Anyone using PMB for AVCHD Playback

[Ron Cooper]

I downloaded PMB and it plays back superbly on my laptop - (core 2 Duo, 2.8g), with great image quality and only 25% cpu usage. I am playing files from a Canon HF-S10, dropped into windows Vista 64b direct from the SD card.

However, I cannot get it to play files continuously and it has a very different (weird) interface and does not seem to be very intuitive in selecting files - you have to let it analyze all your media files before you can play them out and this takes ages. - The end result though, is quite amazing as far as smoothness and picture quality are concerned. - I just would like to be able to select a group of files and simply play them in a continuous stream.

Any suggestions ?

RonC.

[Tom Gull]

1. Analyzing the file content is the default setting but you don't have to do it. I turned that off the first evening I loaded PMB. I'm updating the software tonight and I noticed the upgrade is resetting the defaults though it is kind enough to tell me that. As soon as I load the program, I'm going to turn automatic analysis off.

2. Possibility on the "play multiple ones in a row question" - I can't check it immediately because the upgrade is going on as I type:

a. Bring up a folder with your files in it. Double-click on one to bring up the main player. The video you selected will start playing.
b. At the top of that window is some kind of "slideshow" icon. I guess it's most useful for photos but I generally like to control timing when I'm switching photos, so I hardly use that icon. The only reason I even noticed it is that it would sometimes play files I edited with Corel two years ago when the regular window wouldn't. It also brings videos up full screen.
c. However, it makes sense that if you do use it, it will play through the files whose thumbnails are down the left side of the player window without breaking back to you between files. So it's worth a try checking out that slideshow icon.

[Tom Gull]

Re PMB slideshow playing files sequentially: just tried it out, that's what it does. I usually separate pictures into the \Pictures\ folder instead of \VIdeo\ after I look at them but hadn't done that with today's shoot yet. The slideshow will play all files in the folder in "when taken" order, intermixing stills and video in the process if that's how you created the files.

[Ron Cooper]

Thanks very much Tom, - most helpful.
Yes, I was able to turn off the auto registering and looked at the slide show feature as suggested, but I find that between clips there is a black screen for about 3 secs. and as a lot of my clips are quite short, this is quite distracting.

Is there still something I am still missing as I am completely new to this program.

RonC.

[Ron Cooper]

Another question I now have re PMB is, - how do you set it as a default player ? Also, I find that if I try to open a file in explorer, and select "Open with", I cannot find any reference to PMB to open it. - Seems strange ??

RonC.

[Tom Gull]

Originally Posted by Ron Cooper

Thanks very much Tom, - most helpful.
Yes, I was able to turn off the auto registering and looked at the slide show feature as suggested, but I find that between clips there is a black screen for about 3 secs. and as a lot of my clips are quite short, this is quite distracting.

Is there still something I am still missing as I am completely new to this program.

RonC.

You're welcome. That and a post in AVS Forum have me looking at PMB in a bit more detail.

I get a one second delay (black screen) between video clips or stills. It's very consistent. So the time delay may be varying based on computer speed or hard drive speed or some other factor. If I have clips I want combined into one continuous flow, I usually do that in Corel's VideoStudio Pro X3 in any case to reduce the number of clips I have to track. That is, I tack related material together most of the time. That may or may not make sense for your material.

Those of us with 4.2 (for my CX500V) and registered copies can upload 5.2 now, so I did that a few days ago. The new UI is a bit more configurable and I'm leaving hardware acceleration on which I think I had to turn off before to play some of the Corel-edited clips.

Anyway, I downloaded something called Movie Tracer that someone asked about. It will zap through a short continuous-shoot video to build a panoramic JPEG if it can. These are from a trip to Maryland Heights overlooking Harpers Ferry WV today, and were shot with a monopod so the resulting JPEG is not rectangular. But this is a fairly cool idea. The resulting JPEG is not very high-resolution but it definitely is a good combo of about 110 degrees of video left to right.

[Tom Gull]

Originally Posted by Ron Cooper

Another question I now have re PMB is, - how do you set it as a default player ? Also, I find that if I try to open a file in explorer, and select "Open with", I cannot find any reference to PMB to open it. - Seems strange ??

RonC.

In Windows Explorer, double-click to try to open any file with an M2TS extension. You'll get asked if you want to search the Web for a program, or you can Browse your computer. Look for the Sony folder under Program Files or Program Files (x86) and go down to the PMB folder. You're looking for PMBBrowser.exe. Select that as the program to use to open M2TS files. You could also make this association with JPEG files though I haven't done that just for simple photo display.

[Dave Blackhurst]

Tom -
Interesting to see those panoramic shots - Sony has been doing those with their still cameras, sort of a fun little "add on" feature.

Also a good catch that PMB 5.2 is available as a free download to any users of the previous versions - finally Sony seems to have wised up and "opened" the software where previously you had to have the camera that matched each version. 5.2 is pretty much the same as what ships with 2010 cameras, with a few additional features.

[Tom Gull]

Yes, it is kind of cool. The resolution seems lower than it could be, though - not sure what their target was.

I took one video and stuck my seven panorama JPEGS on the end of it as a further example of what the software can do.

Here's the link to that:

YouTube - Harpers Ferry from Maryland Heights panoramas from Sony Movie Tracer

I have to test a flat fixed view area via a tripod just panning. I'll be curious to see if the software curves it anyway.

[Ron Cooper]

Tom, re the PMB browser, I just cannot locate it in my PC. - Under x86 - Sony Picture Utility there is PMB Core but there is no PMB browser.exe that I can find, - weird.
Yet of course if I open the program I can search for AVCHD files and play them one at a time. I also tried to see if there were any updates but there was none.

I have searched within the program and there is no setting to set it as the default player. However, when I set the "PMBLauncherStrings" - The only one that comes up), as default, and tried that, I got a message saying "Not a validwin 32 application" ??? - Most Curious as I am using Vista 64bit.

RonC.

[Tom Gull]

Try looking at the properties of the desktop icon you use to successfully start PMB. That may be the file name you need to use. Most installations come off of disks delivered with the hardware instead of downloads, so possibly you didn't get to install everything.

[Ron Cooper]

Thanks again Tom. - How dumb of me not to think of that !

Yes, I found the location but it is called SPU Browser and from there with a few hiccups I was eventually able to sort of set it as default but there is no actual setting for this but it now seems that it is the default. - Now if I go to "slide show" it does play the selection but of course with about 3 seconds of black between each clip, so I guess this is more than I've had before and probably the best that can be achieved.

Thanks again.

RonC.

[Tom Gull]

You're welcome, glad you got it worked out to be somewhat OK. Think of the 3 seconds as an intermission <g>.