HMC150 Recording Format

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dvaifilms

New member
Hi, new HMC-150 user. Finally i did some shooting, just some joe shmoe shots where i would just like to play with the footage in my editor. After 15 minutes of figuring out how to turn the camera into the card reader i finally could look at the files on the memory card. NOT ONE file on the card could be opened; all the files were unrecognized. The camera's memory card was filled with (what i assume are my shots) .CPI and .MTS files....... what is that good for? my CS3 doesnt support those file formats. What do i need to do in order so i can watch these clips on my PC, or put them in my editor. Because i feel the editing software sent with my camera cant even compare to the Adobe Suite.

:badputer:
 
CS3 does not support AVCHD. You can either upgrade to CS4, or download the free Panasonic AVCHD-to-DVCPRO-HD conversion utility, or buy something like Cineform NeoScene to convert the files.
 
The MTS files are the avchd video files. cs3 does not support avchd, you could use the panasonic transcoder to convert the footage to dvcpro HD or there are other options out there that if you search this forum you'll find out about.

Also the Edius Neo software is pretty good and will work with the format, And coming from preimiere you shouldnt have to much trouble adapting to it.
 
Well, yeah, I forgot about that -- the HMC150 includes new editing software for free, EDIUS Neo 2. Definitely consider giving that a try!
 
i think its just a shame haha, call me crazy but i would just assume panasonic would consider recording in .avi or something more likely to easily edit, but i suppose they had to do the new file format to keep the quality high?

on a different note too i bought the 7D, thinking it recorded in .avi format like canon's powershot's always have. but the Canon 7D records in .mov which is f***ed to edit with.
 
ps. once i start to convert footage into other file formats am i not suddenly beginning the process of losing quality ?
 
dvaifilms said:
Hi, new HMC-150 user. Finally i did some shooting, just some joe shmoe shots where i would just like to play with the footage in my editor. After 15 minutes of figuring out how to turn the camera into the card reader i finally could look at the files on the memory card. NOT ONE file on the card could be opened; all the files were unrecognized. The camera's memory card was filled with (what i assume are my shots) .CPI and .MTS files....... what is that good for?
Click to expand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD
 
dvaifilms said:
but i suppose they had to do the new file format to keep the quality high?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. There is no reason that an .avi couldn't be just as good in quality as AVCHD... but the filesize would have had to have been ridiculously large. Too large for current SDHC cards at least. And the data rate probably much too high. HDV is easier to edit, but AVCHD on paper produces a much better image.
 
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AVCHD uses the file format it does, because blu-ray uses those same file formats.

AVCHD is part of the manufacturer's overall HD plan for consumers, to make a file format that you can play directly on your blu-ray player, or on your PS3, or plug the SD card into your TV (assuming your TV has an SD slot) and play the footage right from the card or disc that you recorded.

It wasn't designed for the easiest editing experience, it was designed for the overall integrated consumer appliance experience.

Which means that it makes it harder on us to edit. I can't really think of a good reason why the manufacturers couldn't just put a menu option in their cameras, to let us record to AVI or MOV or blu-ray-compatible MTS...*

*well, of course, I can think of a reason, and that's that having three different recordable file formats triples the amount of beta-testing and bug finding/fixing/verifying they have to do... but the GH1 has both .AVI and .mov, so ... come on, manufacturers, do it...
 
You can view the native footage on the card using VLC or "Media Player Classic".

AVCCAM Viewer from panny is a good way to transfer from the card to your HDD. It keeps the directory structure intact (which is needed by Mainconcept AVCHD to P2 for some reason - and for mac users, FCP needs it as well).

The viewer in AVCCAM viewer sucks. Why? Because you can not scrub through the footage nor fast fwd/Rwd AT ALL. Not sure why the programmers missed that feature. Thus I use VLC or MPC.

For most things I use the AVCHD to P2 (DVCProHD) transcoder. But there is some loss of vertical detail. (Not a problem for SD output, and no worse than an HVX200, which uses this codec nativley - though that cam will have a greater color space due to that cam being native 4.2.2 vs HMC150's 4.2.0)

If I am picky about it I use TMPGenc and the free AVID DNxHD codec. (I'd Kill for an option in Main Concept to pick an installed codec like DNxHD!! Hint, hint Panasonic). :)

Editing long GOP codecs (interframe) natively is not he best thing anyway. Best used for simple, single stream edits. (If you want to understand what that is all about, and the above thing about color spaces.. ask Barry or google for Adam Wilt's website/articles.)
 
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Mike Harvey said:
Yes and no. There is no reason that an .avi couldn't be just as good in quality as AVCHD... but the filesize would have had to have been ridiculously large. Too large for current SDHC cards at least. And the data rate probably much too high. HDV is easier to edit, but AVCHD on paper produces a much better image.
Click to expand...
AVI is a container, it does not have size.
 
Im a PC user. I know nothing about a Mac.

I edit on Sony Vegas Pro.

All the logging and transferring and maintaining directory structures seems like a fair amount of extra aggravation, time and possibility for file/structure/card corruption.

On a PC with Vegas, you pull the card out of the camera and put in a reader, view the clips in VLC, delete the ones you don't want and then copy only the .mts files you want to the editing hard drive. 16 GB takes maybe 10 minutes to transfer with a fast card & reader.

Is the initial Mac workflow as much more trouble as it seems?

FYI: Im just a PC user trying to understand Mac a little more.
 
"Is the initial Mac workflow as much more trouble as it seems?"
Quick answer: no.
Log/Transfer is not that big of a deal (especially if you have ANY previous video experience). The stability gained by the log/transfer process makes it all worthwhile. I do like editing the mts files on my PC at home, but editing on a Mac w/FCP at work is not that different.
The log/transfer process takes less than real-time on my now-aging Mac (2 dual core 3ghz processors).
 
voxwerx said:
"Is the initial Mac workflow as much more trouble as it seems?"
Quick answer: no.
Log/Transfer is not that big of a deal (especially if you have ANY previous video experience). The stability gained by the log/transfer process makes it all worthwhile. I do like editing the mts files on my PC at home, but editing on a Mac w/FCP at work is not that different.
The log/transfer process takes less than real-time on my now-aging Mac (2 dual core 3ghz processors).
Click to expand...

Agreed. People make WAY too much of a fuss on the log and transfer hassel issue with AVCHD media. It's quicker to transcode AVCHD files to pro-res than it is to transcode raw P2 media to DVCPRO-HD in final Cut...and I don't hear people whining about using the hvx.

And, to the original poster...didn't you do at least SOME research about the camera before buying it? It's not like Panasonic is hiding details about AVCHD...
 
Barry_Green said:
CS3 does not support AVCHD. You can either upgrade to CS4, or download the free Panasonic AVCHD-to-DVCPRO-HD conversion utility, or buy something like Cineform NeoScene to convert the files.
Click to expand...

Barry,

Can't you get Canopus HQ free, and isn't it excellent, or do I not know what the heck I'm talking about? I have your HMC-150 book BTW, excellent!
 
You lose Horizontal detail with either DVCPROHD or Canopus HQ. 1440x1080 instead of 1920x1080 etc.


EDIT: Fixed
 
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