How to playback AVCHD files? at DVinfo.net

Michael Mann · August 2nd, 2008, 08:23 AM

My media player classic does not playback avchd files, nor does vlc and wmp. Any suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Larry Horwitz · August 2nd, 2008, 08:41 AM

I am guessing you are lacking an h.264 playback codec. You should try downloading the free DiVX Player at:

http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/player/

It does not "Open" native AVCHD files immediately until you switch the Open dialog to "All Files". You can then navigate to a .mts file and it should play properly.

You will need a modern, fast computer to play AVCHD smoothly, at least a dual core, preferably a 4 core / quadcore.

Hope this helps,

Larry

Michael Mann · August 2nd, 2008, 09:08 AM

Thank you, Larry, I will give it a try. Got me a new quadcore PC just yesterday.

Larry Horwitz · August 2nd, 2008, 10:02 AM

Good luck Michael. You will not regret the quadcore. It's the only way I was eventually able to do really smooth AVCHD editing and playback.

One warning however..... the DiVX player is NOT the best player for AVCHD, and smears a bit during motion. The only player I have been entirely happy with comes with Nero 8 Ultimate called Nero Show Time. It opens and plays both .mts files and AVCHD disks with menus beautifully.

Viele Grusse,

Larry

Mircea Voinea · August 4th, 2008, 08:48 AM

Hi evereybody and a big thanks to this community for helping in choosing right camcorder/software.

I have a SR11E and a quad core machine with 8600GTS. With Media Player Classic and CoreAVC, every core is at 30%. With PowerDVD, CPU use is very low, about 2%!
And quality is definitely better at PowerDVD. You should try these two before you decide the aquisition... for me PowerDVD is a must with AVCHD camcorders.

Larry Horwitz · August 6th, 2008, 06:59 AM

I also use PowerDVD and it does play .mts files very well, very much the same as Nero Show Time. The difference is that Nero Show Time allows finished AVCHD disks and their menus to be played just like using a BluRay player, whereas PowerDVD only will play .mts stream files but will not play most menued AVCHD disks. It does play a few from certain authoring programs but it will not recognize or open most of the ones I create.

Larry

Stan Chase · August 6th, 2008, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Horwitz

I also use PowerDVD and it does play .mts files very well, very much the same as Nero Show Time.

Unless there's a setting I've missed or some registry edit, PowerDVD won't play .mts files without first renaming them .m2ts. Pixela Image Mixer 3SE (comes with HF10/100) does the renaming automatically when importing .mts files from the Canons.

Phil Seastrand · August 6th, 2008, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Horwitz

I also use PowerDVD and it does play .mts files very well, very much the same as Nero Show Time. The difference is that Nero Show Time allows finished AVCHD disks and their menus to be played just like using a BluRay player, whereas PowerDVD only will play .mts stream files but will not play most menued AVCHD disks. It does play a few from certain authoring programs but it will not recognize or open most of the ones I create.

Larry

This is interesting... I'm able to get PowerDVD to play all the AVCHD disks I've created with Pinnacle Studio 12. It'll play disks that my Samsung 1400 and friend's PS3 wont.

Larry Horwitz · August 6th, 2008, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil Seastrand

This is interesting... I'm able to get PowerDVD to play all the AVCHD disks I've created with Pinnacle Studio 12. It'll play disks that my Samsung 1400 and friend's PS3 wont.

I have purchased and used most of the current PC programs which can author AVCHD disks, and my experience has been that Nero Show Time will open and play all of them, whereas PowerDVD will only open and play those made with Pinnacle 12 Ultimate, Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 Plus, and Ulead Movie Factory 6 Plus. It will not play Nero Vision AVCHD disks, Sony Vegas disks (even though they lack menus) and will sometimes not play Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 disks.

I should mention that my version of PowerDVD is supplied by Dell with their BluRay burner-equipped XPS Extreme systems and is NOT the standard flavor software. Instead it is designated as "PowerDVD DX" and quite possibly has fewer features than the full retail BD version.

I open .mts files by right-clicking the file and doing an "Open With..." PowerDVD in my version does not explictly have an "Open File" dialog.

Larry

Chippe Wallace · August 24th, 2008, 04:54 PM

You don't need a powerful computer at all to play AVCHD if you have a video card that supports H.264 (Full)
Almost all new video cards have it but you better check it before buying since some of them only supports H.264 (Half). You can find very cheap ones for about $100.
Radeon HD4850/4870 are exellent if you need it for games too and it's pretty much the best you can get today and they're not too expensive.
PowerDVD does the job good since it supports the H.264 video card but any software works good with an Intel Core 2 Duo or better since they are fast enough.

If you don't have a very fast computer with no H.264 support Core AVC is the fastest.
As a reference, my old AMD64 3500+ (2200Mhz) plays x.264 1080P fine but it's just a little too slow when it comes to AVCHD@1080 however it plays it pretty good anyway.

If you have the codec that will make you play AVCHD you can get "Media Player Classic - Home Cinema" for free. http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...roup_id=170561
No need to install this light player and interlaced videos will look fine.

Mircea Voinea · August 25th, 2008, 02:49 AM

Well, I'l have to go back from my initial enthusiasm with PowerDVD. After updating Nvidia driver I found that playing with HW acceleration goes with judder and tearing. Disabling HW acceleration goes to very smooth playback, but it needs more CPU power...
I don't know if it's Nvidia fault or PowerDVD...

At the end, MPC Home Cinema has an internal AVCHD codec and it's free...

Chippe Wallace · August 25th, 2008, 07:59 AM

The playback should be smooth but Ive heard other people with the same problem.
Why don't you go back to the old drivers since they work.
MPC-HC has DXVA support for nVidia series 8(9)xxx and ATI Radeon HD.

I can't play AVCHD without CoreAVC installed. I haven't really looked at the settings but it doesn't play by default. I also need the Dolby Digital 2 codec for the Hf10/100 clips Ive downloaded.

Alkim Un · August 25th, 2008, 10:31 AM

guys,

what about mac ? I have a Macbook pro core duo 2.16 ghz, 2gb ram and 256mb atı radeon 1600.

my friend have Casıo F1 and I could't play its 1080i clips. they are coded with h.264 but file extensions are .mov

vlc player closed suddenly if I try to play them.

I also tried to import to FCP but after few seconds FCP also shut down suddenly.

So is there any way to play and adit these F1 files on my mac ?

thanks,
alkım.

Mircea Voinea · August 25th, 2008, 11:11 AM

Chippe, I upgraded Nvidia drivers in hope I will get better performance, because with old drivers I had problems playing some HF100clips with WH acceleration, but not with SR11.
A HTPC it's a total jungle with drivers/codecs, now I can't play AVCHD with MPC (CoreAVC or not), only with PDVD...
Of course I don't have codec packs (it's the worst thing to do on a HTPC), but I remember some time ago I have to uninstall PDVD to have good playback in MPC (even I don't select Cyberlink codec in MPC, somehow it interferes). I will try without PDVD... without HW acceleration it's useless.

BTW, how do you set your PC, to deinterlace (inverse telecine) or not?

Chippe Wallace · August 25th, 2008, 03:48 PM

Alkim,
Your friend should know what you need.

Mircea,
Install the Hali media splitter that comes with CoreAVC.
Try this in MPC: Options/External Filters/Add filter button and look for CoreAVC
Check Prefer and click OK.

Set you PC..?
All I know is that VLC and MPC can play interlaced videos in a proper way.

August 2nd, 2008, 08:23 AM	#1
Michael Mann Major Player Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Kelkheim, Germany Posts: 375	How to playback AVCHD files? My media player classic does not playback avchd files, nor does vlc and wmp. Any suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks in advance. __________________ Michael

August 2nd, 2008, 09:08 AM	#3
Michael Mann Major Player Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Kelkheim, Germany Posts: 375	Thank you, Larry, I will give it a try. Got me a new quadcore PC just yesterday. __________________ Michael

August 2nd, 2008, 08:41 AM	#2
Larry Horwitz Major Player Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Eggertsville, NY Posts: 528	I am guessing you are lacking an h.264 playback codec. You should try downloading the free DiVX Player at: http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/player/ It does not "Open" native AVCHD files immediately until you switch the Open dialog to "All Files". You can then navigate to a .mts file and it should play properly. You will need a modern, fast computer to play AVCHD smoothly, at least a dual core, preferably a 4 core / quadcore. Hope this helps, Larry

August 2nd, 2008, 10:02 AM	#4
Larry Horwitz Major Player Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Eggertsville, NY Posts: 528	Good luck Michael. You will not regret the quadcore. It's the only way I was eventually able to do really smooth AVCHD editing and playback. One warning however..... the DiVX player is NOT the best player for AVCHD, and smears a bit during motion. The only player I have been entirely happy with comes with Nero 8 Ultimate called Nero Show Time. It opens and plays both .mts files and AVCHD disks with menus beautifully. Viele Grusse, Larry

August 4th, 2008, 08:48 AM	#5
Mircea Voinea Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Targu Jiu, Romania Posts: 29	Hi evereybody and a big thanks to this community for helping in choosing right camcorder/software. I have a SR11E and a quad core machine with 8600GTS. With Media Player Classic and CoreAVC, every core is at 30%. With PowerDVD, CPU use is very low, about 2%! And quality is definitely better at PowerDVD. You should try these two before you decide the aquisition... for me PowerDVD is a must with AVCHD camcorders.

August 6th, 2008, 06:59 AM	#6
Larry Horwitz Major Player Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Eggertsville, NY Posts: 528	I also use PowerDVD and it does play .mts files very well, very much the same as Nero Show Time. The difference is that Nero Show Time allows finished AVCHD disks and their menus to be played just like using a BluRay player, whereas PowerDVD only will play .mts stream files but will not play most menued AVCHD disks. It does play a few from certain authoring programs but it will not recognize or open most of the ones I create. Larry

August 24th, 2008, 04:54 PM	#10
Chippe Wallace New Boot Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Sweden Posts: 22	You don't need a powerful computer at all to play AVCHD if you have a video card that supports H.264 (Full) Almost all new video cards have it but you better check it before buying since some of them only supports H.264 (Half). You can find very cheap ones for about $100. Radeon HD4850/4870 are exellent if you need it for games too and it's pretty much the best you can get today and they're not too expensive. PowerDVD does the job good since it supports the H.264 video card but any software works good with an Intel Core 2 Duo or better since they are fast enough. If you don't have a very fast computer with no H.264 support Core AVC is the fastest. As a reference, my old AMD64 3500+ (2200Mhz) plays x.264 1080P fine but it's just a little too slow when it comes to AVCHD@1080 however it plays it pretty good anyway. If you have the codec that will make you play AVCHD you can get "Media Player Classic - Home Cinema" for free. http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...roup_id=170561 No need to install this light player and interlaced videos will look fine.

August 25th, 2008, 02:49 AM	#11
Mircea Voinea Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Targu Jiu, Romania Posts: 29	Well, I'l have to go back from my initial enthusiasm with PowerDVD. After updating Nvidia driver I found that playing with HW acceleration goes with judder and tearing. Disabling HW acceleration goes to very smooth playback, but it needs more CPU power... I don't know if it's Nvidia fault or PowerDVD... At the end, MPC Home Cinema has an internal AVCHD codec and it's free...

August 25th, 2008, 07:59 AM	#12
Chippe Wallace New Boot Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Sweden Posts: 22	The playback should be smooth but Ive heard other people with the same problem. Why don't you go back to the old drivers since they work. MPC-HC has DXVA support for nVidia series 8(9)xxx and ATI Radeon HD. I can't play AVCHD without CoreAVC installed. I haven't really looked at the settings but it doesn't play by default. I also need the Dolby Digital 2 codec for the Hf10/100 clips Ive downloaded.

August 25th, 2008, 10:31 AM	#13
Alkim Un Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Ankara, Turkey Posts: 136	guys, what about mac ? I have a Macbook pro core duo 2.16 ghz, 2gb ram and 256mb atı radeon 1600. my friend have Casıo F1 and I could't play its 1080i clips. they are coded with h.264 but file extensions are .mov vlc player closed suddenly if I try to play them. I also tried to import to FCP but after few seconds FCP also shut down suddenly. So is there any way to play and adit these F1 files on my mac ? thanks, alkım.

August 25th, 2008, 11:11 AM	#14
Mircea Voinea Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Targu Jiu, Romania Posts: 29	Chippe, I upgraded Nvidia drivers in hope I will get better performance, because with old drivers I had problems playing some HF100clips with WH acceleration, but not with SR11. A HTPC it's a total jungle with drivers/codecs, now I can't play AVCHD with MPC (CoreAVC or not), only with PDVD... Of course I don't have codec packs (it's the worst thing to do on a HTPC), but I remember some time ago I have to uninstall PDVD to have good playback in MPC (even I don't select Cyberlink codec in MPC, somehow it interferes). I will try without PDVD... without HW acceleration it's useless. BTW, how do you set your PC, to deinterlace (inverse telecine) or not?

August 25th, 2008, 03:48 PM	#15
Chippe Wallace New Boot Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Sweden Posts: 22	Alkim, Your friend should know what you need. Mircea, Install the Hali media splitter that comes with CoreAVC. Try this in MPC: Options/External Filters/Add filter button and look for CoreAVC Check Prefer and click OK. Set you PC..? All I know is that VLC and MPC can play interlaced videos in a proper way.