Hi All,

I have had a very frustrating time trying to find any software to support my Sony Sr-7 AVCHD files. I am using Sony Vegas 8.0.

I go to File > Import > Media > and select an M2TS file > a popup appears that reads "Warning: an error occurred while opening one or more files. The file is an unsupported format."

Any ideas? This has happened on both of my computers.

Thanks,
M

I think that's the error I got when not using the Sony Picture motion browser software... if you're dealing with a file over about 2G, you must use the PMB to import first.

i've been testing this with very small files, like 100 mb, and i've been getting the same popup. i can't even get it to work with avisynth/virtualdubmod/powerdvd

Is this a trial version of Vegas ? In past, there have been licensing issues with codecs on trial versions.

I have Vegas 7 and 8 and both support .m2t file editing. 8 is better than 7.

Ooops, just reread original post, you reference .mts, and I saw m2t. Anyway, may be same issue of licensing, if this is trial version. If not, check Sony site forums.

you know, i've even tried using sony picture motion browser and exporting the m2ts file to mpeg2. I tried importing the mpeg2 file into sony vegas, and a popup appeared saying "an error occurred reading the file. Make sure that you have read access to the file/folder and that it is not corrupted."

So i can't even import the mpeg2 files into vegas. What's up?

You simply need to upgrade your Sony Vegas to the latest updated version. Originally there was no good AVCHD support, but right now, on both Platinum and Pro latest versions of Vegas, it loads the files no matter from which AVCHD camera I throw it stuff from. Latest for Platinum is 8.0c and Vegas 8.0a I think. Check the sony site for updates.

I've posted a question in the Vegas forum. I was using vegas movie studio platinum with great success with my .m2ts files (canon hg10) - produced movies, etc. I bought vegas pro 8 and now I can't open my avchd files in either. ugh. anyone? ideas?

I have no problems with my SR7 but you MUST use the Motion Browser Software to capture to the PC. In my case these are saved in the "MY Pictures " folder. The software will only copy files that are new, keeping a backup on the PC of everything that is on the camcorder. Open Vegas then in the explorer window go to the "My Pictures" folder and select the files that you want. They will then appear in the assets for your project and can be dragged to the timeline. Originally Vegas only supported Sony AVCHD so I don't know if that is your problem with files from the HG10.

Ron Evans

My experience so far with Vegas and Sony AVCHD has proved that Vegas (Pro 8a) cannot even import an AVCHD-file it has rendered a second ago...

There is something totally broken in Vegas' AVCHD-support.

This is what they sent me:

Thank you for contacting Sony Creative Software.

We currently do not support the Canon AVCHD at this time.

^^^I think that is a canned response to eliminate their having to deal with your problem because I can open my HG10's .m2ts files in Vegas Pro 8.0b (build 217) without any problems whatsoever. Same with the cam's .mts files.

Very likely a canned response...

I'm having no problems with smaller .mts file dropped directly into vegas, or with larger ones imported with the PMB software, which reassembles clips over 2G into one piece.

How big are the files you're dealing with? And are you shooting HG10? obviously Canon would have it's own software similar to Sony's PMB, and you may need that to make the files "readable" to Vegas.

...obviously Canon would have it's own software similar to Sony's PMB, and you may need that to make the files "readable" to Vegas.
Yeah, that's what I read prior to getting my HG10 and I can say whoever said that you have to use Canon's software to transfer the files from the cam to the PC for Vegas editing is simply wrong.

As Mike Slavis said in the HG10/24P workflow thread, using the Corel App's interface to transfer the files from the HG10 to your PC converts the file (I have not personally verified) and renames the .mts clip into <date/timestamp>.m2ts. The .mts files are simply incrementally numbered on the cam's HDD.

You can bypass the Corel converting/relabeling app and simply browse the directory structure of the cam's HDD in Win and drag and drop the files from the HDD to your PC's desktop (or anywhere else) and that will transfer the plain .mts files from cam to PC.

As I said above, I can open both .mts and .m2ts files in my build of Vegas Pro 8.0b.

Aaron -

Not sure if you've hit this (the Canon may not have this issue), but at least on the Sony CX7, longer clips are split at around 2G, and the PMB software is required to reassemble them into a single file. Without the PMB software, the first .MTS file is unreadable by ANYTHING, and gives an error somewhat similar to that described by the OP when dropped into Vegas.

Short clips are drag and drop the .mts files for me, but over approx 15-17 minutes (where file size exceeds 2G), gotta use that software!

Dave, yeah, the Canon has the issue as well - there's even a software bug write-up with the original documentation requesting users to download the fix. I have personally not hit that 17(?) minute brickwall yet, but from what other users have said, the provided software does a horrible job at recombining the files - as in "not seemless."

I'll waste some HDD space (LOL) tonight and report what happens...

The Sony PMB "seems" just fine <wink>!

I was looking at the CX7 for discreet/lightweight/multicam event work, so being able to shoot for more than 15-17 minutes was an issue, and it turned out that ya gotta have the PMB software, but I haven't seen any problems with the transition between clips, at least so far, will have to take a closer look I suppose, but the test clips I shot show no dropout or anything in the range where there should be a "stitch".

Bummer if the Canon software isn't seamless - the new models looked sorta interesting... but if they have a flaw with long clips, I'll have to pass.

OK, here's what I have found initially. I placed my HG10 on a table and piped in some audio from SoundForge of a Collective Soul concert I recorded so I had reliable audio to analyze. I ended up with a couple of splice points in the cam. First, I transferred the video via the provided Corel GuideMenu. Secondly, I simply dragged and dropped the raw .mts files from the Streams subdirectory on the cam.

Both file types open in Vegas Pro 8.0b (build 217) without any problems. And both file types exhibit exactly two dropped frames at every splice point (shooting 24PF - did not IVTC, just opened files into HDV 1080/60i template). Looking at the audio track in Vegas, clearly it's much worse. So I attempted to open the track in SoundForge to determine how many samples are dropped. SF came back with an unsupported file type error message, which isn't surprising.

Next, I ran the .M2TS files through Neo HDV to remove pulldown and get the audio into an SF readable format. Curiously, there weren't any blank frames present in the .AVI Cineform file. But the dropped audio seemed to be just as it was in both the .M2TS and .MTS spliced files within Vegas. I dumped the audio track into SF where I discovered 418 missing samples at the splice point (audio sampled in cam @ 48k) or 0.008708 seconds.

I don't have enough experience with video to tell whether or not that is enough of a loss to perceptually throw off A/V sync or not. But it doesn't take a goldenear to tell ya that type of dropout ruins the audio track for sure - renders it completely useless in critical situations. The obvious solution would be to run outboard audio recording equipment and sync it up later.

What is totally retarded is playback on the cam at any splice point is perfectly seamless. That tells me that someone screwed up the implementation of file retrieval off of this cam and that is pathetic. Canon really needs to address this issue because it plasters a big, fat blemish all over this camera which it doesn't deserve.

Thanks for doing all of that research - very appreciated. Also, I'm really glad to hear that you can just drag the files off of the camera - I HATE the guidemenu software - it makes no sense at all.