The AVCHD Struggle
Recently, I purchased a great 1080p camcorder, the Panasonic HDC SD5, for use in my YouTube videos. As per a previous post, I made sure to do my research and thus discovered that the device recorded in the AVCHD format. This seemed the slandered for consumer camcorders that handle such high resolutions. Turned out, my interpretation of the spec sheets was a little inaccurate. So, I am here today to give a work of caution to take before investing in a such device.
The issue
Many months ago, I heard of many bloggers and tech reviewers complaining about the lack of support for AVCHD in common editing packages. As all that fuss began to die down, I no longer saw it as an issue. My interpretation of the issue was that, the raw files were wrapped in a .mp4 format but that the codec was unreadable by desktop software. While in some cases that is true, not so with my device nor with lots of others.
If you are one of the unlucky owners of hardware that shoots in native AVCHD (MTS files) then, what really happens, is the camera formats the storage media with a folder structure that is pretty much synonymous with the format. Within that, there are several files that are of an unrecognizable filetype to most software on your computer. In its raw form, this is probably less use to you than a flammable oven glove!
The solution
As unfortunate as it may be, the only way to do anything with it is to rencode the file into a support format thus sacrificing some quality goodness. To do so, my recommendation is Handbrake.
Feel free to post your own recommendations.
Your Responses
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With thanks, Tom
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Comment Posting Guidance
For the benefit of every non-spambot visiting, following a recent site restructuring I have some rules with regard to etiquette for comment posters. As well as making a better experience for all, they help to distinguish real people for automatic evil machine spam. Due to this, any comment that fails to follow any one of them will be considered spam and removed as soon as possible.
With thanks, Tom
- Coherent English must be used.
- This form has multiple fields for a reason. Only enter a real name or nickname in the first box i.e. "Boats For Sale" wouldn't make it. Similarly, the "Website" input is a pre-determined place to post one link so there is no need to have them in the body area. This is a common technique used by spammers and marketers and, as such is not allowed.
- Your comment must be directly related to the post to which it is a response. The idea of a post commenting system is to further the conversation that began in the given article. For instance "great post" is not a comment. My contact form can be used for suggestions or general communications.
- Responses to other comments must be civilised.
- No sexual reference or content is allowed.
- Duplicate comments are a no-no.
AVCHD I have never had any problems working with it since 2008. Although I used Final Cut 7 and now FCP X to do most of my work with it. iMovie 11 has work great with it & if I need to to a rip of it I use mpegstreamclip which you can get here. http://www.squared5.com/ its more advanced than hand brake. Perian - The swiss-army knife of QuickTime® components is also needed and opens up more ways to encode www.perian.org my 2 cents
Hi, don't give into ideas of depression or indifference based upon what someone writes to you in the comments here or by email, remember everyone on earth will say what they want, but that doesn't mean what they say is right or holds any validity whatsoever. What most people on earth say or think is stupid and deranged, learn to accept this and expect it because you can't avoid it, because that is how people are, and you have to deal with people, some will do you good and some will do you evil. May Jesus bless you.
Hi Tom, I had bought a camcorder that had the same issue. After much searching and some time spent re-encoding videos I learnt that by simply re-naming the .mts file to .avi I was able to open the videos in editing software. Note: I have have installed relevant codecs in the process of trouble shooting this issue. Kevin
Hello Tom, Me again. Hopefully you won't think I'm the same "David" that posted already to this thread. I'm interested in replacing my Hi8 (tape) camcorder, so in the process of researching HD cameras, I came across your video on YouTube. I appreciate your review there. Thanks. While we were given an example of interior shooting during your YouTube review of the Panasonic, I was wondering if you could tell us how the camera performs outside, in particular the color rendition of nature. I believe I've read the Panasonic has an optical zoom of 10X, which would suit me just fine. I've also come across a much cheaper HD camcorder called the "Flip" that I've seen outdoor shots with on YouTube that are STUNNING! I mean stunning! High def and true color! Here in the US, the model sells for $150, which might make for an excellent entry-level camera. A couple of downsides I see with the Flip is I believe it's fixed focus (I may be wrong here, but there are no examples I've seen online where it actually appears to focus from one item to another, and its close-up ability is not very good at all.) Its lens isn't very well shaded either, so interior shots with light sources showing in the view finder will turn into light streaks on the image. Also, it has a poor USB connection. The entire weight of the Flip is held by an arm-like USB connector. Here's an instance where it would be best to use an extenstion cord on your USB and plug the Flip directly into the cord, as opposed to having it hang onto the USB port of the computer. Anyway, I kind of digressed by talking about the Flip. Sorry. I was just wondering what your impressions are of the Panasonic HDC/SD5 used outdoors. Thanks, David Miller
You can smile in your videos? You is so serious.