AVCHD – Use .MTS files only?

[Chris Tompkins]

Just back up all the card media/files, it’s the best thing to do.

What if you need to access the footage down the road on another system and it wants to see other data in there to read the files properly?

Chris

[Paul Neumann]

Use the Media Browser to only see/import the video files.

[Jim Mcadory]

There is only one condition with my GH2 (not sure if this applies to the C100) where I need to bring in all of the files and that is when I have a clip that I know will span multiple files. In that case you need the folder structure and all of the files for Premier to put the spanned files together. Since I rarely have a clip that meets the above condition I use just the MTS file 99.9% of the time and nave never encountered an issue.

[Al Jensen]

For what it’s worth, I *only* bring the MTS files, and have never bothered with anything else. I have no idea what any of the other stuff could possibly have to offer. But I guess there could be something 🙂

[John-michael Seng-wheeler]

[Al Jensen] ” I have no idea what any of the other stuff could possibly have to offer.”

Jim mentioned this above:

Because of the 4GB file size limitation of FAT32, AVCHD cameras brake long video clips into multiple files. If you just use the MTS files without the rest of the folder structure these “spanned” clips as they’re called are not reconnected when they’re imported. The files import just fine, but one long clip will import as two or more shorter clips. Placing these shorter clips end to end will recreate the original clip although there may be a faint pop in the audio at the cuts.

The information that Premiere uses to reassemble spanned clips is contained in the other folders.

[Ann Baldwin]

Well, that’s interesting info. I use both a GH2 and GH3 and have never imported anything other than the .MTS files. I too had no idea what the rest of the stuff was for and have never had any problems. Most of my clips are under 20 seconds.

Ann Baldwin
https://annbaldwin.zenfolio.com/
‘Art Changes Lives’

[John-michael Seng-wheeler]

You have to shoot for longer then 21 minutes in standard AVCHD before it has to span a clip. Thing is though, since the GH2 and GH3 are technically still cameras they might just stop recording rather then span the clip.

Anyway, if everything you’re shooting is around 20 sec then the only reason to keep the rest of the files would be if you want to use he clips in a program other the Premiere.

[Al Jensen]

Fascinating, that would have never even occurred to me. Obviously I’ve never shot for that long before 🙂 Thanks for the education!

[Max Frank]

Thank you to everybody for the feedback. Much appreciated and most useful.

By way of sharing something I’ve learned – I was told about a $50 app called ClipWrap that rewraps the .mts files as .mov – what this allows you to do is do quick Views and view the files in the Finder and OS.
If you’re working only inside Premiere Pro this may not be necessary, but if you want to view your files in the Finder, without having to open VLC or similar, this app works a dream.

Thanks all again.

Wayne

[Jim Mcadory]

I have made numerous shots of over 21 minutes and never had an issue with the camera “stopping” nor have I ever heard of a GH2/GH3 simply stopping at that point. From what I have seen most issues that some have had with any HDSLR camera can be traced to cheap or slow SD cards (or a card that is going bad, it happens), off brand batteries or power supplies or in the case of the GH2, a hacked camera with an unstable firmware update. I have used the Flowmotion hack for a long time and shot many very long clips and never had an issue but I use real GH2 batteries and fast, high quality SD cards.