AVCHD clip playback in sage

[benjatelcom]

Is there any support for MTS or M2TS files conforming to the AVCHD specifications?

I have lots of footage from my HDR-SR1, which I edit in Vegas Pro 8, and export again as AVCHD.

What else are people doing with their AVCHD raw footage for archival?

[stanger89]

The HD extender will play H.264 in a TS stream, supposedly it supports M2TS as well (though I've got no M2TS files to try). I don't know if there's anything to AVCHD other than H.264 video in a TS file or not, I want to say there is since it sounds like AVCHD is a very problematic format support wise.

[benjatelcom]

I edit my AVCHD videos with Vegas Pro 8, and export them as AVCHD again. They play perfectly in Cyberlink DVD 7 ultra, with 1% cpu utilization silky smooth.

Cyberlink is also the directshow codec I use in sage for all MPEG2 program streams. M2TS and MTS don't seem to appear as media files in sage when exploring...

H.264 1440x1080@60hz interlaced video, and dolby digital 5ch audio. I don't want to settle for a MP4 container thats restricted to 2ch AAC audio, the multichannel audio on the HDR-SR1 camera actually works pretty well.

[stanger89]

If they don't show up, just ad MTS and M2TS to the video import extensions list in the sage.properties file (be sure to stop sage/service). Sage will import them, but I don't know for sure if it will handle them once imported.

[benjatelcom]

With PDVD7 selected as my decoder, I get decent playback results, nearly on par with the PDVD7 player application. About 1% cpu utilization, smooth video (afraid to test the audio this late at night, so its muted).

If a menu is up (using VMR9) I see some strange temporal distortion that usually clears up when the menu is hidden. If using overlay, they are present continuously throughout the video. PDVD7 exhibited the same behavior when not running in full screen exclusive mode.

Thanks for the advice on file extensions! The camera records .MTS files, and Vegas exports in .M2TS files, which to my understanding are identical in format.

The M2TS thumbnails in the video library are distorted: The top half appears, but the bottom half is distorted horizontal lines. Any ideas?

[tormaid]

I've been trying to figure out how to export my Vegas project to an AVCHD file so that I don't lose any quality.

How did you manage to do it?

[benjatelcom]

I think what you are mentioning is "smart-rendering" and after considerable troubleshooting with sony support, they decreed that AVCHD smart-rendering is not supported.

So the lack of smart-rendering, and the lack of GPU assisted AVCHD playback is really killing what would be a fantastic AVCHD NLE platform.

[bastafidli]

mts and mt2s files produced from Canon Vixia HF100 play just fine on extender.

[valnar]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

mts and mt2s files produced from Canon Vixia HF100 play just fine on extender.

I don't have one of the new HD camcorders yet, but will soon.

Do you know if all the Canon Vixia camcorders (the ones that save to flash) can play their files natively on the HD extenders? Not ever having to deal with tape, or transcoding again would be nice.

[inlvnv]

M2TS files from Sony SR12 camcorder are playing without a problem to wired HD-200 and wireless HD-100.

[banshee]

Anyone have any success getting SageTV to play AVCHD Lite (such as that recorded by a Panasonic DMC-ZS3? SageTV seems to recognize the clips and shows a thumbnail, but gives me a grey screen when I try to play them.

[vca]

Originally Posted by banshee

Anyone have any success getting SageTV to play AVCHD Lite (such as that recorded by a Panasonic DMC-ZS3? SageTV seems to recognize the clips and shows a thumbnail, but gives me a grey screen when I try to play them.

I am trying to play AVCHD files from a Canon HF200, these have a ".mts" extension. They play fine the the PIXELA player Canon provides, and they also play fine on the SageTV HD Theater media extender. But they will not play on my SageTV server PC which has SageTV 6.5.9.204 installed on it. It just shows the thumbnail and a grey screen if you hit play and then SageTV stops working (just sits there with its little busy circle icon spinning and will not do anything else - you have to kill it from the task manager).

Is there some additional configuration work I can do to get this to work?

[gplasky]

You will probably need to install something with a DirectShow filter that supports playing AVCHD. Maybe installing your Pixela player might help if it uses DirectShow filters.

Gerry

[vca]

Originally Posted by gplasky

You will probably need to install something with a DirectShow filter that supports playing AVCHD. Maybe installing your Pixela player might help if it uses DirectShow filters.

Gerry

I tried installing Pixela, but that did not fix the playback in Sage. Pixela plays them just fine, but both Save and Windows Media Player do not play them.

Stephen

[vca]

Originally Posted by vca

I tried installing Pixela, but that did not fix the playback in Sage. Pixela plays them just fine, but both Save and Windows Media Player do not play them.

Stephen

Correction, Windows Media Player does play them.

Stephen

[d2tw4all]

Anyone ever get anywhere with this, I'm in the same boat, can't seem to get these to play from my client PC, says a playback error but shows thumbnails...
MTS files from canon HD camcorder, I think it's an HG30...

Tom

[Arioch5]

Hum... recently picked up a Cannon HF200 and having issues playing back the AVCHD .mts files on my Sage system as well (Windows XP).

Seems several of these responses are a bit old did someone find an easy solution? I really hate jumping in and messing with the decoders in windows it's terrible. Sure as I do I won't be able to use my blueray player anymore.

[OneOfMany]

Okay, since this thread has no solution, and I am in need of one, its bumped

I'll admit that much of this stuff is above my paygrade, but I'm trying.

.mts file from a Panasonic dig camera. File plays with Windows Media Player 12 on Win7 Pro64 Client. I dropped the .mts file on graphedit, and it plays correctly using the CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD7). In Sage 6.62 the video thumbnail shows correctly, however when I try to play it, I receive the "Unable to render video portion".

I am guessing that I need to tell Sage to use the above decoder when encountering this type of file, and tried duplicating/modifying a line in the SageClient.properties file to make it work, with no success.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Grant

[SkierHiker]

I'll bump this again. Same with me. I bought a Panasonic FX700 which shoots 1080i in .mts format. I use VideoRedo to join the files and it spits them out in .ts format. Plays fine on VLC and WMP but will not play in SageTV. I get sound but just a black video. Do you think that since this has been outstanding for so long, it should be reported to SageTV as a bug?

[bcjenkins]

It will get fixed much faster if you report it.