AVCHD quicktime wrapper
- Thread starter TouchOfClass
- Start date
Nitsuj
Well-known member
I have the brand new 15" MBP and I have yet to see any slow downs editing FHD from my GH1. I am not able to play .mts files without converting first and I don't have bootcamp set up so can't help with the rest. I have been amazed that I have had FCP, Photoshop, Cinema4D along with browser and streaming iTunes at the same time doing different things with no issues. When I am running a job in compressor I will see some slowdowns playing back HD but only from within FCP and not Quicktime. It's a great machine. If you are considering I say go for it. It's a minor setback for the quicktime not playing the files straight from my camera but I'm doing okay with it. I can view them right away when I go into log and transfer then play them from there before I actually do the log and transfer.
Yeah, I've a new 15" MBP too. Thanks to Martti Eckland I'm a Toast 10 advocate and it's video player does me just fine straight from the camera's card. Replay a scene on set in seconds. I use Neoscene to transcode and pulldown removal( I'm shooting 1080). An 8 gig card (1 hour) takes a little over 3 hours to finish. I'm quite satisfied with this workflow. I agree with commanderspike in his disappointment on Mac apps being reticent in their approach on the AVCHD format. That being said Barry's notion of using Bootcamp with this particular laptop should yield very good results for those wanting to use Windows based programs. The new MBP has proven to be a powerful little workhorse for me.
ffmpeg can actually do both. You can simply change the container without touching the actual content.
There are only two problems left:
1. Audio needs to be transcoded from AC3 into PCM uncompressed raw, there is no way around this as Quicktime does not accept the AC3 codec. If you transfer the AC3 compressed audio into the Quicktime container you can play the resulting Quicktime movie with VLC but not with Quicktime.
2. The resulting Quicktime file hasn't got any seeking index. Means you can play the stream smoothly from the start but seeking randomly in the clip takes ages because Quicktime does not know where the next keyframe is.
RieniO
Well-known member
I have a MacBookPro and Windows XP and I would love to try this; to make sure, all I need it to purchase BootCamp and with that I can install XP on my Mac? I can alternatively use parallel desktops, right?
Barry_Green
Moderator
If you have Parallels, go ahead and try it. I just said Bootcamp because a) it turns your computer into a native Windows environment, and b) I forgot about parallels. 
holdingpattern
Member
If you have Parallels, go ahead and try it. I just said Bootcamp because a) it turns your computer into a native Windows environment, and b) I forgot about parallels.
Another free option to try out is VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/). I have a 2.4Ghz Macbook Pro, I tried playing the .MTS files in the Windows7 RC that microsoft released. Suffice it to say that it was unplayable, i.e. too slow. The .MTS files opened and started playing normally, but the framerate was .... close to zero. The frames that did render looked good though, with no abnormal artifacts or distortion that I could see.
As far as I know, all of the Virtual Machines I am aware of of (VMWare, Parallels, VirtualBox) lack the hardware acceleration to do AVCHD justice. Of course your mileage (km-age for those who use a more sane measruing system) may vary.
If you do get satisfactory playback using one of these please post your results!
Barry_Green
Moderator
Right, that's why I'd like to see it done under Bootcamp.
Ben_B
Veteran
Bootcamp is free built into the OS and is actually a really nice experience. I had been using beta version but my new install of Xp works amazingly for windows...you even get your apple style volume up/down animation.
commanderspike
Carbonite Member
Does Windows 7 work with Bootcamp?
TouchOfClass
New member
Just got an email back from the developer of Clipwra:
"We're still working to solve a few issues. We're not announcing anything yet on release dates, but I can add you to our mailing list so you hear as soon as we announce availability."
"We're still working to solve a few issues. We're not announcing anything yet on release dates, but I can add you to our mailing list so you hear as soon as we announce availability."
My bet is they're trying to resolve the indexing issue. I wouldn't count on a solution though
None of my Canon G7 clips (MJPEG) are seekable. So, I was surprised when VLC (v1.0.1-pre) offered to rebuild the index. My only disappointment is that it only creates a temporary index, and I have to do it every time I play the clip.
VLC doesn't offer to index the MTS clips, and they are seekable, so I wonder how that works.
VLC doesn't offer to index the MTS clips, and they are seekable, so I wonder how that works.
That's really easy, a seek in the MTS is just a simple file seek, that's why you sometimes get garbage depending on where the next IDR frame is. A MTS stream does not contain an index. On Blu-Ray and AVCHD the index is called EP MAP table and is contained in the clip information files in the CLIPINF folder.
Last edited:
PappasArts
Veteran
Unfortunately since this is more or less related to the GH1 in this thread, Clipwrap 2.0 has issue's and especially with the GH1 too!
Here is what I found on their site
Known Issues
* Issues rewrapping files from the Panasonic GH1 (no video)
* A few files are being successfully rewrapped but crashing playback in QTPlayer 10 or displaying only black frames
* Very long movies with drastic lighting changes may need to be broken up to transcode properly
* Machines with hardware h264 acceleration seem to have greater stuttering in QTPlayer 10 than others. Try the same clip playback in QT7 or FCS
DanDOF
Well-known member
Forget Paralells, and try VMWare Fusion instead. Just click on your mac dock to open windows apps after an initial boot within Mac.If you have Parallels, go ahead and try it. I just said Bootcamp because a) it turns your computer into a native Windows environment, and b) I forgot about parallels.
Quick Demonstration
Detailed Description
Last edited:
RieniO
Well-known member
Sometimes Apple is ahead, sometimes Windows is ahead. Now Windows is ahead, and Apple surely will follow. It's called competition which is one of the pros of living in the free Western world.
I recommend everybody to never delete your original MTS files so that you can always re-edit them when a better editing method arrives.
I've seen many posts like this around the net and I've yet to see syntax to do this.
Please post an example of ffmpeg syntax to do this.
Thanks.