Clipwrap and video files coming from Sony DSC-HX5V

[Cyrille Thomas]

Hello,

I have a Sony DSC-HX5V camera and it is one of the first models to allow 1080 AVCHD (H264) videos.

I would like to use Clipwrap tool to rewrap without alteration my .mts video files into Quicktime .mov. Thus I would be able to use Quicklook or I would be able to easily import these files into Final Cut Express later on.

Unfortunately, after rewraping, video is OK but I have no sound. When I choose "Convert Audio to LPCM", it's OK but I would like to keep my original AC-3 dolby digital audio.

1. Is there a workaround to rewrap with no conversion both image and sound for .mts files coming from Sony DSC-HX5V? I could send video samples in order to make debug easier for a possible update of Clipwrap.

2. When I connect the camera to my computer, Final Cut Express is able to import original video files within the tool by converting them with Apple Intermediate Codec. Clipwrap is also able to convert files into this codec. But when I compare the size of a Final Cut Express conversion and a Clipwrap conversion for a same original file, the resulting FCE file is always larger than Clipwrap file. The two resulting files should have the same size when using the same Apple Intermediate Codec decompression? Is there any loss with Clipwrap?

Thank you in advance.

[Colin McFadden]

Out of the box, Macs can't decode AC3 audio. You could try installing the Perian plugin (perian.org) which should allow you to playback AC3 audio, but I'm not sure how FCE will handle it. When converting to LPCM, we do maintain all of the tracks from the 5.1 mix, so you're not actually losing audio in the process.

We modelled our AIC preset after Final Cut Pro - Express may use slightly different settings, but I haven't seen any visually noticeable degradation in our AIC conversions.

-Colin, Divergent Media

[Cyrille Thomas]

Thank you for your very very quick answer.

To be more precise, I had no sound with QuickTime and weird sound with VLC, after rewrapping. After Perian installation, I now have sound with QuickTime (good news). Unfortunately, I still have weird sound with VLC (which does not use Perian). Note that original AC3 audio was OK with VLC before rewrapping. It's quite a bad news because it should have worked with VLC after rewrapping… Would you have any explanation?

Regarding AIC, I imagine I can consider your settings OK. In fact, the idea is to rewrap all my .mts files into .mov files in order to use them easily as standalone files (via Quicklook, etc…). If I want to make a more complex film, I will use Final Cut Express by importing your .mov wrapped clips, not AIC ones. I was just surprised by the difference in term of size during my tries with the tool.

So the next step is to import a .mov wrapped clip in FCE. In order to work on this wrapped clip in a sequence, we need to renderer it (both image and sound, you were right on this point). Unfortunately, after conversion, the clip is unstable/slow and the sound not really OK in the viewer part of the tool. Is there something to do in FCE to be able to use your wrapped clip? Note that original file transferred from camera with FCE and converted in AIC within the tool has no issue in the viewer and can be used normally.

Would you be able to try by yourself if I sent you a HX5V video sample?

Thank you in advance.

[Colin McFadden]

I can't speak to playback in VLC - it's not really something we focus on, since vlc can play mts and m2t natively.

As far as final cut express, i believe Apple limits which formats can play in FCe without rendering to just the ones they support out of the box - Dv, AIC. So you'd need to use clip wrap to transcode to AIC for realtime playback. The viewer in FCE doesn't use the render files, on the canvas does, so that would (I think) explain the behavior you're seeing.

In truth, unless you've got a beef mac pro, trying to edit rewrapped avchd, even in final cut pro, is pretty difficult as it's such a cpu intensive format. We generally just recommend rewrapping for previews (dailies, etc) and suggest transcoding for any serious editing.

[Cyrille Thomas]

Thank you for your answer.

I thought rendering was equivalent to "on the fly" AIC conversion for both canvas and viewer… If the viewer uses original H264 and AC3, I can understand the difficulty for the tool to be OK (what a pity for my Late 2009 iMac ;-).

My idea would be to rewrap the .mts files into .mov quicktime video files and to keep only rewrapped clips. Unfortunately, Clipwrap does not allow converting .mov file into AIC codec. 1. Is there a particular reason for this limitation? 2. Is there a drawback to convert your .mov file into AIC with a third tool or I must keep original .mts files in order to transcode them later on?

3. Is there a technical explanation (timecode, etc…) explaining the issue with VLC after rewrapping? I am not sure that I will use mac and quicktime forever and it's important that the rewrapped clips can be used with other tools and/other plateforms…

Thank you in advance.

[Colin McFadden]

We've chosen to only focus on converting mts and m2t files, since there are so many good applications out there for converting files once they're in the quicktime format.

There shouldn't be any drawback in converting from the rewrapped mov to AIC using a tool like Compressor, Quicktime Pro, Episode, etc.

I really cant speak to VLC. I would assume it's an issue with the way they handle quicktime - You could try contacting them with a sample file. Last i checked, our rewrapped avchd files do play on quicktime for windows as well.

-Colin