Metadata confusion!

[Two_Times]

Hi all,
I've searched through the forum and online and read as much as I've been able to find on the matter and I'm still confused...

1. The only way to write metadata seems to be with a Windows-only utility provided by Panasonic...is there no other way?

2. The only piece of metadata that seems to be editable within the camera's menu is the "USER CLIP NAME" which you can set to "TYPE1" or "TYPE2"...I've been using this to distinguish between cameras in a two-camera shoot. Is that a correct way to use that?

3. What happens on a feature-length shoot when you end up with 100 clips all named "00001"? Wouldn't this lead to a huge mess if you ever needed to reconnect media in your NLE?

This thread seemed to tackles some of the same issues but left things unresolved in my mind...
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=168928&highlight=metadata

Please help. Thanks!

Jim

 

[booggerg2]

The program you use to ingest the cards should be able to tag along a random character string for the mts files from each card. So you'd have: 001_abb343.mts, 002_abb343.mts.... from card A. Then 001_asdfaa.mts, 002_asdfaa.mts from card B, and so on... You'd then would back up the files after ingestion so reconnecting media in the future would be possible. Effectively, the end result is a unique name for each MTS file, much like how the P2 system works. I'm using Photo Mechanic for ingestion which does this, I'm sure many other apps will also do dynamic renaming but the advantage here is the unique random string generated for each new card, it makes sorting by card possible.

The additional logical layer of file organization offered in the AVCHD format is utterly useless with the HMC150.

 

[Two_Times]

Thanks for the reply.

The program you use to ingest the cards should be able to tag along a random character string for the mts files from each card.

Does FCP do this when it ingests the files via log and capture? And you're saying that once it has transcoded the files to Apple ProRes, the new ProRes files must become the archive (at 4x size of AVCHD files) in order to maintain the unique file names and thereby be able to reconnect media in the future, correct?

What happens if/when FCP supports AVCHD natively? Must we go through the same process of importing and creating new (and otherwise identical) files with unique names and erasing the old ones? Seems like a tedious (and otherwise unecessary) step.

The additional logical layer of file organization offered in the AVCHD format is utterly useless with the HMC150.

What does "additional logical layer of file organization" mean?

Thanks again.

 

[booggerg2]

Thanks for the reply.

Does FCP do this when it ingests the files via log and capture? And you're saying that once it has transcoded the files to Apple ProRes, the new ProRes files must become the archive (at 4x size of AVCHD files) in order to maintain the unique file names and thereby be able to reconnect media in the future, correct?

What happens if/when FCP supports AVCHD natively? Must we go through the same process of importing and creating new (and otherwise identical) files with unique names and erasing the old ones? Seems like a tedious (and otherwise unecessary) step.

No, leave FCP out of the picture for now.. All I'm talking about is the act of getting the clips off of the cards and onto a hard drive. You realized the clips on the cards will cause naming conflicts if you do a drag n' drop copy. So the solution is use a program to "ingest" the files onto the hard drive. This program (such as Photo Mechanic) should have the ability to dynamically rename the clips as it is ingesting them. After you ingested multiple cards onto the hard drive, each MTS file will have a unique name. Then you can archive this folder as backup, then import them into FCP for transcoding etc....

What does "additional logical layer of file organization" mean?

The AVCHD format has a localized database which stores metadata on the mts files. The structure inside the PRIVATE folder facilitates this local database. This is a fine idea for Blu-Ray discs but as an acquisition device like the HMC, this adds little benefit, just unnecessary complexity to the workflow. P2 on the other hand, names each file with a unique file name for a much simpler and straightforward workflow.

 

[Two_Times]

No, leave FCP out of the picture for now.. All I'm talking about is the act of getting the clips off of the cards and onto a hard drive. You realized the clips on the cards will cause naming conflicts if you do a drag n' drop copy. So the solution is use a program to "ingest" the files onto the hard drive. This program (such as Photo Mechanic) should have the ability to dynamically rename the clips as it is ingesting them. After you ingested multiple cards onto the hard drive, each MTS file will have a unique name. Then you can archive this folder as backup, then import them into FCP for transcoding etc....

Gotcha. Can you recommend any other programs for ingesting? And why isn't it a utility that the NLE performs- are they just playing catch up? Is this the same workflow (for the time being) with Media Composer, Vegas, Premiere, etc?

 

[booggerg2]

I use PC so I don't know what's available on the Mac.. but I'm sure there are plenty apps out there.. FCP can import/ingest your footage via the Log & Capture tool. However, I believe that requires you to preserve the local DB, meaning everything inside the PRIVATE folder has to be preserved for every card, so you'd have to ingest card by card into FCP or copy the PRIVATE folder from each card to a hard drive and rename the private folders to avoid name collision. The ingestion workflow I described is independent of the NLE and the resulting files will work with every NLE provided that they have support for AVCHD