Canon HG20 AVCHD video file transfer to Win 7 machine

[MykRian]

New member. Longtime lurker. Thought I had signed up years ago, but I guess not.
So, here I am with my latest conundrum.

The camcorder is a Canon HG20 HiDef w/hard drive storage of 60gig.

Previously, with Win XP, the Canon software did fine for transferring those 20-30gig files, but now I have a Win 7 machine purchased expressively for working with these AVCHD .m2ts files. Well, as many might know, Canon doesn't support their software running under Win 7. Boo on them. It was pretty lame software anyway.

I've tried using my old XP system to DL the movies from the camcorder using the Canon EX software, then copy them to a flash drive, external hard drive, etc. Any way I can think of to get them on this new machine. For some reason, I find it impossible to get those 20-30 gig files copied. I have been able to copy them from the cam using the USB cable, but they come in 1.9gig chunks. I want to get the entire movie files in one BIG chunk.

I am currently (as I type this) copying one 22gig file to a 34gig SD card, using the camera copy function. This has been a nightmare that I have finally resolved with this method, for now.

OK. Deep breath.
What are people using to transfer these files now? I'll continue to use the SD card if it's an efficient way to do it, but I suspect there is other software for the task. What say ye of knowledge?
I would like to resolve this before asking all sorts of Qs concerning editing and writing to DVD.

Myk

[smrpix]

I have been able to copy them from the cam using the USB cable, but they come in 1.9gig chunks.

This is completely normal. The camera records "spanned clips" in a manner that respects legacy file and disk size limitations. DVDs work this way as well.

I want to get the entire movie files in one BIG chunk.

Even the most up-to-date pro cameras do not do this. They record spanned clips which are identified as such by the metadata in the hd folder.

I am currently (as I type this) copying one 22gig file to a 34gig SD card, using the camera copy function. This has been a nightmare that I have finally resolved with this method, for now.

This is a needless waste of time. Just copy the files to your computer via USB, then drop them into an NLE timeline and they will play seamlessly -- as designed.

Best of luck.

[MykRian]

Thanks for the reply. Understand the waste of time bit.

Next question, which I may have to take to a different section here.
I use AVS4YOU to work these files. It does a fine job of stitching them together and editing/clipping. But when I publish and write them to a DVD, I will get good playback up to a certain point, then the video hangs up, stutters, stops, etc.
I have been unable to fix this. I've tried DVD+r and now have Taiyo Yuden DVD-r which have produced the same. Stumped.

Since the cam software transferred these files as one, I was able to edit them in that format. Hence my wanting to transfer the entire file at once.

[smrpix]

I'm not familiar with that software -- actually it appears to be a suite.

Are you creating a data DVD with your HiDef materials or are you converting it to standard DVD format?

If standard def, I would recommend you try loading your stitched file into something like AVStoDVD (not related to what you're currently using.)

The stuttering and stopping can be anything from corrupt files (unlikely) to bad disks to bad burns (ImgBurn is highly thought of here -- be sure to unselect the add-ons as you're installing.)

[glenpinn]

I use AVS4YOU to work these files.

do yourself a real favor and dump that crappy software, its a pathetic piece of balony.

if you really want to work with files like that, grab a $99 copy of VideoReDo TVSuite h264 it will be the best $99 you ever spent.

i am part of the forum community over there, and it is a great bit of software.

you cannot just use a "join" function to stitch those "chunks" together, you need to "combine" them so the pieces flow together without dropping any frames, if you just join them, usually you get a skipped frame or 2 at the point where each file joins.

videoredo has both the join and the combine feature, and the combine tool is also used in their dvd editing to join VOB files together to create an mpeg2 program stream from a set of VOBS in a dvd.

http://www.videoredo.com/en/index.htm?src=VRD2008c&gclid=CMnGuMDuzboCFWtlpgodlnYAsA

http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/forum.php

[MykRian]

I think I solved some of my problems.
I downloaded and installed Oracle Virtualbox software to create a virtual machine.
In that VM I installed Win XP, and I can now run any programs that won't run under Win 7.
Pretty slick way to do things.
Thanks for the replies.

[budwzr]

The downside is your computer now has an extra shell layer to help slow it down. Not to mention new bugs coming into the scenario. So it's not an ideal solution, more of a hack.

But if it works in your case, that nullifies me.

[MykRian]

If it gets me the single file I'm looking for, that'll make me happy.
Pretty good horsepower with this machine, so I'm not too worried.
Will report back with results.

[techiejustin]

If it gets me the single file I'm looking for, that'll make me happy.
Pretty good horsepower with this machine, so I'm not too worried.
Will report back with results.

I know this is a bit late, but if you're on Windows 7, why not use use Movie Maker, import all of your video into that and then export to one big file?