Hi
Hoping someone can help here.
I have a Panasonic video camera and use the HD Writer supplied to upload videos to my computer and burn dvd's - all this is working fine.
However my Mother also has a Panasonic video camera but had various issues with it and her computer. To cut a long story short, I managed to get all the information off her SD card and onto my laptop.
Under the folder I created for them I have the following
Folder called DCIM - This is empty
Folder called Private
Within Private is a folder called AVCHD
Within AVCHD are folders called AVCHDTN and BDMV
Within AVCHDTN are two files - THUMB.TDT and THUMB.TID
Within BDMV are 3 folders - CLIPINF, PLAYLIST and STREAM and 2 files - INDEX.BDM and MOVIEOBJ.BDM
Within CLIPINF are loads of .CPI files
Within PLAYLIST are a few .MPL files
Within STREAM are loads of .MTS files
But I have no idea how to burn these onto a dvd - I'd like to burn onto a HD quality dvd to playback in my PS3.
I'd also prefer not to have to buy software to do it.
Could someone point me in the right direction please?
Many thanks
Martin
DVD is Standard def. If you want HD you would have to go Blu-ray. I searched and a couple free ones did come up but I have no experience with them, only Adobe Encore in regards to Blu-ray. You will also need a drive capable of burning Blu-ray and a Blu-ray disc.
I don't know if any of the freeware will accept AVCHD, so you might also have to look at transcoding to MPEG2 as well.
Good luck
The mts files in stream are your video files that you can either play native or convert down to DVD. Your PS3 will play some types of high def files; maybe it will play the .mts files. Try those files in your HD Writer. There are a number of things you can try but I'd start with burning a few mts files to dvd as dvd-rom, like you would for an SD card or USB chip. More software=more options!
Martin, I hope this helps and doesn't muddy the waters. I have used Sony Vegas movie studio to burn high definiton files on to standard DVDs using a non-blu ray burner. A PS3 or Bluray player was required to play the result. I'm not an extremely tech know how type so I can't give too much info. I just clicked on make movie and the software did the rest. Good Luck.
You can burn AVCHD video to a DVD. It is just limited to 4.3 GB, and can only be played on BD players or computers.
Make sure you copy the whole AVCHD file to your computer, things can get kind of screwy with the footage if you do not.
Here is a little tech information that may help;
Standard DVD's (even ones bought in store) are at 720x480. Reason being is the space factor limit. A two hour movie at 720x480 takes up a lot but the reason for the limit on frame size is audio. It is easy to overlook the fact that audio has to be on the same disc.
Double Layer Disc also helped to increase the file size limit, but since most personal DVD players could not play HD, why should producers put HD on the disc or use DL disc. The first jump to better quality on DL Disc was audio. Since LCD HD TV's were yet future producers focused on audio for the DL Disc. Then they started plopping two movies per disc.
When LCD TV's came out followed by BD players this changed the entire field. Personal video cameras could now shoot mts HD video format and be played back in HD at home. But the mts format caused some issues. The average person is unable to buy BD burners, the cost is still high as well as the disc. The fix AVCHD.
AVCHD is taking an mts format burning it to a standard DVD or DL DVD, and getting HD quality almost equal to that of BD.
But you have to give up or cut back on the audio. On a standard DVD you can get 30 minutes of AVCHD with good audio, on a DL DVD you can get an hour, go over these limits and the software will have to make adjustments as it burns.
But there is still a give, most NLE will not handle mts format. In fact CVS was the first customer released NLE that did, this was followed up almost within a few days by Adobe, then Sony. Will Free NLE handle AVCHD/mts? I have not seen any, and those that go for under $50.00 off the shelf may have a disclaimer that you have to pay an up fee for the codec.
So if you want AVCHD to standard DVD you will have to part with some money to buy the software to handle this Codec.
"A Photo Captures but a Moment in Time: Video Captures a Lifetime in a Moment"
Hi Martin
You may have a bitrate problem.
You should be able to take an AVCHD file from the camera, burn it to DVD on a DVD burner, then play it on a Blueray player. You will most likely need some software on the way but HD Writer which was bundled with your camera should be fine.
The rub is that the AVCHD file must be about 17Mb/s or less (1440 x 1080). Some video cameras record AVCHD as high as 28Mb/s (1920 x 1080) and thisdefinitelywill not play on a Blueray player.
It may be as simple as getting into the menu on your mothers camera a setting the bitrate to a lower value.
Of course if it is the problem, that wont help much with the footage you already have.
Cheers Ian
http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/AG-HMC40PJ.asp
get panasonic viewer software here and free. Now I can "see" the videos in a stock folder not just in editing software.