Saving edited footage back as .mts

[Brett Horton]

I am using a Canon HF100 HD Camera for low level aerial breaking news for our local NBC station and we, several times a week go out and get footage from various locations around the area...... They are using the footage we give them in clips for the news, but..... NBC also is posting the RAW footage on there news page (compressed) for all to see, no problem but Obviously there are times (descending, repositioning etc...) that the footage is not good at all. so, the question......
AVCHD format with a .MTS extension. Is it possible to edit the footage and save it back as a .MTS file with out compressing it? I am currently using Vegas 8.0 Platinum.

[Larry Horwitz]

Brett,

The answer is yes. I own and use all of the AVCHD editing programs on the market, but the ONLY one I have found which will directly accept raw ,mts files from the camcorder (in my case also an HF100), then allow you to cut-edit and/or append clips together, followed by saving a new output .mts file without any recompression is Nero Vision 5, the video editing program included in Nero Ultimate 8 from Ahead software.

Don't be fooled by the low cost or lack of features which initially make this program appear weak compared to Vegas 8 Pro, Final Cut HD, or other high-end programs, which I also own and use.

This program does some things amazingly well, and what you are asking for is one of them.

I suggest you check it out, and be sure to enlarge the editing screen to fill your monitor since the program opens with a small and uninviting work space. You will find the output file as I described in the STREAMS folder in the BDMV folder you create on the hard disk at output time. As you probably already know, this is the same location the file(s) initially were stored in the camcorder recording.


Please report back on your results. The free trial of the program should allow you to try it with no risk, but it is a no-brainer purchase IMHO for $60 or $70 bucks.

This is an almost total lack of knoledge of this program by most if not almost all AVCHD users, and this is mostly due to ignorance and a lack of marketing by the software developer. It also makes outstanding AVCHD disks which play extremely well on my BluRay players here, something which is not true for several other programs claimed to be AVCHD-ready.........and which cost a great deal more.

Hope this helps,


Larry

[Bruce Foreman]

Larry,

Are you able to copy the Nero Vision 5 edited .MTS file structure back to an SDHC media card and have it playback in the HF100?

[Brett Horton]

Awesome I will try it now!
I will let you know if it does what I want!
Thanks

[Brett Horton]

Nero 8.0 is what I have found.....Seems to include Vision 5?
I assume this is just the newer version.
I am downloading it currently, so I will know something shortly.
Again thanks!

[Larry Horwitz]

It will work just fine Brett. I have been doing this with AVCHD since Nero 8 came out last year but the newest version of Nero Vision 5 is by far the smoothest and best version to use..

Bruce,
With the small caveat that I have only tried the simpler examples of what you ask for, I can happily report that Nero Vision does indeed write a BDMV folder which not only plays back properly on the HF100, but actually forces the HF100 to generate a new set of thumbnails in the "AVCHDTN" folder it keeps. I have not tried a lot of editing, and only have used the simplest examples with non-rerendered content of the original clips, so please don't construe this to mean that all edited .mts output from Nero will play in the HF100 after editing. While this may be true, I simply have not tried it, and frankly have had no reason to try it. I will also note that very few other AVCHD programs generate .mts file output, and most produce .m2ts files which a BluRay player knows how to handle. Nero creates exactkly the same file output type as it gets from the camcorder as input, .mts.

Hope this answers your question.

Larry

[Larry Horwitz]

Bruce,

I did one more experiment based on your prior question, to see if the HF100 could play back a heavily edited series of clips which Nero Vision produced. I took 4 clips totally about 12 minutes in length, applied several color corrections and filters, sharpening, several 3-D transitions, a few titles here and there, and then rendered the output creating a new BDMV folder. This was then used to entirely replace the original BDMV folder on the SD card, leaving all the other SD card content intact.

The HF100 plays back the entire video beautifully, with all of the editing and re-compression, causing no issues whatsoever. I had expected that maybe some glitches, stuttering, or possibly a hang or crash could occur, since I would not expect the camera to have a particularly exhaustive or robust error processing capability. Thankfully and much to the credit of the Nero software folks, the edited output played exactly as it should.

So my final conclusion would be that this program, unlike any other I am aware of, can and will not only write .mts files as output, but can allow a complete "copy back to the camera", at least in the case of the HF100, albeit with manual file copy required to the card.

This just adds to my original contention that this piece of software is a true gem.

Hope you find this helpful and interesting.

Best,


Larry

[Tom O'Farrell]

Larry;

You provide a lot of good info. for us. Thanks.
Do you know if Nero works with Vista Home Premium 64 bit system?
Also how will it work with a sony sr12.

Tom O'Farrell.
Quad core q6600 @ 2.4Ghz.
NVidia 8800 GS video card.
4 GB of RAM-6400.
7200 RPM drive.

[Brett Horton]

Can't find Vision 5!!
Everytime I click on a download link it takes me to Nero 8.

[Mircea Voinea]

Nero Vision is included in Nero 8

[Brett Horton]

OK,
Got the full program....
Please excuse my lake of knowledge of video editing with this next question.....
How are you exporting the finalized "movie" to be assured the output file is the same as the input file? In my case .mts?
I have exported a small clip and it created a .mp4 file?

[Larry Horwitz]

Brett,
1. Open Nero Vision.

2. Choose Make DVD>AVCHD

3. Choose Add Video Files

4. Navigate to where your camera clips are located, usually in the STREAMS folder in the BDMV folder on your camera SD card. Select and load the .mts clips you want to edit.

5. Resize the window to fill you screen, to make it easier to see and edit.

6. Use the buttons on the left to Move Up, Move Down, Merge, and edit the clips, thus trimming, rearranging, and appending them together as desired.

7. Optionally apply video effects, text effects (titles) and / or transitions to the clips (but remember that any of these optional steps will force recompression to occur)

8. Hit the Next button in the lower right corner to move to the Menu design page.

9. Choose Do Not Create a Menu.

10. Again hit the Next button in the lower right.
If you want to preview the edited clips, use the remote control buttons to simulate playing the AVCHD disk. Otherwise, skip this step by hitting Next once again in the lower right corner.

11. On this burn page, note that it displays the Smart Rendering status for each of the clips you originally selected. The clips which had no added filters, effects, titles, or transitions should show up in the list as 100% Smart Rendered. If you optionally added filters, text, transitions, or titles, you will see lower percentage numbers for these affected clips. If you, for example, did color correction on only half the clip, then the other half will still remain Smart Rendered at 50%.

12. At the top right corner of the page, choose Burn to Hard Disk Folder and select Desktop, where the output AVCHD folder will be written.
Hit the Write button in the lower right corner and the output process will commence, showing you the very rapid creation of the output, For non re-rendered content which, as Brett desires, has only trimmed and spliced content but no new titles, effects, etc., the output will be extremely fast, maybe 2 or 3 minutes total.

13. When this burn / output ends in a couple minutes, you will find on your Desktop an AVCHD folder containing a BDMV folder containing a STREAMS folder containing the new .mts files, exactly the same quality as the originals but trimmed, spliced, etc. in the manner you chose.

Optionally move this BDMV folder onto your SD card replacing the original folder if you want to view the results on your camera, or play it on your computer screen using the Nero program ShowTime.

For Brett's specific application, copy the .mts files to your NBC website as you would any other .mts content.

Hope this makes the process clear. I am here to assist if you need further help.

Larry

[Larry Horwitz]

[QUOTE=Tom O'Farrell;932403]Larry;

You provide a lot of good info. for us. Thanks.
Do you know if Nero works with Vista Home Premium 64 bit system?
Also how will it work with a sony sr12.

Hi Tom,
Thanks and it is my pleasure to help out. I am not familiar with the 64 bit Vista compatability but suggest you check the Nero website. I have used Nero with several AVCHD camcorders, and it seems to handle them all the same way as I described for my Canon HF100. I have NOT tried your specific camcorder though, and suggest you download the trial and see for yourself. I'm guessing it works fine, but please let us know.


Larry

[Brett Horton]

You are awesome!!!!
Thanks for the info

[Brett Horton]

Tom,
Just for your info:
The trail version would not process AVCHD info, well not totally true, it would process the audio but not the video.
I had to purchase the full version for it to work properly.
FYI