GH2 how to manage avchd files and directories structure?

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valdi99

Active member
Is there any file manager which can handle (simply delete) AVCHD files on SD card using PC? Whenever I delete any video file using my PC with SD cards reader, GH2 still "sees" them but can't display. There must be some index file which maintains information about the video files that I have deleted already. Anything helps..?

It so much easier to move videos from the SD card to PC by using SD reader, instead of connecting USB cables every time...
 
The video files are stored on the SD card in the format of an AVCHD disk (similar to a Blu-ray disk). There are three directories involved, CLIPINF, PLAYLIST and STREAM. You need to delete all the files in all three directories to completely remove the videos. Deleting only the MTS files is not enough.

I generally don't recommend just deleting the files because this will eventually cause the card to become fragmented. It is a better practice to format the card (either on the PC or in the camera). Accessing the videos via either the camera or a SD reader shouldn't make much of a difference. The camera is essentially implemented as a SD reader.

I wrote a utility to import the contents of the GH1 SD card which makes the management of the files much easier. Take a look here.
 
Thank you Phil.

My point is that downloading files to PC via card reader is the fastest and easiest way to do it. However it is an inconvenience to put SD card back to the camera just for deleting files (or formatting SD) that you've just copied. For faster workflow I would rather move files from SD when using PC instead of copying them - but then other files/directories remain... (as you pointed out). So the fastest workflow would be:
- copy files
- format SD

PS
I tried your file importer on my GH2 files - it works like a charm. That's what I've been looking for!
- what is the advantage of changing an extension from MTS to M2TS ?
- what info I may get from CPI files and how?
 
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valdi99 said:
I tried your file importer on my GH2 files - it works like a charm. That's what I've been looking for!
- what is the advantage of changing an extension from MTS to M2TS ?
- what info I may get from CPI files and how?
Click to expand...
Thanks. The AVCHD standard calls for 8.3 file names so the name is truncated from M2TS to MTS. Essentially they are the same thing. The reason I rename it is because the original Panasonic-supplied PhotoFunStudio did it. The CPI files contain additional meta data about the clip. Currently there isn't much value with these, but someday in the future it may be possible to extract useful information. Since they are small files, it is cheap to copy them along with the M2TS files.

Regarding the formatting -- you could probably get by with formatting only once every 10 times or so. You don't need to format each time. This is why the option to delete the files in the utility makes sense. If, however, you start getting write errors or speed errors on the card, you should first try to format it and see if that resolves the problem. For me, it's just easier to format each time, but YMMV.
 
It gives me chill for deleting files before making sure the files are good in your pc from copying. Moving files from SD card scares me as there is no back up if files are corrupted during 'moving'. Plus, I agree that it is a good practice to reformat your SD card regularly. It is just me who may be too cautious!!
 
Phil - your GH1 importer keeps saying "Unexpected video file xxxxx not represented in playlist file. Date/time may be incorrect" when I import my GH2 files. What is wrong? It happens at about 10-30% of my files...
 
valdi99 said:
Phil - your GH1 importer keeps saying "Unexpected video file xxxxx not represented in playlist file. Date/time may be incorrect" when I import my GH2 files. What is wrong? It happens at about 10-30% of my files...
Click to expand...
This means that there are video files in the STREAM directory that were not detected in the playlist (MPL) files in the PLAYLIST directory. It maybe a case that I'm not correctly handling -- unfortunately there is no published documentation on the MPL structures so I have to reverse engineer these files. Can you describe any unusual situations that you may be experiencing while recording? I have one case I'm working on where the video file exceeded 4Gb and was split into two files. Maybe something like this is happening? I can diagnose the problem if you are willing to zip up the PRIVATE directory on the affected SD card and send it to me. Since I don't own a GH2, I can't create my own test cases.
 
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