Cannot record from SD card to Blu-ray recorder HDD

[JBR]

Hi,

I'm a 'newbie' so I apologise if I have posted this in the wrong sub-forum.

Panasonic Blu-ray disc recorder DMR-BWT720

I am trying to copy some videos to the HDD of this unit from a Panasonic camcorder HC-V100.
The recorder lists the videos correctly and will accept my selecting each video using the yellow button on the remote. However, when I select 'Start' and click 'OK' I receive a message (after a few seconds) stating that 'copying has been cancelled'.

I have attempted to do this several times, both by inserting the SD card directly into the recorder and also by connecting the camcorder (with SD card) via USB cable.

Despite this problem, the recorder WILL play the videos and I also successfully copied the videos on to my laptop.

I now find that all the videos appear with an exclamation mark on the screen of my camcorder when I attempt to view them. However, I can still view them when connected to the Blu-ray recorder and my laptop.

What I do now recall is that I copied all these short (mostly less than a minute) recordings on the SD card to my computer but, before doing that, I re-named each one to indicate the location whilst on the SD card.

When these renamed files were copied to my computer, they played without any problem. However, they no longer play on the camcorder nor will they copy on to the Blu-ray recorder, although they WILL play on the recorder. That is the strange thing. Why will they play but not record?

Incidentally, I later examined the recordings as listed on my computer and found that they all had the 'Archived' box ticked. I laboriously went through each one (there are about 160) and un-ticked each box. Having done that, I found that a couple of isolated files would then play on the camcorder, but not the rest.

The recordings are still there on the SD card but, for some reason, they (or the vast majority) will not play on the camcorder or record to the Blu-ray recorder HDD.

I suspect that my re-naming of the files is the root cause of the problem.

Do any of you have any advice as to what I need to do to rectify this problem, please?

[Cornucopia]

(Assuming you haven't recorded in the UGGHH iFrame format)

Yes, AVCHD clips should NEVER be renamed. EVER. If you are lucky, you can rename them back to their original names and be able to recover them. Then, refrain from doing this in the future. If you want to "personalize" the clips to help with remembering them, the cam may have the ability to tag them from the cam or from the supplied transfer software (in which case, the tag info probably gets added into either the CLIPINF or the PLALIST files, but more likely NOT the TS streams themselves).

If renaming them back doesn't work, they're most likely b0rked in their present state, but a remux to another container (one which doesn't expect a certain file+folder structure, such as MP4 or MKV) will probably do the trick.

Scott

[JBR]

Thanks.
Well I won't do that silly trick again!

I'll try to rename them; they were numbered consecutively although I did delete some so renaming could be a bit hit and miss

Thanks for the advice, though.

[Cornucopia]

Update: further reading of your recorder's manual tells me that it would only take MP4 (or MOV or MTS/M2TS or MPEG) as a DLNA client (streamed over local network). If your intention was to play them DIRECTLY from the recorder (and were going to copy to the recorder first), you MUST have a standard AVCHD structure.

If renaming back to exact original names does not work, I would suggest you copy assets to PC, then re-mux & reauthor your assets into a NEW, non-corrupted AVCHD structure, using AVCHDCoder, BDRebuilder, etc. Then copy the result to your recorder.
BTW, none of that should re-encode your footage; remuxing should not lose any quality.

Scott

[JBR]

If renaming back to exact original names does not work, I would suggest you copy assets to PC, then re-mux & reauthor your assets into a NEW, non-corrupted AVCHD structure, using AVCHDCoder, BDRebuilder, etc. Then copy the result to your recorder.
BTW, none of that should re-encode your footage; remuxing should not lose any quality.

Scott

Thanks again. I was with you right up to 'then'!

At the risk of sounding a complete idiot, what is 're-muxing' and 'reauthoring'?
I suppose that if I downloaded the software you kindly suggested there may be some instructions included?

Anyway, when I have more time, I'll try to re-name all the files (all 160 or so of them!) although, as I said, that could be quite hit and miss and certainly time consuming. Entirely my fault, of course.

[Cornucopia]

Audio & Video are synced & combined/"zippered" into a container file format = multiplexing or muxing.

Remuxing = keeping the streams but re-incorporating them into a new container.

You author full-featured assets to include chapter+menus+navigational+other logic in a standardized layout so it will be prepared for easy CE playback on (dumb) machines. DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD (and to a lesser extent, AudioCD), VideoCD/SVCD, HD-DVD & Blu-ray (BDMV, BD-J, 3DBD, UHD BD) are all authored formats. <edit>And AVCHD v1.0 and AVCHD v2.0!</edit>

Re-authoring starts with assets (stripped down or not) and re-incorporates and reorganizes them into a new, clean structure (while, obviously remuxing them). You may or may not be able to take advantage of the original structure (some can "pick up where you left off", some you must "re-start from scratch").

Scott

[JBR]

Thanks again, Scott.
It's all beginning to make sense and I'm sure that if and when I need to make use of the software you suggested all will become clear.

[JBR]

Just an update. I tried re-naming some of the files, beginning with 00000, 00001, etc, then tried variations on that idea, but without success. The files are still listed as being AVCHD files, though.
I gave AVCHDCoder a try, but couldn't figure out exactly what to do, I'm afraid.

So a lesson learnt. I won't do that again! Still, I have the recordings on my computer now so I haven't lost anything other than the means of copying to a Blu-ray disc via my Blu-ray recorder.

Thanks for all the help and advice, anyway.

[Cornucopia]

Maybe try MultiAVCHD?...

[JBR]

Thanks.

I downloaded this programme and followed the instructions. However, the following message came up: "[08:41:58] tsMuxeR failed to process [C:\Users\John\Desktop\Videos for conversion\Viking Freya cabin 02.MTS]...
[08:41:58] No compatible folders/files processed..."

Looking at the online instructions, the supported input FILE formats list does not include AVCHD files, and the files I have on my computer and SD card are AVCHD files.

Worth a try, though.

[Cornucopia]

It DOES support m2ts files, which is what your AVCHD files are. Maybe they need to be demuxed first like I said earlier.
No need to GIVE UP yet...

(Could be a problem if those are avchd v2, though)

Scott

[JBR]

I really appreciate your time and persistence in trying to overcome my problem, so hesitate in asking more questions.
I apologise for not understanding most of your terminology, but how do I 'demux' these files?