MTS unable to play in WMP11/unable to edit in Movie Maker

[xxx4reggie]

Hello,
I've been searching on the forums for a while on this.
I just bought a Sony Handycam HDR-CX160 and recorded my son's trip to some cool places. I have the HD videos on my PC (windows 7) and its all in .MTS. I tried to play it in MWP but it plays with no video, just audio plays. I installed the ffdshow codec (most current one) and rebooted, but still same issue. I installed VLC and that plays fine.
I then tried to edit the videos in Movie Maker (I downloaded the most current version just now) and it plays sound but no video. Can you please let me know how I can make the video appear so that I can add music and Titles? I wanted to make a DVD/data DVD so it can be played on PCs and send it to the relatives.

Please help,
Thanks you so much,
Reggie

[redwudz]

You might want to drop one of those files into MediaInfo to see what the specifications are. Post it here (Tree view) if you like. That might help answer most of your questions.

From what I saw on the Sony site, that camera outputs: Video Format :

HD: MPEG4-AVC/H.264 AVCHD 2.0 format compatible (1080/60p:original format);
STD: MPEG2-PS

If you have AVCHD, then I'm not sure WMM can handle that. VLC can play most everything.

[edDV]

First some basics:

AVCHD records h.264 codec in MTS (same as m2ts) wrapper.

VLC or MPCHC will play them directly.

For editors, we know Video Redo (cuts) and Vegas Movie Studio (add music and titles) work.

DVD is standard def but DVDR discs can hold HD files playable on computers using VLC or MPCHC.

[Bonie81]

as said by edDV "AVCHD records h.264 codec in MTS (same as m2ts) wrapper."
For WMP11 you might need to install .h264 decoder (CoreAVC or DiVX H264 decoder) plus either aac (faad) or ac3 (ac3-filter) audio decoder.
Hope, WMP11 will play after installing missing decoders.
Bye the way, anything goes smooth in TuX with VLC.

[xxx4reggie]

You might want to drop one of those files into MediaInfo to see what the specifications are. Post it here (Tree view) if you like. That might help answer most of your questions.

From what I saw on the Sony site, that camera outputs: Video Format :

HD: MPEG4-AVC/H.264 AVCHD 2.0 format compatible (1080/60priginal format);
STD: MPEG2-PS

If you have AVCHD, then I'm not sure WMM can handle that. VLC can play most everything.

Hi red, i've been playing with all the formats and test recording to see what formats will it save as, all HD formats are either .mts or .m2ts. I think the only way to do mpeg is SD format.
I wish it saved it as mpeg

[xxx4reggie]

guys update.
So I went to the nvidia site (i really dont know why...) and downloaded their latest beta they have as of today. Uninstalled my nvidia drivers and then rebooted, then installed the newest one. Rebooted again and now everything works fine.... weirdest thing i've ever seen!
But I'll look into Sony Vegas - i keep hearing its really good.

Thanks you everyone for the quick replies, I really appreciate it!

[edDV]

all HD formats are either .mts or .m2ts. I think the only way to do mpeg is SD format.
I wish it saved it as mpeg

No only some HD formats are .mts or .m2ts. The transport streams are used for broadcast or media storage.

MPeg is used for most every HD use. MPeg2, h.264, xvid and divx are all MPeg and all can be HD. Other HD formats are mostly used for production.