GH2 Converting AVCHD / MTS files to ProRes if memory card directory structure is missing

RieniO

RieniO

Well-known member
I tend to copy the folder that's inside the "private" folder to my hard drive, then later I convert everything to ProRes. Tonight I discovered this probably wasn't a very good idea because log and transfer doesn't see all the files that are in the "stream" folder. I don't have these original "private" folders anymore so I need to fine some other method to convert the mts files to ProRes. A search on the web shows me this tool: http://www.pavtube.com/mts-converter-mac/ It claims it can convert mts files to Prores without needing the camera card file structure. Has anyone experience with this tool or can someone recommend a better tool or method? Is the newest version of Telestream Episode capable of doing this? Thanks, Rieni
 
RieniO said:
I tend to copy the folder that's inside the "private" folder to my hard drive, then later I convert everything to ProRes. Tonight I discovered this probably wasn't a very good idea because log and transfer doesn't see all the files that are in the "stream" folder. I don't have these original "private" folders anymore so I need to fine some other method to convert the mts files to ProRes. A search on the web shows me this tool: http://www.pavtube.com/mts-converter-mac/ It claims it can convert mts files to Prores without needing the camera card file structure. Has anyone experience with this tool or can someone recommend a better tool or method? Is the newest version of Telestream Episode capable of doing this? Thanks, Rieni
Click to expand...

Clipwrap works great.
 
I tried the one minute trial of Clipwrap and it works fine, would it be a stupid idea to get rid of all the AVCHD card structures on my hard drive and from all shoots only keep the .mts files? This will making playback of .mts files easier too, I won't have to browse through all the labyrinths anymore. Is the quality of Clipwrap ProRes422 as good as that of FCP? Do they even use the same codec? (I hope?)

Someone in another forum suggested this Panasonic tool:https://eww.pass.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/dload/avccam_restorer/dl_e.htm AVCCAM restorer, will try that as well but what it does is restoring an incomplete AVCHD camera card file structure so I will still not get rid of those confusing directory structure labyrinths.
 
"5DtoRGB" also seems worth looking into, based on reports here on DVXuser:
http://rarevision.com/5dtorgb/

My usual workflow is to copy the entire PRIVATE folder to my hard drive and then tell FCP to Log & Transfer the .MTS files as ProRes LT. I haven't used alternative approaches regularly, just played with them a bit.

ClipWrap & 5DtoRGB seem to offer advantages, especially if the original PRIVATE directory has gone missing, and in the case of 5DtoRGB, may also offer some video quality improvement, too.
 
Have been using ClipWrap this afternoon and really like it. I can now move all the .mts files to the top directory, delete the ones I don't want without messing up a file directory and I can rename them and ClipWrap will copy the filename and replace .mts by .mov. What a great improvement. But of course I'm curious about 5DtoRGB now and am going to give that a try as well. Thanks.
 
Clipwrap is a lifesaver as it runs on PowerPc Macs. 5DtoRGB is nothing short of amazing, but it is a lengthy lengthy lengthy process.
 
So I'm happy with Clipwrap now but was curious about 5DtoRGB and tried that as well. It said it doesn't fully support .mts files and the output file was completely black. What settings have you guys been using? Would be interesting to contact this guys to ask them how many donations they need for making an MTStoRGB version.
 
And I'll never copy the full private folders to my hard drive anymore. I'll copy the MTS files only, delete the ones I don't need and rename the other ones. This speeds up my workflow drastically and will save some harddisk space.
 
I'd keep the private folders since I can archive that...if I need to get to it at a later date. If your dumping the footage after your done with it... then the .mts files are fine without all the layers of folders.
5DtoRGB squeezes the best quality from you video files, but isn't .mts friendly on a mac (yet!). It does convert, but you loose the audio and i've had timecode problems in the past.
The 5DtoRGB on the PC is .mts file friendly, but makes huge files which then you need to throw into MPEG streamclip and reconvert to ProRes.
You could do Clipwrap + 5DtoRGB combo which works okay for me.
The new FCP X is .mts ready as well as Primiere CS5.5, but I love FCP 7 to much to make a move.

At the moment, the largest problem I face is, how stupid is it that Panasonic chose not to be able to unique file name on the .mts? Once i erase the card, everything starts from 0 again...uhhggg (sorry to go off on a tangent, just reminded me of this problem!)
 
What settings did you use for 5DtoRGB on the Mac?
And the only program that needs to full private folder tree for converting is Final Cut Pro, all the other programs including Premiere can do without. All the required data is inside the MTS files, the only reason I can think of that FCP needs the full directory tree is to make life miserable? I find the log and transfer awkward anyway, you can't even scroll frame by frame through the footage in the logging window. Apart from that I'm still happy with FCP but it just needs a few add-on tools like ClipWrap to make my workflow a bit easier. What would be nice next would be a MTS file editor to get rid of the crap inside the individual MTS files. So often I'm running around on the set with my camera still running, this can take up to 10 minutes or more. (sometimes on purpose, for audio sync reasons; syncing 10 clips is easier than syncing 30 clips)
 
5DtoRGB... doesn't "do" .mts audio on the mac side.
You get this message - "MTS files aren't fully supported. Audio output doesn't work, and other weird things may happen during conversion."
So I use clipwrap and then I can use 5D which will output audio. However, the PC version of 5D does output the audio.. but it creates huge files which then need to be converted once again into ProResHD.
The Private Folder* is used for getting proper time coding I think. Thats why FCP needs that folder. It probably holds other reference information about the video files as well.

If you screw up, or have a problem... its nice to know that clipwrap will be there to save the day.
 
Am curious about what other info is stored in the private folder outside the MTS files. And I don't think I ever needed the original timecode, well thinking about it, would that timecode be handy for syncing footage from two different GH2s?
 
I've been using ClipWrap for a while with no issues and would highly recommend it. Conversion quality to ProRes HQ and DVCProHD looks good to me. As for copying data off of your SD cards I'd suggest you have a look at ShotPut Pro. It can offload from all kinds of media, has a range of verification options and creates logs of whats been done. It's not cheap but way less expensive than a re-shoot.
 
daihard said:
5DtoRGB... doesn't "do" .mts audio on the mac side.
Click to expand...
This will be fixed in the next Mac update. The difference in the code between the Mac and Windows version is a little more than I'd like, so I've been spending most of my time synchronizing them. It shouldn't be too much longer!
 
I cant wait! I love 5DtoRGB... The potential to eeekkk out every ounce of information from my GH2 with the high bitrate patches is very exciting!
5D is my go-to software for the heavy lifting. (fingers crossed for the batching as well!)
 
Question. If I delete a few videos files, will the Private folder still be able to get into Final Cut 7 or will every single video file has to be intact? Basically I'm going to hand over tons of hacked GH2 files I have from a certain video shoot to an editor and after thinking it over, I'd rather not give every file that is in it so I might want to delete a few videos files and hoping that wont be a problem. What I could do is use my Windows machine and make Ciniform AVI files but It'll be better if I re-wrap the files to .Mov. Yes, suggesting ClipWarp is a good solution and if he doesn't have it, I'll see if he's willing to purchase it. It's something that Final Cut Pro editors should have anyway.
 
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