HF10 First Look

[Ken Ross]

Yuning, thanks, but I'm trying to get this in the form of an m2t or mts file that can load on to ULead Studio 11+ so that I can burn it to a DVD-R in the AVCHD format. My objective is to have it play on a Blu Ray player and watch it on a 60" 1080p plasma. In other words I'm not really interested in seeing it on my computer monitor which is far less revealing than my plasma. I've actually gotten the original .dmg file to play in Windows Media Player, so that's not an issue.

This is what I've typically done with native AVCHD or HDV files. At that point it's as if I have the shooter's camera hooked up to my plasma. I don't know if I can do that at all with an ISO file.

[Austin Meyers]

the disk image is just a copy of the hf10 when it's mounted, to pull out the clips you either need an app that can read from the cam via log and transfer or you can ferret down the directories and find the one labeled "streams" and in there you will find all the raw mts files. try bringing those into ulead.

in the mac world you should be able to mount the dmg and and then open imovie or fcp and go to log an capture and it should appear that there is a camera available to transfer from.

i've got 2 more days of hard sxsw shooting then i can get back to putting stuff up. (i'm only at my computer now because i have to print out more biz cards for tomorrow)

[Ken Ross]

Originally Posted by Austin Meyers

the disk image is just a copy of the hf10 when it's mounted, to pull out the clips you either need an app that can read from the cam via log and transfer or you can ferret down the directories and find the one labeled "streams" and in there you will find all the raw mts files. try bringing those into ulead.

Austin,any suggestion on a PC program that would do that? Is there any way you can post just the raw mts files 'unbundled'? Thanks.

[Chris Hurd]

I'll upload the .MTS files when I get the camera back sometime tomorrow.

[Ken Ross]

Thanks Chris!

[Frank Grygier]

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...t=copy+command

This work around was suggested.

[Aaron Courtney]

Frank, at least speaking on my own behalf, I am not looking for this workaround to be the final "product" here for Canon's AVCHD cams. It's far from ideal and will lead to extreme frustration if you don't get things exactly correct. So, again, I implore every owner of these AVCHD cams to hammer Canon and demand a software/firmware fix.

[Chris Hurd]

Please pardon my ignorance, but is this a Canon-specific issue or a general one for AVCHD?

[Aaron Courtney]

LOL! Dave Blackhurst seems to believe that this 2GB limit is imposed within the AVCHD spec. I emailed the consortium and did not receive a response - no surprise there. If you read the fine print on the site, it says that it is up to the manuf how they choose to implement their AVCHD compliant products.

Per Dave's experience, Sony cams do not have any problems reassembling the 2GB files upon transfer to computer because the cam correctly tags each clip (or maybe just the first 2GB file) with data telling the software how to reassemble the clips into the original contiguous clip. Canon does not (at least with the HG10) provide software to do this. So you have to do it manually with the copy /b command - you also have to know exactly which .mts files comprised the original contiguous clip and if you can't open the .mts files on your PC then you're going to be guessing because there is no correlation between the .mts files and the clips you see on the cam's lcd screen. Yes, the .m2ts files are <datetimestamp>.m2ts so if you kept IMMACULATE shooting records, that would do it. But that is a major hassle nonetheless.

Like I wrote earlier, I really wish someone with a Panny AVCHD cam would chime in here and tell us exactly how those cams handle their extended shoot clips.

If you want to test the HF10, simply clear all existing clips, press record, set the cam down, and come back in 17 minutes (shooting highest quality) and tell us how many .mts files were created. Then use the Canon-provided software to transfer to your PC and see what happens. I bet the two files will be transferred as two files, whereas they SHOULD be transferred as one file representative of the single clip that is presented on the cam's LCD clip preview window.

[Ken Ross]

Aaron, I think we'll have a hard time gathering any significant pool of users who encounter this. It will be very rare for a typical user (including myself who shoots DV professionally), to run a clip that long for the kind of shooting you'd do with a cam like this.

Even for the soccer mom, she'll hit the standby button long before 15 minutes. Now some parent shooting a recital might be a different story, but again this will be the exception by far as opposed to the rule.

[Ron Evans]

I don't think the 2G file limit is AVCHD specific. Most external devices like Firestore and Sony's own DR60 do this. I think the main reason is FAT32 read compatibility for Mac and PC and older PC's( that aren't powerful enough to deal with AVCHD anyway!!!!). They always need some software to stitch the files back together. Early NLE's used reference files to get over this problem for FAT32 PC like WIn98 and I expect this is how the cameras solve this problem and how the Sony Browser software reassembles the files. If you just bring the files in to the PC they will be seperate files as you say. I am surprised that Canon have not provided this through the supplied software. I must try transfering files to the Memory Stick on my SR11 ( need to get one big enough first!!!) that way I will be able to see what is on the memory Stick and transfer without using the Browser software. Will try this weekend.

Ron Evans

[Aaron Courtney]

Originally Posted by Ken Ross

Aaron, I think we'll have a hard time gathering any significant pool of users who encounter this. It will be very rare for a typical user (including myself who shoots DV professionally), to run a clip that long for the kind of shooting you'd do with a cam like this.

Ken - event videography. That's all that needs to be said IMO. AVCHD is poised to supplant HDV in the "prosumer" space. It appears Panny is first at bat here. I really wish a Panny AVCHD owner would chime in here on this topic. I agree with Ron; I don't think the consortium is imposing a 2GB file limit on these manufacturers. I think they're stupidly doing it themselves.

[Ken Ross]

Aaron, I should have mentioned with the current equipment. I don't expect people to be doing much event videography with cams like the SR12 or HF10..as good as they are. You get my drift. ;)

[Aaron Courtney]

Absolutely. Know any Panny AVCHD owners? LOL!

[Ken Ross]

Not shoulder mounted AVCHD owners at any rate! :)