Viewing .m2t files on Windows Media Player

[Fernando Vossa]

I am planing on getting the JVC JY-HD10U camera and have been doing some initial testing on the sample .m2t files from this site.

From preliminary tests I was able to see these files on Vegas+DVD (4g upgrade now available on the Sonic site).

I had to change the extension from .m2t to .mpg for Vegas to open the swan.m2t file.

Just out of curiosity I tried opening the renamed file in Windows Media Player (as-is right form the dvinfo.net site) and was surprisingly able to see it!

Just make sure you are using the latest version 9 of the Windows Media Player.

Microsoft has some impressive sample content files in 720p for viewing (they have Digital Dolby sound, and you need a sound card that can decode to hear them).

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/digitalcinema.aspx

The sample 720p files look stunning on my CRT and they are simply breathtaking on the Action! projector from www.projectiondesing.com which has a 1280x720 native mode (DVI in) and incredible color reproduction.

The video files play better on a 2.5 ghz or better PC with a good video card (64mb video memory). I tested using Nvidia Quadro FX 1000 card (128mb memory, DVI out)

I am now working on putting these samples on a DVD at the best quality the DVD player spec can handle (somewhere below 15 mb per second).

Samsung has a nice DVD player with DVI out capability
(Samsung DVD-HD931).

http://www.samsung.com/Products/DVDPlayer/Hypervision/DVDPlayer_Hypervision_DVD_HD931.htm

The signal has 0 noise and the picture is very nice with 720p content.

Anyway, good luck on your own High Def adventure.

Fernando

[Fernando Vossa]

After changing the .m2t extension on samples video files to .mpg, I was also able to view them on the RealOne Player version 2.

The images look great at 1280x720 or 1280x1024 letterboxed on my 19 inch crt and projected.

the web site to the projector I am using (Action!) www.projectiondesign.com

I had misspelled this on a prior post.

Fernando

[Ken Hodson]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/digitalcinema.aspx

Nice link. I wonder if MS can stay in the lead in this market segment. I hope so, as it makes the JVC-HD very viable.

I love this part-
"Mastering a film today from digital video to 35mm film can cost in excess of $35,000 and then another $1200 to $2200 per release print. If you are undertaking a moderate release (60 screens), this represents more than $100,000 in up-front expense; a wider release (150 screens) represents a cost hit of $200,000 or more.

The ability for filmmakers to make multiple copies of their work on CD or DVD and securely send those copies around the country or world is infinitely more cost effective than creating film copies for screenings or tapes for review, which in turn enables them to give their work much broader reach."

[Kevin A. Sturges]

Wow, that is fantasic, usefull information! Thanks so much for sharing that little discovery. Now I can hopefully transfer Paul Moggs clips to a DVD and get to see them for once through the componant inputs of my HDTV.

Also, some of those downloadable HD WM9 clips from Microsofts site look pretty amazing. No problem at all with the quality there. Doesn't look anything like a streaming "web" video :) They all decode and play back fine in my P4 notebook.

Has anyone tried writing HD or HDWM9 files to a CDR?? Does a CDR offer enough bandwidth to play them back on?

[Ken Hodson]

A CDR will give you 700mb worth. About 1/5 the storage of a DVD.
It's not bandwidth but storage space that is the limit.
As far as bandwidth, in most cases you would want to copy the movie off the CD/DVD and place it on your hard drive. But if you wanted to play it of the CD/DVD directly you better have a fast drive. DVD drives are slow usually 16x with CD drives usually 40-52x. So to answer your question a CD drive would handle it better than a DVD (better bandwidth) but would only store 1/5 as much as a DVD.

On info from that site of all the 720p demo's. "A foreign affair" has the highest bit rate of all the clips at 8.4 Mbps for 2:01 min, and a total size of 122mb. So based on a CDR of 700mb you would get 11:57 min per CD. Not bloody bad!
Most of the clips were done at 6.5 Mbps, so you would get 14.05 min per CDR.

[Fernando Vossa]

I was also impressed with the info on the MS site.

The only artifacts you can see on those 720p clips is the original film grain!

I have see these projected on a 100" display and my jaw dropped! I could not believe that this was video I had downloaded from the web. The sample Paul Moggs pieces look very nice also at this size. I am aware that no post processing was applied to these to cleam them up a little on the color or texture.


I am working on producing high def music videos with Digital Dolby sound. Configuring my entire setup in a tight budget.

here are some helpful liks that I like for HD video production:

Great tips including making actors look good in high def (vs film).

http://www.highdef.com/library/index.htm

http://www.hd24.com/shooting_high_definition.htm

Be well and be patient with this new medium, every one of you is a pioneer at the moment.

Fernando

[Ken Hodson]

"I was also impressed with the info on the MS site."
Me too. And one of the only times as well ;>)

[Kevin A. Sturges]

Could you please explain how you renamed the extension on the M2T files? In WinXP I simply right clicked on the file and selected "rename", then I typed in "xxxx.mpg". I also tried "xxxx.mpeg". It doesn't work. Now the properties show it as "xxxx.mpg.m2t". Strange, and Windows Media Player 9 won't recognise it. What to do?

[Fernando Vossa]

To rename the .m2t files:

First make sure in your Windows explorer or My Computer the folder options are set to view details and to view file extensions.

This way you can see the file name and the three letter extension for the file type.

In Windows XP you have to look in top menu:

View - Choose Details...

and make sure the file type is checked off.

You should now see the 3 letter extension at the end of each file.

Then
in the folder you have stored your video files:

just click once to highlight the file

the click again to go into edit mode (it should allow you change the file name or the three letter extension).


this is where you change the extension to .mpg
Then try and see if you can open in Media Player.

Also one problem might be that you can't normally see MPEG-2 files. You may need a codec for that.

Let me know if this works for you

Fernando

[Elvis Deane]

There's another way to do it and keep the m2t extension. Right-click on a .m2t file in Explorer and choose Properties. Beside "Open With..." click the Change button and then locate the Windows Media Player exe (It should be in Program Files, and then the Windows Media Player directory).

Now you still have your .m2t extension, and it opens in WMP.

[Kevin A. Sturges]

Finally had time tonight to get back to playing with those M2T files. I couldn't get them to work in the Windows media player in my Windows XP notebook. Not sure what is happening there, so I transferred all of Paul Moggs files into my big Windows 2000 Professional editing computer. Very strange stuff was happening: I took one of the files and changed the file extension to "mpg". It loaded into the WM9 player, and played back full-screen beautifully! I have to say I have never seen such beautiful looking video before. It looks more like film than video, and is just gorgeous in full-screen.

Okay, so then I changed the extension on a couple more files, and when I went to play back the FIRST one I changed, the first frame shows up in the WM9 player, but an error window comes out and says it has to close! Then I clicked on a couple of the unchanged "M2T" and they played fine.... cannot figure that one out at all.

Anyways, I was able to easily import all of the files into Vegas Video. It works! I haven't tried writing them back to an MPEG-2 file yet, but I loaded all of them onto the timeline, and rendered them back to my DV camera has a widescreen 720/480 progressive scan file. Plugged the camera into the S-Video port on my HDTV, and gave it a look. The original JVC HD material transfers beautifully to the DV format. It looks a little softer on the big screen, but that could be because it is coming through the S-Video port. Motion looks amazing and smooth - looks like film motion. Colors looks bright and vivid, but lacked in the blue intensity areas. I went back and played with the color correction in Vegas video. It's easy to dial up the blue response, which immediately gave a big improvement, and it didn't seem to affect the rendering time. What was a little disappointing was when I tried to crank up the saturation. You can add a little bit, but pump up the settings too far, and the video becomes very grainy and blocky looking, much more so than the typical DV material I've worked with.

Also, there were a couple of videos I found in this forum that had been taken in Las Vegas during sunset and the evening. They look absolutely gorgeous! Who says this camera has a hard time with low light? There was very little detectable grain in the two videos, colors from the twinkling city lights were very bright and vivid, and there was almost no noise at all. Again, it looks better than the results I've seen from many DV camera's. Very exciting stuff. Next, I'm looking forward to writing them to standard MPEG-2 files to watch off the component outputs of my DVD player.

[Kevin A. Sturges]

Just thought of something: those videos from Paul have all been RE-RENDERED to have his logo in the corner. So, were not actually seeing the original files from the camera, but it's nice to know how clean they still look after having gone through another generation of MPEG2 compression...could have contributed to some of the noise I mentioned when trying to boost the color saturation though.

[Fernando Vossa]

I am happy that you got the JVC video to work on your system.

I was also curious of the level of re-rendering that these videos have gone through to burn in the Paul's name??

I am thinking that the .m2t files just need to be tagged as to what application (WM9) to use to open them (see note above about "open with")

Have you taken a look at the sample 720p files on the MS site (I posted the link) great demo material that could be a reference to color saturation especially for skintones. I absolutely love the "Step Into Liquid" preview.

I can't wait to get my HD10u camera (in 3 weeks)!

Also recommend to upgrade your Vegas to 4g from the Sonic site (seems more stable).

Your laptop may need a Windows XP set of latest upgrades/pathces/service pack including the media player.

Soon I will be high defing. I want to do some test shots of architecture, I think this subject will shine in high def.