Software to Edit High-Definition AVCHD Videos

Mark R Robertson   |   March 10, 2008   |  

If you are like any other consumer out there who has recently purchased an HD, high-definition camcorder, most of you may have encountered some difficulty downloading and editing your HD video files. Most of the latest camcorders, especially those that record to either SD, SDHC, or Hard-Drive media, are encoded in AVCHD format. Until recently, many of the comsumer versions of editing software applications did not support AVCHD, but now there are a few that are starting to support it and can import AVCHD files directly from popular camcorders. Some can even open and edit AVCHD files already copied to a hard disk.

I recently purchased both the Canon HG-10, which is a high-definition hard-drive camcorder, as well as the Panasonic HDC-SD9, which is a high-definition camcorder available in Japan and records to SD and SDHC memory. Of course, the Canon camara came with Corel software for use with the AVCHD files and the Panasonic camera came with a program offered by Panasonic, and it was in Japanese only. So, I did some experimenting trying to find the right solution to edit AVCHD files on my computer. After trying Corel, iMovie, Sony Vegas 8, and Nero, I tried Pinnacle’s Studio 11 Ultimate software.

The level at which these various software platforms support AVCHD files at this point differs. I have to say that honesly, if you are looking for a program that will support importing, and editing of any AVCHD file, Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate is the way to go for under $500.

Just to give you a little more info, I am running Windows Vista Ultimate on a dual-core, 4GB machine with a NVidia 8800GTX video card, so I shouldnt have any probelms editing files, right? Wrong! Especially with Sony’s Vegas 8. It would accept and open the files that I downloaded first to my computer, however, the preview playback was incredibly choppy and the final export of the converted movie (converted to .mov), was awful, choppy, and missing frames. Sony says support for Panasonic AVCHD is in the works but apparently the problem is that Sony currenty only supports video files taken from its line of camcorders. As a side note, this is the reason that I refuse to purchase Sony products, this is typical and I wish I had not wasted the $99 on the software.

When I opened the AVCHD files into Pinnacle (both files from the Canon and from the Panasonic), I had a wonderful experience and it played back perfectly, exported perfectly, etc…. Couldnt be more happy with it…

The bottom line is that you can use $100 consumer software to work with HD formats — but make sure you have the new versions, and check for the latest updates. The developers are still working to catch up to the new formats (like AVCHD), and to new ways of accessing formats..

All that being said, here is a run down of some of the more popular consumer video editing applications that are starting to support AVCHD files.

  • Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate version provides an end-to-end HD video editing workflow, including native HDV and AVCHD editing ($99). It did the best job of working with AVCHD videos on my system — opening, playing, editing, and exporting with good response. Studio could browse quickly though the AVCHD folder structure, view thumbnails of the clip files, and then click to preview the clips. The interface was very responsive, dragging the slider to scan though the clip, playing fast forward and reverse modes at 2, 4, and 10X speeds, and even resizing the application window while playing video. It also has a handy full-screen playback mode.
  • VideoStudio 11 Plus version supports HD formats including AVCHD and MPEG-2 HD ($129). It would not open individual AVCHD files, but it could import clips from a folder. VideoStudio was a bit sluggish when dealing with AVCHD files. It took seconds to switch between the editing steps.
  • Sony Vegas Studio 8 Platinum supports HD video, including HDV capture and editing ($119). It also supports AVCHD import and edit, but only from Sony camcorders.
  • CyberLink PowerDirector 6 supports high-definition video editing, with the HDV format for capture, editing, and export back to tape ($89).
  • Nero Vision 4 supports HDV and AVCHD editing (part of the Nero 7 Ultra Edition Enhanced suite, $79). It processed HDV files after renaming to .MPG, and played and scanned though AVCHD files.

Here is a good resource for AVCHD information:

AVCHD Information – www.avchd-info.org

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Posted: in Tools & Software
About the Author - Mark R Robertson
Mark Robertson is the Founder and Creator of ReelSEO.com. Mark has had extensive experience in online marketing, particularly in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Local Search, Video Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can follow Mark on Twitter @markrrobertson

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  • James Shearn
    How powerful a computer do I need to edit high-definition video?
  • depends on whether you mean a mac or a pc. I assume that you mean a pc. I have a pc that is about a year old and it works great. You will likely need at least 2GB RAM and a computer that could support Vista, although Vista is not needed. Really it is going to depend on the video card as well. Take a look at - http://www.videomaker.com/article/10482/
  • Thanks for this info, Mark! I have a Sony HD camera and it still is super choppy in Vegas Studio 9!! I will give Pinnacle a try. ;)
  • Will Green
    Anyone knows this solution works or not?
    http://www.avchdediting.com/
    I would like to look for the best software to edit my Sony camcorder videos.
  • Virt
    Lately I had tested the new avc hd editor software of little known Elecard company and I want to say that is the new Word in AVCHD editing software.
  • Tim
    I just purchased a Sony HDR-XR200V and paid a grand for the camera and went with an extended warranty (yeah, I know), and all I wanted was to be able to shoot nice quality video, simple import and simple edit of the video. Did little to no homework on latest video specs, being a former Sony MiniDV users, I just figured I'd get the latest/greatest and I'd be good. Shot my first video today that I wanted to edit and wow, I'm now finding out that there isn't a simple solution to editing AVCHD video? Give me a break. I'm a techie kinda guy, and don't scare easily with this stuff, but dag-nabbit, I just want this stuff to have a simple work flow.

    I have Adobe Premiere 6 and also have (and just installed today) Sony Vegas 8. I'd expect the Premiere would be outdated for HD, and the Vegas seems to work, but I now have to learn to edit in that program. And do I still need a file converter, as in another third-party software to make this all work.

    I know I'm just blowing off frustration, but Lord, why can't this stuff be easier, or am I missing something?
  • Well, this posts is a bit old and might be good to provide an update but I have found problems with AVCHD and especially Sony Vegas. however, I hear that Sony Vegas does work with Sony Cameras. I can tell you that it does NOT work well with Panasonic Cameras, at all... So far, Pinnacle seems to work ok and even IMovie and Final Cut. I even had some success with Premier CS4, but I digress.
  • So Adobe Premeire Pro 4.0 (part of CS4) can edit AVCHD video. It's can't output it in that but there's not much reason to want to. Vegas 9.0 can edit AVCHD video and do a decent job of it (from a Sony HDR SR12) But whenever your done editing it you need to export (render) or output it into something.

    That's where I'm running into trouble.
    Anyway my issue is what format and codec to save the editied output with the best quality.

    See if your going to shoot something in HD 1080iorp at the highest quality you can... you would want to save and maintain that quality through to your 1st print or Master. The problem is what woud that video be?

    Now Let's say I want to use this video and put it onto something... Say a DVD? Say a website? You would need to convert or transcode the video to a new format in order to do so it seems.

    All this is very time consuming. That's the sucky part. Every time you want a new media you need to transcode it.

    So again what's the best video type to save your edited master?
  • Jan C.
    I know what you mean. I have excatly the same problem. I want to be able to a little editing and save it as avchd as a master and then use that to encode to what else uses i have.

    I just have not found anything that could do that yet. All programs i have tested, encodes the video to another format :(

    If i remember correct, the software that comes with the canon can do a little of that, but its just very crappy :(
  • I imagine that when you refer to Master, you are not referring to the file type that you want to save for web use?
  • Paul
    Hi, new player with HD video. I just bought a Panasonic HDC HS300. Thought if I bought top end it might last longer as technology moves so fast. I now know I need a new computer to edit HD video as my current one is to old and slow. Can anyone tell me what I need in a new computer so I can edit HD video. All I want to do is download footage (family videosof kids). Do some minor cutting and then burn onto DVD. I have full HD TV and blue ray player. System I am considering is: Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q8200 / 2.33Ghz , Intel G31 Chipset Motherboard, 750GB Hard Disk Drive (SATA Interface), 4GB / DDR2 800MHz Memory with on board sound/graphic/lan. Paying about $800. Please help?
  • Jan C
    That computer should do just fine. I have a dual core 2.4Ghz and when i tried with only 2GB ram it had trouble, but it seemed to be gone after adding 2GB more. However i bought a new computer i7 and 6GB ram, so i dont have any issues anymore.
  • Mike Peterson
    I have a Sony HDV camcorder and purchased Pinnacle 11 Ultimate and was disappointed that it would not open the files at all. I contacted Pinnacle support and they told me that HDV files from my Sony were not supported. So I wasted $130 on Pinnacle Studio 11 and then ended up buying Sony Vegas Platinum for $140 and it supports HDV video and I have been converted after being a Pinnacle user since version 7 - no more.
  • Ken Robertson
    I have the Canon HG 10 and all I want to do is pull the videos from the camcorder, string all the different "scenes" from one event (vacation, etc.) into one continous video and burn to dvd. I am struggling finding software to do this without having to buy a lot more than I need. I have an HP machine with Vista Home Premium, 64-bit, 2.4ghz and 6 gig RAM. Help

    Ken Robertson
  • Ken, have you tried the software that comes with the camera? Ill tell you what I do and I have the same camera. I plug it in, navigate to the .mts files which are usually in a folder called "streams" and then import those either into pinnacle, or adobe media encoder on a PC. If on a mac (which I see you are not), you can also just import them using imovie or finalcut.
  • cwilliams
    September, 2009. Wow, what a mess. I just went through a week with my new CAnon HFS100 and the much-touted Sony Vegas Platinum 9. In short, pure frustration. By the way--because I dont see this opinion on the forums much--I found the Vegas NLE infuriatingly nonintuitive. Even their DVD burner, DVD Architect, is designed to confound you from the git-go.
    Maybe the problem is that Sony and Canon arent friends--Vegas may function much better with a Sony camera. I dont mind editiing with proxy files but even they played back choppy for me. We're not talking about editing here, just trying to set up a timeline and publish tests.
    My issue now comes down to "Why shoot in high def"? If you like to heavy-edit your projects and put them on DVD, my sense is that AVCHD is not for us at this moment. Simple as that.
    I'm sending my Canon HFS100 back.'That's sad, because it is an absolutely wonderful camera and esthetically beautiful. I'll go back to SD. I have to be able to edit and make DVDs, and with AVCHD--forget it.
  • Honestly, Ive had no problems with AVCHD in the past year. I did find that Sony didnt work for me either. I would also say that I agree that it is entirely counter-intuitive. Unfortunately, so is Pinnacle. As I mentioned above in the post, I found that Sony only could handle sony AVCHD - similar to what you found. What I do nowadays is to copy the raw MTS files to my computer, and then to convert those using either Sorenson or Macromedia Media Encoder to AVI or MP4. Once I have those, Im good to go.
  • Berend Engelbrecht
    I found that the AVCHD support in Adobe Premiere is just not working. The program usually freezes when trying to import an .MTS file (my camera produces 720p AVCHD). The solution is to transcode the file to .m2v video and .wav audio and use that in Premiere. Unfortunately, the Adobe Media Encoder has similar problems with AVCHD: it happily starts on one of my files but soon almost grinds to a halt an becomes really agonizingly slow. It takes many hours to convert even a short AVCHD video sequence with the Adobe converter.
    I found a good solution though: use a third party converter. I found a good review from someone who tried 9 different Windows-based converters and selected the Elecard converter, that he liked best.
    http://www.dvscene.nl/video/avchd-converteren.htm... (review in Dutch)

    Elecard Converter Studio AVC HD Edition costs $75 (57 euro), but it converts the same files in less than a minute for which the Adobe converter needs many hours. The converted m2v/wav output works fine in Premiere, no more sluggishness or software freezes. Well worth the money.
  • scott
    Which software is better as of 9-23-09

    Adobe premiere elements 7 or Pinnacle Ultimate (latest version)?????????????
    Both note that they can be used to edit AVCHD. I don't want choppy frames. The default software that came with my Sony SDR-HD7 camcorder couldn't handle a straight download (very choppy footage - worthless)

    I like the fact that they package Adobe photoshop with premiere, but want to be able to handle HD without the "choppiness" and wierd look. Is one better than the other at AVCHD editing? Does it come out clean? Looking to buy very soon, any thougts?
  • I haven't used premier elements but I have used premier as well as pinnacle. The newest version of pinnacle coming out is 14. I have had no issues with editing AVCHD with either program. However, there is a big difference between premier and pinnacle in terms of learning curve. Pinnacle is much more a program for those that have very limited editing experience (such as myself ;-)... Premier Pro is a more advanced application and for me, I felt that I would need to spend a lot of time learning the program to be able to use it. If you have a Sony camcorder, Sony Vegas may be the one that you should go with. Although I had problems editing AVCHD on it last year, I wasn't using a Sony camcorder and I have been told that this was the problem. Sony Vegas was built to handle AVCHD from Sony Camcorders. They may have changed that since then but at the time, it wouldn't handle AVCHD from a Canon Camcorder, which is what I use. Hope this helps
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