Panasonic HD video camera: lost my HD Writer software

[badjujumatt]

Hello, newbee here! I have a HDC-TM55 video camera, however, I lost my OEM software disc for HD Writer and can no longer view videos, download them from my camera, etc. Called Panasonic, they want me to buy the software again. I can either:

buy the software
get a file convertor (the files are m2ts). I have tried this option but the free convertors all come with a bunch of crap spam.

I have Magix Movie Edit Pro, that I paid$$$ for, and cant use it!

Help Please!!!!

[aedipuss]

nothing on that cd is needed. plug in the usb cable and copy/paste the video files on to your computer's hard drive. (and fill in the computer spec portion of your profile on this forum). use vlc to watch them. (they are avchd, nothing special) you might want to try updating your magix software as it does support m2ts.

[chicken264]

I also had this type of camera. The Panasonic software is actually not good at all.

MPC-HC, VLC, SPLASH lite all plays those files perfectly. Worst case you may need to change the file extension to mts or even ts.

[badjujumatt]

I have Magix Pro version 14. Do you happen to know which new version supports my file types?

[TreeTops]

Your version is 4 years old and may not play m2ts files. If you just want to play those files then do what the other posters suggested.

[chicken264]

I have Magix Pro version 14. Do you happen to know which new version supports my file types?

For editing check support for AVCHD. Any editor that supports AVCHD should work.

[aedipuss]

I have Magix Pro version 14. Do you happen to know which new version supports my file types?

don't know. they are up to version 18 now.

vegas studio is a decent editor that would work and if you search and wait for specials can be had cheap. a free trial version is also available until it expires.

[badjujumatt]

I upgraded to ver 18 and can import the videos. I cant however locate the videos on my camera after i connect it to the PC. I went through all the folders and they dont show up. BUT, on import while in magix they do show up. Frustrated just a bit.....

After import the videos are very jerky.

[aedipuss]

that cam has internal memory and sd card slots doesn't it? make sure to check if it shows up as multiple drives. i'd record to sd cards and just remove them and use a card reader attached to the pc.

shouldn't be jerky, what are you using to watch with and which de-interlacer? and which format did you to record to? paste a mediainfo data copy here. it's a free program that shows video info. put it in text mode and you can copy/paste it here.

[chicken264]

I upgraded to ver 18 and can import the videos. I cant however locate the videos on my camera after i connect it to the PC. I went through all the folders and they dont show up. BUT, on import while in magix they do show up. Frustrated just a bit.....

After import the videos are very jerky.

Check all the drives, if you have internal and sd card. Also videos are locates in deep in folders like private/bdmv/stream.

if the videos are captured at highest quality settings, you need good cpu to process. Even if it is jerky while you edit
once you export every thing will be fine. gpu acceleration can help here, but all programs can not handle it.

[mL999]

Take the SD card out of the camcorder. Plug it into a card reader ( most laptops have one built-in -- you might have to buy a USB-plug in type of card-reader for a desktop computer. They are very cheap 1or2 £ UK) ) then use 'Windows Explorer' . Explore the the files on the card and copy the video files (????.VOB ) from the card into the computer . Then you can do what you want with your videos. - play - edit - add music-convert it - put is on a disc for your granny - or whatever .

I am not impressed by Magix editor . Try the 'free trial' version of Sony Vegas. It is easy to learn the essentials. yours mike
.

[azloafer]

I happened to speak with Panasonic this AM, regarding the proper software update for my HDC-TM15. I recently got the cam as a gift, without a CD. Being a newbie, I asked Panasonic what version to update to. Surprisingly, I was told that each software, including the one for my cam, HD Writer AE 1.5, is model specific and I should not attempt an update. Before calling I noticed that ver.2.1 was suggested in several posts, but Panasonic maintained that I have to stay with the original 1.5 version which they sell for $14.95. They said that there are no updates for 1.5. I thought I would post this because there is a lot of talk about updating. Posted for what it's worth.