Working with long MTS files advice.

[Litos456]

Hey fellas,
My father and I are soon planning to get a Panasonic TM700k camcorder for various things.
We are both going to be doing normal editing of small clips, we use Sony Vegas - but I've already figured and tested all of that out using raw .mts and .m2t files recorded with the camera that I downloaded from the internet. I've found that using a manual method gets me an editing-friendly but extremely large AVI file, and using the Xvid4PSP method gets me a compressed AVI file but not good for editing. Either way it's a time consuming process to convert and render everything (Vegas takes it's time with rendering these, even small clips), as well as a storage consuming one, but it should suffice.

However, my question here is: There is one case where we may need to record a very long, around hour long clips with the camera, just concerts in a local music school. There may be breaks (intermission for instance) but either way there are going to be large, long files in raw mts format.
The problem here is that if a 21 second .mts file that weighs 64 megabytes gets converted into a 7 GB raw AVI file, I can't even imagine how heavy an hour long clip will be in AVI format. I'm sure the raw .mts for it won't be any more than 15 or so GB, which is fine, as they say that a 16 GB flash card can support up to 2 hours of 1080p video or so. That said, I think I may have found a workaround using the Xvid4PSP method: If it converts .mts files to slightly larger but compressed AVI files, then it would typically convert an hour long clip, that, let's say for instance weights 10 GB, to perhaps 12 GB. Then I assume I can import it to Vegas, and although it will be very very difficult to edit it, all I'm really going to need it for is to re-render it back into a DVD friendly size. Maybe a little editing (like put on text titles, fades, etc) but not much.

I've tested this with the small file I have, but I wanted to see what you guys think about this case. I know there are some well known gurus here who may offer a better advice, perhaps a more direct way of getting this to work. In fact, if there is a video editing program that can import .mts files by itself (let's say Adobe Premiere) then I wouldn't mind just using that since it's just minor edits and I wouldn't have to put up with the heavy files hassle, I only need Vegas for major editing since I'm used to it.

Another little concern is if the Vegas, Xvid4PSP and the avchd_conver_v9 tools will be able to handle such large/long files. Technically they should, it's just it'll take longer to do everything, but you never know. I wouldn't want to experience any unexpected crashes. I have a powerful 2.83 Ghz Quad Core PC, so far the editing I've done with the test footage has gone through pretty smoothly.

Thanks in advance everyone,
-Ed

Edit: Hmm, I just found out that apparently Sony Vegas 9 and 10 have native support for .mts! And supposedly works particularly well with the TM700. I'll have to try that out.

[edDV]

The Panasonic TM700k records 1080p/60 at 28 Mb/s (~14GB/hr). It can also record 1080i or 1080p/24 at 13 or 17 Mb/s.

Which version of Sony Vegas are you using? Vegas Platinum or Pro will capture and natively edit AVCHD files.

[Litos456]

At the moment I'm using Vegas 8 Pro. What do you mean by 'capture' the files? Currently when I try to import an mts it just freezes up and I'm forced to terminate the process. Although is there a difference from importing directly from the cam (as I said, I'm using a test file off the internet right now since I don't have the camera itself yet).

[mL999]

The camcorder you refer to uses SD cards . The easiest way to get the shots into a computer for editing is to copy the files directly from the SD card using card reader ( costs very little . most mid-price laptops already have one built in ) . 'Explore' down the file tree on the card until you find the ' xxx.mts' files ( PRIVATE > AVCHD > STREAM > xxx.MTS ) . Drag and drop each of them into a suitable directory(folder) that you have prepared on the computer . Then you can edit them as you wish . The VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum Pro version 9 or 10 will edit them and render the movie you make to your preferred final form . Download the trial version of vegas and see if you like it . ( you can of course copy all the files on the card and back them up on a DVD if you want to re-use the SD card.). ... best wishes mike

[edDV]

At the moment I'm using Vegas 8 Pro. What do you mean by 'capture' the files? Currently when I try to import an mts it just freezes up and I'm forced to terminate the process. Although is there a difference from importing directly from the cam (as I said, I'm using a test file off the internet right now since I don't have the camera itself yet).

Import the files then.

You will need to upgrade to Vegas Platinum or Pro versions 9 or 10 to get AVCHD support. Here is the overview help file ...



In addition there is a "Device Explorer" utility that lets you view AVCHD or XDCAM-EX clips directly from the flash media before you import.

[poisondeathray]

Just a pedantic point, but it doesn't shoot avchd in 28Mb/s 1080p60 mode - which is beyond the avchd spec for bitrate (24Mb/s) and framerate at that resolution.

Nevertheless both vegas 9 and 10 can edit the streams natively. 10 has a few software optimizations and is a bit faster for editing h.264 streams

[edDV]

...( you can of course copy all the files on the card and back them up on a DVD if you want to re-use the SD card.). ... best wishes mike

Further... It is important to archive all the files in the AVCHD flash card directory (not just the mts files) if you want future access to camera meta data and original time code. The additional files are small.

[edDV]

Just a pedantic point, but it doesn't shoot avchd in 28Mb/s 1080p60 mode - which is beyond the avchd spec for bitrate (24Mb/s) and framerate at that resolution.

Nevertheless both vegas 9 and 10 can edit the streams natively. 10 has a few software optimizations and is a bit faster for editing h.264 streams

True, the VBR 28 Mb/s 1080p/59.94 mode is proprietary to Panasonic (outside the AVCHD spec) and isn't directly supported by Vegas. You will have to experiment with custom project templates.

[Litos456]

I just upgraded to Vegas 10 and it works wonderfully. Thanks guys.