Please Help

[Anonymous]

I just bougnt a panasonic HMC40 and I am trying to transfer the footage for the Micro SD to my computer. I am using sony movie studio HD and When I insert the card into my computer there is nothig there but the footage isin the card. I am using vista with plenty of memory and external hardrive.

[vid-e-o-man]

 sean, I’m not familier with the pana but using a Sony cam with VMS, I leave the card in the camera and connect the cam to the computer using usb. Transfering video files is easy but I going sony to sony. Hope this helps.

[Alexian]

Hello Sean,

Panasonic AG-HMC40 uses SDHC cards and applies the AVCHD format for HD.
You don’t mention which version of Movie Studio but if it’s older than the current version (HD11) it may not support AVCHD.

Your computer must be able to read the card if the footage is there. You should see a .MTS file extension against each clip. If you can’t I can only guess you may have formatted the SD card in the computer. Some cameras will only work with cards formatted in the camera itself but should give you an on-screen error message which indicates it cannot read the card or that the card is not present.

I’ll be watching your follow-ups in the hopes you solved the problem and what is was.

Good luck, alexian

[Anonymous]

Maybe try downloading a trial version of the current release of the software to see if it is a file support issue as Alexian suggested. At the very least you will eliminate one possible cause.

[Charles]

What type of micro sd do you use? If I am not mistaken your camera needs at least a class six for it to record and better yet a class 10. Do you see a file on the SD card? if so, you need to click it and click the bottom folders until you reach the AVCHD file, the footage is in there.

I am not sure on your software but with Premiere Pro you have to copy the whole AVCHD file to your computer, if I just copy the clips it leaves spaces where the files are separated.

[Anonymous]

Hi Alexian thanks for the information. I tried it and it works well
since then my wife took sick and needs to have surger. I have not been able to use my camera until today but along with the MTS. I am seeing a mts.sfk file. I can use theMTS , but the program said none of the the mts.sfk files can’t be drop on time line. Can you please help , I did a graduation but I can’t drop the sfk files on time line.:(

[birdcat]

You cannot use the SFK files – The MTS files are AVCHD video/audio files – Highly compressed. If your version of Vegas cannot handle them, NewBlue FX/VASST has a product called AVCHD UpShift which converts those files (without losing image quality) to M2T files (lightly compressed MPEG-2) – I used this for over a year and it worked great for me (new PC has no problems with MTS).

Also, Panny’s recording MXF files to P2 cards can be problematic – RayLight Ultra converts these to files Vegas (pro 10 and earlier) can use.

[JackWolcott]

Did you finalize the card in the camera before trying to download it to your computer in the card reader.

I don’t use an HD camera with a card but my Datavideo video recorder uses cards and these must be finalized — “convert to video file” it’s called in this device — before the computer can read the card.

Just a thought.

Jack

[Anonymous]

Thanks a million birdcat! Do you have any suggestions in which I can avoid these files? I am not doing anything differently when I recieve the usual MTSfiles. Ijust see themwhen ready to transfer.I am using panasonic HMC 40.

[birdcat]

Sean – Your camera most likely came with software to process the MTS files and download them to your PC. You need to use it if you have MTS files > 2GB as the file system breaks the files into 2gb chunks and you will lose a few frames of audio when that happens – The software knows how to stitch them together properly. If you keep the files shorter than 2gb you don’t need to do this, just use the MTS files as is. This is all assuming you are shooting in HD, SD uses MPEG-2 to record.

[Author]

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