Editing AVCHD Files in Premiere Elements &

[southernkiwi]

I am trying to use Premiere Elements 7 with AVCHD files from a Sony HD camcorder. When I drop clips on to the sceneline, they don't show up separately so basically all I see in the sceneline is the first clip. If I play it back the clips are there.(but obviously dropping transitions between files is not possible) In the timeline I only see a bar and not the clip representation as usual. Not sure if this is normal behaviour or something isn't working correctly. Regular definition files work normally.

[ATR]

southernkiwi,

From the details about your Sceneline View, that sounds like a problem related to the use of Sceneline View when video has 5.1 channel sound and/or you have selected one of the Premiere Elements 7 project presets that included 5.1 channel sound. The Timeline view is the way to go where you can see what is going on and have more control.

So, at this point, I suspect that you are dealing with the way that Premiere Elements is directed to handle 5.1 channel sound in contrast to Stereo. No patches, just use the Timeline.

Check out the following very long thread:
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41156&page=4
special attention to my analysis of the problem related to stacking of video clips in Scene 1 of the Filmstrip of the Sceneline View (Refer to post #34 in that thread to skip to the bottom line.)

As for your observations about the Timeline, I will check them out once I get more information about your camcorder model and the type of sound your AVCHD has.

ATR

[southernkiwi]

southernkiwi,

From the details about your Sceneline View, that sounds like a problem related to the use of Sceneline View when video has 5.1 channel sound and/or you have selected one of the Premiere Elements 7 project presets that included 5.1 channel sound. The Timeline view is the way to go where you can see what is going on and have more control.

So, at this point, I suspect that you are dealing with the way that Premiere Elements is directed to handle 5.1 channel sound in contrast to Stereo. No patches, just use the Timeline.

Check out the following very long thread:
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41156&page=4
special attention to my analysis of the problem related to stacking of video clips in Scene 1 of the Filmstrip of the Sceneline View (Refer to post #34 in that thread to skip to the bottom line.)

As for your observations about the Timeline, I will check them out once I get more information about your camcorder model and the type of sound your AVCHD has.

ATR
Thank you for your advice - I have a Sony camcorder HDRSR11 which does indeed have options to record in 5.1 sound. I used a project preset with this option and it works properly now. It is annoying that you can't change a project's settings once started. It would also be helpful if Adobe specified this pitfall in it's help file or at least somewhere on it's support website

[videojac]

Having run into the same problem as "southernkiwi", I found "atr"s advice most helpful. I have a Panasonic AG-HSC1 which records 5:1 audio. I first started a project without the 5:1 audio setting and got blank timeline among other problems. I found "atr"s advice here, made a new project with 5:1 setting, and voila: there's video and audio in the Timeline. Thanks to "atr". :)And Adobe should most certainly mention this problem to all new users.

[ATR]

videojac

I am glad that the comments were useful.

Premiere Elements 7's handling of AVCHD with and without 5.1 channel sound takes some getting accustom to. Since I could not find any AVCHD with 5.1 channel sound files to download, I always wondered where the video/audio would go if:
a. I had a AVCHD with 5.1 channel sound file
b. I used one of the AVCHD with 5.1 channel project presets
All the reports that I had been seeing had AVCHD on Video Track 4/Audio Track 4 or above and Sceneline/Timeline issues.

Recently I posted that question at the Premiere Elements User to User Forum at Adobe and found out (thanks to Paul LS) the answer was: video track 1 and audio track 1. In contrast, when I downloaded some AVCHD files with Stereo from the Internet for practice and used the AVCHD with 5.1 channel project presets, video went to Video Track 4 and the audio to Audio Track 4.

Thanks to the various forums and their users, a good body of information has been developed to get many over gaps in Adobe descriptions on the matter.

Keep up the good work.

ATR