HMC150 questions answered...

avenue said:
So what are my option for converting on a mac? :( I can't do it in FCP studio 1 so I think I may only have the option of FCP2? Panasonic should make a converter for macs that suks on their part big time!!!!! maybe once it's released they'll will have something going for us MAC users.....
Click to expand...
Panasonic themselves didn't create the converter, MainConcept did. Panasonic's Mac support for P2 was less than stellar and, well, frankly, it's still sub-par. They have more P2 utilities on the Windows platform than they do on the Mac, and I wouldn't be surprised if that situation continued with AVCCAM. Hopefully they'll have full parity between the platforms, but that remains to be seen.

You can use the Panasonic converter under BootCamp/Windows on a Mac I guess.

Look at the AVC-HD whitepapers at their AVCCAM website for more info on working with the footage with your favorite editors.
ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/PBTS/papers/AVCCAM_EditSol.pdf

Bernie Mitchell is supposed to have some whitepapers on working with each editor, but I didn't see them on the site...
 
Jim Wiseman said:
Thanks for uploading the files Barry. They don't seem to be accessible with the FCP 6.04 Log and Transfer window. They seem to want the whole directory structure of the card. I get a Warning:

"Blank (folder or file) contains an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.
Click to expand...

Try putting them all in a directory structure like this:
PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM

Put all the files in that "stream" directory and see if it works.
 
FCS2 supports AVCHD if imported within the full directory structure, i.e., as if from the card itself. The Videomaker stuff came in fine and was transcoded to ProRes 422. There is also the option for Apple Intermediate codec. No ProRes 422 HQ, which I would think would be preferable. Wasn't terribly impressed with the quality of the Videomaker footage in ProRes 422, don't know if HQ would make a difference as there is not that option.

Any one have any other ideas as to how to get individual MTS files in without the camera? Obviously it could be uploaded with the whole file structure intact. I have an ioHD which would work on playback from the cam with HDMI to ProRes 422 HQ, but would love to see the quality of the cam before buying it.
 
rmmskatemedia said:
Also How much wider is the lens than say the dvx????
Click to expand...
Way.

Is it wider than the hvx?
Click to expand...
The original? Yes, way wider.

Also, how is it as far as the body is concerned? Yes I'm just as concerned about the codec and picture as everyone else, but my whole purpose for buying this camera would be for a secondary to my hvx, so is it worth buying for its size? as far as being more managable, and less conspicuous looking?
Click to expand...
It's about the size of a DVX, maybe just a tiny little bit larger. It's ergonomic handheld heaven compared to an HVX200. But this is not a "stealth" camera, it looks basically like a sleeker/thinner HVX.

also, is there anywhere to preorder the cam???
Click to expand...
I'm sure all our usual sponsors will have preorder options, such as Spec-Comm and Abel and EC Pro Video.
 
Barry,

Tried it using the structure you laid out above, and same error. Nothing in the folders except for STREAM. Same when I used the standard Videomaker (Panasonic) structure which was

PRIVATE/AVCHD/AVCHDTN/BDMV/CLIPINF/PLAYLIST/STREAM

The intermediate folders contained these files in the Videomaker download:
AVCHDTN: THUMB.TDT and THUMB.TID (thumbnails?)
CLIPINF: 00001.CPI 00002.CPI (clipinfo?) and INDEX.BDM and MOVIEOBJ.BDM
PLAYLIST: 0000.MPL

I emptied all those folders and put MTS files in the STREAM folder, the only folder that had any files in it. Same error as before.

Apparently FCS2 FCP 6.04 wants to see those other folders and files before it transcodes.
 
Last edited:
I'm downloading Barry's footage now .I was not impress by the footage from videomaker.
The DRS function is nice though.
Converting 6 secs of footage to dvcproHD took about 2.5 sec on a dual core 2.68GHz( oc 3%) with 2 GB and a FSB of 1333MHZ.
The faster the better.
Does anyone know of a free player for avchd?
Thanks.
 
Okay, I've gone through and uploaded all the miscellaneous directories and contents. I've asked Jason to move the MTS files into the appropriate STREAM directory. For those of you Mac users who have already downloaded the MTS files, you can just download the PRIVATE directory (and all its associated subdirectories) and move the MTS files into the STREAM directory, and hopefully it'll all work.
 
Downloaded all the files that seemed necessary (Did not get all CPI files, only ones that were represented in the STREAM (MTS) folder.) Got all others. Took a while as I had to download each file individually. Being able to download a whole folder at a time would be helpful. Put all contents into proper folders. Noticed there were no INDEX.BDM or MOVIEOBJ.BDM files in the BDMV folder. Could be the reason I got the same error from FCP. Still not working with Log and Transfer window on the Mac and FCP 6.04. Maybe it would be best to shoot a few good shots and put the whole PRIVATE folder with all files intact up where they could be downloaded in one shot as with Videomaker. Or maybe you can get all of this current stuff up in one downloadable folder with everything as it is exactly on the card.

Thanks for the effort
 
I saw this has been somewhat explained, but I'd love to know for sure.

I was planning on getting an HVX until this camera came out. My main liking toward the HVX remains it's variable frame rates...however...

Is it true that shooting at 60p on this camera will yield slo-mo results if placed in a 24p/30p timeline?
 
Everts said:
I'm downloading Barry's footage now .I was not impress by the footage from videomaker.
The DRS function is nice though.
Converting 6 secs of footage to dvcproHD took about 2.5 sec on a dual core 2.68GHz( oc 3%) with 2 GB and a FSB of 1333MHZ.
The faster the better.
Does anyone know of a free player for avchd?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Voltaic on the Mac seems to handle these MTS files just fine.

Michael
Click to expand...

I'm using the Voltaic to convert the files on my Apple. It works, but is very slow.

The VideoMaker Files look bad, lots of blocking artifacts, BUT Barry's files look very good. ODD... I'm not sure why the VideoMaker's files are not so great...


Bob Diaz
 
Last edited:
awelgraven said:
I saw this has been somewhat explained, but I'd love to know for sure.

I was planning on getting an HVX until this camera came out. My main liking toward the HVX remains it's variable frame rates...however...

Is it true that shooting at 60p on this camera will yield slo-mo results if placed in a 24p/30p timeline?
Click to expand...

Just tried it in fcp 5. It works. I used voltaic to convert, panasonic frc didnt work so I used cinema tools to conform the files to 23.98 and imported to timeline, rendered and there you go. If you don't want to render, convert to 720 60p DVC HD first in compressor.
 
Barry_Green said:
Do you NEED the 6mbps rate then? Zooming is one of the things that long-GOP codecs don't like. Zooming, and color changes, stuff like that. If you can get by with the 13mbps version you'll probably be better off, but ... hmmm... I can't think of any circumstance like what you're detailing that I could go out and grab right now or in the next couple of days, but... I'll think about it. My initial reaction would be that you'd probably be asking too much of 6mbps for those purposes.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... not as positive a response as I'd hoped! I'm really hoping to squeeze an hour onto a single-layer recordable DVD, so 6mbps would work and 13mbps wouldn't. Hopefully we'll have a chance to try this out and see what we can live with. Sniff. Here's another scenario - how about a still camera, filming similar things, with the images cropped to, say, SD in post (that is - doing some "panning/zooming" in post by cropping to an SD-sized window). Better result at 6mbps than actual panning and zooming?


What, just from a CD? I don't know what I've got here, I'm sure I can scrounge up some Star Wars soundtracks or Holst's "The Planets" or something like that; tell me what you'd want to hear.
Click to expand...

Sure, from a CD or any other good source! I'd be feeding the camera from a good audio recording system most of the time, so I'm mainly curious about what the codec will do to a good line-level signal. I'd prefer solo (piano, violin, cello?) or small ensemble, with some quiet and loud passages.
 
With all of these Issues with Editing AVC-HD, A used HVX is looking real good right about now. I have an older mac (Dual G5) and FCP-HD 4.1. I don't think I could even attempt to edit AVC. Bottom line, I want a camera that is not going to force me into buying a new computer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top