Sony AVCHD m2ts files?

[joshhuntnm]

I am using a Canon hg10 hard drive based high def camcorder along with sony vegas platinum to edit.

When I go to render hd files, i wants to save them as m2t files, which don't seem to upload. do you support m2t files? if not what kind of high def files do you support. I couldn't see where vegas would write an h.264 file.

Any advice would be helpful.

[brown224]

Hello,

I am a Pro user and recently purchased a Sony 1080i camcorder that seems to save the HD video as .m2ts files. When I try to upload those to my Smug Mug account it says that it is an unsupported file type. Does Smug Mug plan on supporting this soon, or is there another solution available??? Any information would be GREATLY appreciated!

[docwalker]

I merged your 2 threads together as you both have similar questions. The answer is the same.

We recently had a discussion about this very issue in the old Video Support Thread. Check starting at post 600 here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=75208&page=60&highlight=avchd

MTS and M2ts are similar in that we cannot support them at this time.

The files typically are very large and given that most people will edit them anyway, could use a little compression. If you convert or save these file into .mov, h.264, or one of the other supported formats (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=75208&page=60&highlight=avchd) they will load to SmugMug.

It is possible that we will support them in the future. For now, converting is the only option.

If you are not interested in using an editor, try a converter like MPEG Stream Clip from www.squared5.com

--Doc

[mdraughn]

I couldn't see where vegas would write an h.264 file.


I believe h.264 is one of the MPEG-4 formats, also known as AVC.

Vegas supports output in the MainConcept AVC/AAC format and the Sony AVC format. SmugMug takes the first one, and should probably take the second one, but I haven't tried it.

[retrato]

I believe h.264 is one of the MPEG-4 formats, also known as AVC.

Vegas supports output in the MainConcept AVC/AAC format and the Sony AVC format. SmugMug takes the first one, and should probably take the second one, but I haven't tried it.

I got my Sony HDR-SR12 two weeks ago and have since been trying to convert M2TS video files to MPEG-4 format. After many hours of experimenting with various softwares (freeware and purchased), I came up with the following procedure:


Capture the handycam video using Sony's Picture Motion Browser. It creates an .m2ts file
Import the m2ts file into Cyberlink PowerDirector v7 (purchased software).
In PowerDirector, "Create File" using "Production Wizard". Output to AVC.MPEG4 (file created will have .m2ts extension)
Rename m2ts to mp4. Uploaded this mp4 file to Smugmug. See result: http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/5437940_EJ5GF#332465945_rBavV-A-LB
I used the default profile (720x480) as I'm not familiar with creating a custom profile for 1280x720.
Can someone help me in setting up a profile for 1280x720 as I don't know much about what to put in the parameters (see screenshot below)24314

Suggestions/comments will be greatly appreciated. Maybe someone can come up with a simpler solution. I already tried MPEG Streamclip (http://www.squared5.com/) in conjunction with QuickTime Alternative (http://www.filehippo.com/download_quicktime_alternative/?2615) - I didn't have success in using these.

[LiquidAir]

AVCHD discs are going to be H.264 video mulitplexed in a MPEG2 Transport Stream (hence the .m2ts extension). Each of the common MPEG standards (1, 2, 4) specifies a set of video codecs, audio codecs, and a systems part which describes how audio and video are packaged together and delivered.

Digital Television, DVD, Blu-Ray, and AVCHD (which is a subset of BluRay) use the MPEG2 systems layer, but allow for MPEG4 video (AVC/H.264). Since the video in your .m2ts file is already AVC, it is a bit of a shame to re-transcode it when all you really need to do is repackage it for upload. However, transport streams are complicated and a bit messy so many software packages won't deal with them directly.

I did a quick web search and came up with this site which may have a tool which solves your problem:
http://www.squared5.com/
I have not tried it so I can't warantee it. Also it does not specifically say it supports AVC so it may have trouble pulling out the video. Nominally AVC is muxed in transport streams the same way MPEG is, but you never know what assumptions the software will make.

As for configuring your AVC encoder, the correct settings are highly content dependent; there is no right answer. To start just run with the defaults and adjust only if you are not happy with the results.

[retrato]

I did a quick web search and came up with this site which may have a tool which solves your problem:
http://www.squared5.com/
I have not tried it so I can't warantee it. Also it does not specifically say it supports AVC so it may have trouble pulling out the video. Nominally AVC is muxed in transport streams the same way MPEG is, but you never know what assumptions the software will make.
Thanks for your comments.

As I mentioned, I did try MPEG Streamclip from www.squared5.com (http://www.squared5.com) (which required QuickTime Alternative for MPEG-2 playback) - it's not able to read M2TS file.

I just want to be able to upload to Smugmug, videos captured by my Sony HD-SR12.

[peestandingup]

Sony does something weird (proprietary) to their AVCHD files I've read. This is kinda Sony's thing with lots of their other formats. Which is a good reason to stay away from them.

[LiquidAir]

Sony does something weird (proprietary) to their AVCHD files I've read. This is kinda Sony's thing with lots of their other formats. Which is a good reason to stay away from them.

Actually AVCHD is more-or-less a Sony proprietary format and it is not endorsed by the Blu-Ray standards committee. That said, as far as I know the primary compatibility issue with AVCHD is that it is typically written to red laser discs and some Blu-Ray players will only play high def content from blue laser discs (why? its political...). That and, well, the standard is still very new so compatibility is generally an issue with Blu-Ray. I have not seen anything about Sony's AVCHD that would cause problems for software which knows how to read standard Blu-Ray discs. The real issue here is that Blu-Ray/AVCHD is still very new so the software is just not out there yet.

Drifting away from the OP, if you are making high def discs to play in a player for some reason, I would actually suggest using AVCHD and dealing with the compatibility issues because Blu-Ray media is still so expensive. The only Blu-Ray player I would consider buying right now is the Playstation and it handles AVCHD just fine.

[peestandingup]

Actually AVCHD is more-or-less a Sony proprietary format and it is not endorsed by the Blu-Ray standards committee. That said, as far as I know the primary compatibility issue with AVCHD is that it is typically written to red laser discs and some Blu-Ray players will only play high def content from blue laser discs (why? its political...). That and, well, the standard is still very new so compatibility is generally an issue with Blu-Ray. I have not seen anything about Sony's AVCHD that would cause problems for software which knows how to read standard Blu-Ray discs. The real issue here is that Blu-Ray/AVCHD is still very new so the software is just not out there yet.

Drifting away from the OP, if you are making high def discs to play in a player for some reason, I would actually suggest using AVCHD and dealing with the compatibility issues because Blu-Ray media is still so expensive. The only Blu-Ray player I would consider buying right now is the Playstation and it handles AVCHD just fine.
Not Blu-ray but i was referring to their AVCHD files that are produced by their camcorders. I dont know what the exact issue is, maybe its just simply camera compatibility. But I've read in lots of forums people having issues editing in the new 3rd party apps with Sony-made AVCHD files from their consumer camcorders.

[MetzPhoto]

I got my Sony HDR-SR12 two weeks ago and have since been trying to convert M2TS video files to MPEG-4 format. After many hours of experimenting with various softwares (freeware and purchased), I came up with the following procedure
Suggestions/comments will be greatly appreciated. Maybe someone can come up with a simpler solution. I already tried MPEG Streamclip (http://www.squared5.com/) in conjunction with QuickTime Alternative (http://www.filehippo.com/download_quicktime_alternative/?2615) - I didn't have success in using these.

I am trying to come up with a solution also. I have a Sony Handycam HC7. I have Vegas Movie Studio 8 (Platinum).

So far I got lucky with one file that I rendered as a WMV. Others I rendered the same way do not work. I have uploaded many files, and no dice. (A second file would play, but the aspect ratio was messed up).

Has anyone had success with 720 or SD rendering with Vegas (for SM)? How did you do it?

[JDSX]

I went through all this and found a very easy solution, Cyberlink's PowerDirector. (http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/products/main_4_ENU.html) I convert my mt2s files to mpg with it.