Hi All,
The Vigria/Legria HF G30 is my first foray into the world of HD camcorders and I would really appreciate some help. I'll mostly be shooting holiday videos and the odd wedding video for friends and family.
My intention is to archive footage in the original format (hopefully high-quality), and also to write some SD DVDs at times. My existing tools will do the job so no problems with that.
Where I am uncertain is which format to shoot in for best archival quality. The highest AVCHD and MP4 bitrates supported by the G30 are 28 and 35 Mbps resp., both 50p on the Legria. However, there seem to be some differences in encoding format.
MediaInfo reports 28 Mbps AVCHD as follows:
Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=24
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 18s 680ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 26.3 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 26.7 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 50.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.253
Stream size : 58.5 MiB (95%)
35 Mbps MP4 is reported as follows:
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=24
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 12s 960ms
Bit rate : 34.5 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 50.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.333
Stream size : 53.3 MiB (99%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2013-12-12 19:45:56
Tagged date : UTC 2013-12-12 19:45:56
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Although the same profiles and format settings are used, different Codec IDs are reported, AVCHD seems to use VBR and MP4 CBR, and MP4 has a higher Bits/(Pixel*Frame) value.
I don't quite know what to make of this and lack the knowledge and tools to do an objective comparison. Which format do you recommend?
Many thanks,
Francois
The Vigria/Legria HF G30 is my first foray into the world of HD camcorders and I would really appreciate some help. I'll mostly be shooting holiday videos and the odd wedding video for friends and family.
My intention is to archive footage in the original format (hopefully high-quality), and also to write some SD DVDs at times. My existing tools will do the job so no problems with that.
Where I am uncertain is which format to shoot in for best archival quality. The highest AVCHD and MP4 bitrates supported by the G30 are 28 and 35 Mbps resp., both 50p on the Legria. However, there seem to be some differences in encoding format.
MediaInfo reports 28 Mbps AVCHD as follows:
Quote:
Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=24
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 18s 680ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 26.3 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 26.7 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 50.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.253
Stream size : 58.5 MiB (95%)
Quote:
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=24
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 12s 960ms
Bit rate : 34.5 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 50.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.333
Stream size : 53.3 MiB (99%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2013-12-12 19:45:56
Tagged date : UTC 2013-12-12 19:45:56
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
I don't quite know what to make of this and lack the knowledge and tools to do an objective comparison. Which format do you recommend?
Many thanks,
Francois