDIO 12 ON YOUR COMPUTER.

STEP #2 - SAVE YOUR NEW PROJECT

It is a good idea to Name and Save your new project right here at the beginning. Click Flie>Save Project As

STEP #3 - NAME YOUR PROJECT AND SAVE IT TO A LOCATION

Note: Three tabs reside at the top of the screen: 1 Capture, 2 Edit, 3 Make Movie

KEY POINT #2 - WHEN WORKING WITH AVCHD IGNORE THE 1 CAPTURE TAB.
With AVCHD footage, we are not capturing, we are transferring files. Capture is for tape-based cameras. So, ignore it. File Transfer is so much faster!

IMPORTING YOUR AVCHD FOOTAGE INTO PINNACLE STUDIO ULTIMATE VERSION 12

Lets assume that you have removed your SD card from your camera and you installed it in your computer via SD Card slot or SD/USB reader. This is the faster path to editing AVCHD. As noted before, you could have copied your card contents to a hard drive. The import process is the same. You just need to point Pinnacle to where the AVCHD files are located. There are two ways to get your AVCHD footage into Pinnacle so you can start editing.

STEP #1 - IMPORT YOUR AVCHD FILES.

File>Import Media from Device

Or

STEP #1A - CLICK ON THE IMPORT ARROW.

Click on the arrow in the show videos screen, which will also import media from device

STEP #2 - CHOOSE WHICH CLIPS TO IMPORT

Your AVCHD clips will appear. Note: You might have to point Pinnacle to the location by clicking on the drop down menu at Source. As you can see below, these files are at drive I, which is in fact the SD card slot on this computer. Note: on the right side of this window, you can also rename the clip from the confusing 00097.MTS. In this case, we have highlighted a number of clips to import to our project. Obviously, you could import all clips or just selected ones. When you are ready to import, click on Import

Note: The time required to import will depend on the number of clips chosen and the speed of your processor. This window will show you the status of the import.

STEP #3 CLIPS APPEAR IN SHOW VIDEO SECTION Your clips will appear as thumbnails in the show video section.

STEP #4 SCROLL THROUGH PAGES OF CLIPS BY CLICKING ON NEXT PAGE ARROW

If you have a number of clips you will need to scroll through the various pages. Just click on the next page arrow, which is highlighted below.

STEP #5 DRAG CLIPS TO TIME LINE

Simply click on a thumbnail and drag it to the time line. You can trim your in and out points right on the time line.

STEP #6 EDIT NORMALLY.

At this point, you are editing your native AVCHD footage just like you would any other project in Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12. Naturally, you can add transitions, music, sound effects and titles.

For more info on editing with Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 please visit the Pinnacle website at: http://www. pinnaclesys.com/ and then click on Support.

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Output options
When your editing is finished Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 gives you a host of options to output your project to different media. But no matter which output you choose, start from with the Make Movie tab.

STEP #1 - CLICK ON TAB 3 MAKE MOVIE

Output to iPOD or iphone

Here are the steps to output your movie to play back on an iPod or iPhone.

Step #1 Click on The File icon

On the left of the screen are icons for disc, file, tape and web output. Click on File

STEP #2 click the file tYpe and pick ipod froM pull down Menu and select Your preset for video qualitY Step #3 Start by clicking on Create File

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Step #4 decide where to store THE MpeG-4 file

Name your output file and tell Pinnacle where you want to store it.

Step #5 watch proGress bar

You can monitor the process by watching the progress bar at the bottom of the viewer window.When finished, your file can be added to your library in iTunes and the movie can be displayed on your iPod or iPhone. Note: You would use the same process to export your files to Flash, Real Media, Windows Media, Sony PSP and various flavors of MPEG. All are available from the File Type Drop Down menu as discussed in Step #2 above. Then proceed with the other steps as illustrated.

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output to You tube

You might want to share your movie with the world on YouTube. This is easy to do. Note: You must, of course, have a YouTube account in order to upload your movie. Also remember that YouTube specifies that your movie be less than 10 minutes in duration and smaller than 100MB. YouTube will accept the following formats: .AVI, .MOV, .WMV and .MPG. To prepare your movie for YouTube uploading follow these simple steps.

STEP #1 - CLICK ON TAB 3 MAKE MOVIE

Step #2 Click on The WEB icon

On the left of the screen are icons for disc, file, tape and web output. Click on Web.

Step #3 Click on You tube

From the drop down menu Upload to this Web Site, click on YouTube. Select your video quality from the Preset drop down menu. When you are ready click on the Create button at the bottom left.

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STEP #4 NAME, DESCRIBE AND SELECT CATEGORY

When the Web Upload screen appears you should name and write a description of your project. Also, include tags so that more people can find your masterpiece on You Tube. Finally select a category.

When finished click on Continue.

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STEP #5 SIGN ONTO YOUR YOU TUBE ACCOUNT.

For more information on uploading videos to You Tube, please visit www.youtube.com

output to an AVCHD Disc

Creating an AVCHD disc allows you to burn your high definition footage onto a Standard DVD, using the much less expensive blank DVD-R media. Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 allows you to take advantage of this cost savings. Note: you are limited to 20 minutes of AVCHD footage on a DVD-5 disc and approximately 40 minutes on a DVD-9 disc and the resultant disc must be played on a Blu-ray player, such as the Panasonic DMP BD35K (or equivalent). Check to see if your Blu-ray player supports this format.

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STEP #1 - CLICK ON TAB 3 MAKE MOVIE

STEP #2 CLICK ON THE DISC ICON

Step #3 Click on AVCHD

From the drop down menu Disc Type, click on AVCHD Disc. Select your video quality from the Preset drop down menu. Then click on Create disc button.

Step #4 Select destination for Your disc iMaGe file

Then press ok

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Step #5 watch Status window and proGress bar

You can monitor the process of your AVCHD Disc burn by watching the status window

and the progress bar at the bottom of the viewer window.

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When your disc is finished, the status window will show the following and your AVCHD disc is ready to be viewed.

Since your AVCHD Disc must be played on a Blu-ray player, we recommend the Panasonic DMP BD35K (or equivalent).

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Output to a Blu-RaY Disc

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 makes it very easy to take your finished project to a Blu-Ray disc. Note: if you want menus on your disc, these are created under the 2 Edit tab during the editing process.

STEP #1 - CLICK ON TAB 3 MAKE MOVIE

STEP #2 CLICK ON THE DISC ICON

Step #3 Click on BLU-RAY

From the drop down menu Disc Type, click on Blu-ray Disc. Select your video quality from the Preset drop down menu. Then click on settings button.

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Step #4 set your settings

Decide disc type, quality, compression and your burn options and click on ok.

STEP #5 CLICK CREATE

Click on the Create disc button at the bottom left. Note: to burn a Blu-ray disc, you must have a Blu-ray burner and Blu-ray media.

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Step #6 Select destination for Your disc iMaGe file

Then press ok

Step #7 watch Status window and proGress bar

You can monitor the process of your Blu-ray Disc burn by watching the status window

and the progress bar at the bottom of the viewer window.

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When your disc is finished, the status window will show the following and your Blu-Ray disc is ready to be viewed.

To play back your Blu-ray movie, we recommend the Panasonic DMP BD35K Blu-ray player (or equivalent).

output to standard definition dvd

Even though you have shot your material on high definition and edited it in HD, you still might need to down convert it to standard definition to show your movie. AVCHD footage will make dazzling standard definition DVDs. Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 can easily make a Standard Definition DVD from your AVCHD footage. Note: if you want menus on your disc, these are created under the 2 Edit tab during the editing process.

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STEP #1 - CLICK ON TAB 3 MAKE MOVIE

STEP #2 - CLICK ON THE DISC ICON

Step #3 Click on DVD

From the drop down menu Disc Type, click on DVD. Select your video quality from the Preset drop down menu.

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Step #4 Select destination for Your disc iMaGe file

Then press ok

Step #5 watch Status window and proGress bar

You can monitor the process of your Blu-ray Disc burn by watching the status window

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and the progress bar at the bottom of the viewer window.

When your disc is finished, the status window will show the following and your DVD is ready to be viewed.

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The AVCHD Workflow archivinG

Once your project is finished, you will want to archive your High Definition AVCHD footage. A number of options are available at this time, depending on your budget and how long you want to keep the footage. KEY POINT #3: THE SECRET TO SUCCESSFUL ARCHIVING OF ANY FILE BASED MEDIA IS REDUNDANCY AND MIGRATION. Make multiple copies and move your data as technology advances.

archivinG to hard drive

The quickest and least expensive way to archive your AVCHD footage is to copy your files to a hard drive. This is accomplished in the same way as copying any other data to a hard drive. Copy the Private Folder of your AVCHD to your drive. The key thing to remember is that you want to check that you have enough hard drive space. A number of manufacturers make inexpensive USB hard drives. I suggest copying to two different hard drives (See redundancy note above). Also, these hard drives should not be considered permanent long-term storage. The lubricant in hard drives will dry out over time. Create a regular schedule to move your data to newer hard drives (See migration note above).

archivinG to blu-raY disc

To archive to a Blu-ray, you will basically be making a Blu-ray ROM data disc. To do this, you will need a Blu-ray burner, Blu-ray media, and follow the steps to create a Blu-ray DVD-ROM disc. Remember in order to retrieve your data from this archive in the future, you will need a Blu-ray drive. Keep your eye on how technology advances and migrate your data to new storage technology as needed.

archivinG to Standard DVD discs

Although DVD-R media is technically not specified as archival media, you can archive your data onto standard DVD discs. Since these discs do not hold large amounts of data, this is very time consuming and requires a lot of discs. Remember, in order to retrieve your data from this archive in the future, you will need a DVD drive.

archivinG to inexpensive sd cards

As the price continues to drop on SD cards, they are now becoming a viable archival media. Simply copy your data onto the SD card, label the card and store it. Remember in order to retrieve your data in the future, you will need some way to read the SD card.

archivinG to DiGital linear tape (DLT)

If you have to store your footage for a very long time and want absolute confidence in your archival media, do what financial and medical institutions have been doing for years, back up your data on Digital Linear Tape. This is a more expensive option than those listed above, but it is time tested. A number of companies, such at Quantum (www. quantum.com), make DLT tape drives and media.

SIMPLE, QUICK, flexible AND INEXPENSIVE! That is The AVCHD PRO editinG workflow.
Please see the AVCHD WORKFLOW ACQUISITION White Paper. You will find that shooting and transferring AVCHD material is again simple, quick, flexible and inexpensive. About the Author: Bernie Mitchell is an Emmy nominated Producer/Director, a Multimedia Person of the Year and member of the DVD Association Hall of Fame. He is president of Silver Platter Productions, Inc. and Panasonics AVCHD Evangelist.

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