Correct workflow for C100 AVCHD
 

I've just purchased a C100 after years of DSLR videography and I'm getting to grips with the new workflow. I'm a little confused by the AVCHD format.

Currently what I'm doing is connecting the camera to my laptop, dragging and dropping the AVCHD quicktime files from the SD card to the laptop.

Then I right click and select "show package contents", then right click BDMV and "show package contents".

Finally I go into STREAM where I find my video files and then drag those out onto my desktop. These files are in .MTS which I'm not familiar with before. Previously I would convert my files using mpeg streamclip into PRORES format - and this software doesn't recognise the .MTS format.

My question is: is this current workflow correct, and can I work with .MTS in Premiere or should I be converting to PRORES somehow?

Re: Correct workflow for C100 AVCHD
 

Depends what software you are using. Just put the SD card into a SD card reader and copy the whole folder. From their Final Cut pro X or adobe premiere will recognize it. as a whole folder structure. When I did used a C100 I never had problem with adobe or Final Cut to recognize the .MTS.

Re: Correct workflow for C100 AVCHD
 

What Lico said or get Clip Wrap and re-wrap them to Prores or DNxHD as needed.

Re: Correct workflow for C100 AVCHD
 

Yeah clip wrap - well worth the few quid it is. Either convert to Prores or just re-wrap as Quicktimes (Lightening fast in the software).

Re: Correct workflow for C100 AVCHD
 

Hi Alex

Welcome aboard.

The reason you wanrt to aim Premiere (etc) at the whole folder is that IF you have a long recording, the camera breaks it into smaller files, and will be a frame or two or so missing each time. There's an extra file in the folder that essentially has the missing frames. If you JUST copy the MTS files and put them together on the timeline there will be a bit missing. I think clipwrap etc will fix this (although I only record long form to an external recorder, so don't have the worry about this issue.) Just thought I'd provide a little info additional to the good suggestins folks have made.

Re: Correct workflow for C100 AVCHD
 

Using the included "Data Import Utility" will also relink the smaller files of long record times making them one continuous file.

Re: Correct workflow for C100 AVCHD
 

Thanks Ben - good point.

Re: Correct workflow for C100 AVCHD
 

What Ben said. I use the data import utility on PC. I much prefer it to copying the folder structure of the SD card. The folders containing the video files are much less cluttered, long takes are merged into single files, and each file has a unique file name ( and you can rename them if you want).

If you copy the folder structure every single folder's video files will be named 0000.mts, 0001.mts, etc.

That could be a nightmare if you do a lot of projects.