Sony Handycam AVCHD not converting

[Stacy Rothwell]

David,

Got a brand new Sony HDR-TG1 AVCHD and its files will not convert to Cineform in HDLink.

First, though, I have a question about the Cineform web site where it discusses what you need to convert from AVCHD. The first option is to have Premiere Pro CS3. I have this, but PPro will not play the file either.

They seem to be standard AVCHD files ending in a .m2ts extenstion. The Playstation 3 plays it just fine, right off the memory stick.

Now the native resolution of this camera is 1920x1080/60i AVCHD, but you can dumb it down to 1440x1080/60i. Neither of these work with Cineform or PPro CS3.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Stacy

[Tim Bucklin]

Hi Stacy,

Is there a short clip you can send us for testing? You can use YouSendIt.com to send me a 100MB or smaller clip (tbucklin@cineform.com) and I'll take a look.
Also, which version of our product are you using? If it's NEO HDV or Aspect HD, you may try setting scale to "1440x1080" in the HD Link prefs for your conversions.

[Stacy Rothwell]

Tim,

I have sent the file to you. thanks for looking at it.

I am using AspectHD.

Stacy

[Tim Bucklin]

Hi Stacy,

I seem to be able to convert without problems.

Can you please tell me what your HD Link log message says when you try to convert it? It will tell me if the expected AVCHD decoder(s) are not present when trying to convert.

Also, please let me know if manually scaling to 1440x1080 helps the situation.

[Stacy Rothwell]

Tim,

After I installed (the name escapes me) the third party software that Cineform reccomends, I got it to work. However, it installed some new TS splitter program that completely screwed up the Sony software that's used to transfer and convert stuff off the camera.

Which takes me back to my other question..... In the directions on the cineform site, it says you can either have PPro CS3 installed or use the third party app.

I have CS3, but HDLink won't work.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help

stacy

[Martin Rahn]

I have the same problem with a Sony HDR SR11.

I tried to convert the AVCHD files using whatever codec PPro CS3 provides as per your tech notes but it doesn't work. I set HDLink to convert to 1440x1080. HDLink hangs after about a 50% conversion and starts again in an endless loop.

I did download the software recommended but the Haali splitter makes the Sony provided software to read these files useless.

Have you guys come up with a fix?

Many thanks,

Marty Rahn

[Stacy Rothwell]

Originally Posted by Martin Rahn

I have the same problem with a Sony HDR SR11.

I tried to convert the AVCHD files using whatever codec PPro CS3 provides as per your tech notes but it doesn't work. I set HDLink to convert to 1440x1080. HDLink hangs after about a 50% conversion and starts again in an endless loop.

I did download the software recommended but the Haali splitter makes the Sony provided software to read these files useless.

Have you guys come up with a fix?

Many thanks,

Marty Rahn

Yeah, this really sucks. The best I have been able to come up with is to install the stupid Haali splitter, convert to AspectHD, then uninstall it, which makes the Sony software work again.

What a pain in the butt! I also wish someone would explain exactly what compatibility there is with just having PPro CS3 installed.....

[Tim Bucklin]

Originally Posted by Stacy Rothwell

Yeah, this really sucks. The best I have been able to come up with is to install the stupid Haali splitter, convert to AspectHD, then uninstall it, which makes the Sony software work again.

What a pain in the butt! I also wish someone would explain exactly what compatibility there is with just having PPro CS3 installed.....

If we look at the conversion process as a chain, it might help clarify why these other tools are needed to convert properly.

1) At the start of our chain is the AVCHD file.
2) In order to do anything with it, we need to split it into audio and video streams. This is why we need the Haali Media Splitter. There is no other splitter available (and compatible with HD Link) present.
3) Once we have our separate streams, we need to decode them. This is where PPro or CoreAVC comes in. These are the decoders we can use.
4) With the source decoded, we can now encode it into CineForm
5) Finally, we write the CineForm-encoded data and uncompressed audio into an AVI or MOV file.

Graphically, it looks a bit like this:

(1)AVC-HD File --> (2) Splitter --> (3) AVC-HD Decoder --> (4) CineForm Encoder --> (5) AVI/MOV file

So, as you can see, if the splitter or decoder part of the chain is missing or broken, the conversion can't take place.

It's interesting to know that the Haali splitter causes problems with the Sony software.
There may be another way for us to envoke the Haali splitter so that it wouldn't interfere with the other programs, but it would require that we distribute it as a stand-alone ActiveX file. We'll check into the licensing regarding that option and hopefully come up with a solution in the near future.

[Martin Rahn]

Tim:

Thank you for the explanation of the need for a splitter.

It would be nice to have a permanent fix for the Haali splitter interfering with the Sony Media Player for playback of AVCHD clips. On the other hand, I am not converting clips every day. I can review them on the Sony software and when I am ready to edit a project, I will batch convert the clips using Haali and HDLink.

Yes, it is a pain, but not THAT big a pain. Just install Haali, use it, uninstall it and put the installer in a safe place.

Thanks again for the clarification. I was really wondering what the splitter was splitting!

Marty Rahn

[Tim Bucklin]

There may be an easier way than installing/uninstalling. You may just need to register and unregister the splitter.

from the command line:
When you want to use it for HD Link conversions:
regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Haali\MatroskaSplitter\splitter.ax"

When you want to use the Sony Media player:
regsvr32 -u "C:\Program Files\Haali\MatroskaSplitter\splitter.ax"

If your root drive isn't C:, your path will vary, but hopefully you get the idea.

I'll be working today in trying to use the splitter unregistered and see if that helps things. I'll post a beta build for those of you interested when I have something to test.

[Stacy Rothwell]

Originally Posted by Tim Bucklin

There may be an easier way than installing/uninstalling. You may just need to register and unregister the splitter.

from the command line:
When you want to use it for HD Link conversions:
regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Haali\MatroskaSplitter\splitter.ax"

When you want to use the Sony Media player:
regsvr32 -u "C:\Program Files\Haali\MatroskaSplitter\splitter.ax"

If your root drive isn't C:, your path will vary, but hopefully you get the idea.

I'll be working today in trying to use the splitter unregistered and see if that helps things. I'll post a beta build for those of you interested when I have something to test.

Thanks, Tim! We appreciate your help with this.

Stacy

[Martin Rahn]

Originally Posted by Stacy Rothwell

Thanks, Tim! We appreciate your help with this.

Stacy

Ditto Tim.

Thank you for your help. You guys are great.

Marty Rahn

[Stacy Rothwell]

Hi Tim,

Any luck with this?

Stacy

[Tim Bucklin]

Originally Posted by Stacy Rothwell

Hi Tim,

Any luck with this?

Stacy

Hi Stacy,

Nothing to report yet, as I haven't been able to successfully use the splitter in the way I intended to remedy this problem, so we'll need to figure out something else.

Those "regsvr32 -xxxx" commands can be put into VB scripts to make the register/unregister quicker and easier.

[David M. Wheeler]

Need some help. I had installed the Haali spliter to try to convert some HD movie files. But now i can play any of my movies from my SR-12 using the Sony Picture Motion Browser. So i unistalled Haali and now the movies will play again.

But the porblem is now the quility is really bad (lines thru the pictures and it skips). Any idea on how to fix what this Haali changed so i can just get it back to the way it was.