AVCHD video
What do you do about cataloguing AVCHD video files (mts or m2ts) along with your image files?
MediaPro does not let me import them. However, those files are essential for me to keep a comprehensive catalog.
I have several digital cameras that all output mts or m2ts HD video. I often shoot 50% stills and 50% video, that must be kept together.
I am currently evaluating MediaPro with the free 30-day trial. I am very pleased with it (even excited!) and was planning to purchase it, until I realized that all my latest video files were left behind!
Is there an update coming that would bring support for AVCHD video?
MediaPro does not let me import them. However, those files are essential for me to keep a comprehensive catalog.
I have several digital cameras that all output mts or m2ts HD video. I often shoot 50% stills and 50% video, that must be kept together.
I am currently evaluating MediaPro with the free 30-day trial. I am very pleased with it (even excited!) and was planning to purchase it, until I realized that all my latest video files were left behind!
Is there an update coming that would bring support for AVCHD video?
0
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A couple of video and other files are not supported in MediaPro (MP), but as a new customer I was very surprised that in total a lot of files including office files are supported. (I would like very much MP to be extended with the option to support user-defined file extensions. Even without thumbnails or preview, that would be a very good feature <- Obsolete: see below!)
I think, that currently the only workaround to realize import of unknown files is to rename the file extension to one of the supported file extensions. Can you live with this? At least some video players do not care about file extension, because they interprete the file header and not the extension. VLC is one of it. So the sense of this "silly" workaround depends mainly on what you want to do further with the video files. Just catalogization and playback?
... and one day in future, when this file support is added, you can rename you files back again to the original file extension ...
Ooooh...!!! 😊 I just detected that after renaming files externaly, it is possible to rename them again directly after import inside MP. And then the files with unsupported file extensions are still displayed! Isn't this wonderful? May be that is a better workaround which can be realized with external batch renamer and MP internal VBS script. I tested also metainformation added in MP to such M2TS files and the optional XMP sidecar file are created correctly.
Ooooh...!!! 😊 Even better: I found out, that you just have to edit the file "custom.txt" in the MP program installation sub directory "/Plug-ins/Importers/". Just add the two lines "M2TS|2|AVCHD Video" and "MTS_|2|AVCHD Video" without quotes and you have it! 😊 😊 😊
Please take care of the four characters for file extension, so you need a real space (not "[color=#FF0000:6aqly2ej]_[/color:6aqly2ej]") after the usual three characters. Lower or upper case can be relevant. Now you can add any file extension you like. With this valuable feature of MP I am even more excited. Thank you very much for triggering me to this investigation! Such a user forum is really priceless.
Best Regards from PhaseZero0 -
FANTASTIC! It works!
PhaseZero, you are amazing! I can't thank you enough!
However I had a little trouble getting the "custom.txt" editing to do the trick. After several trials and error, what solved it was to also add the lower case version of the file type to the list. That is weird, since my files are ".MTS", not ".mts". But they are now importing in MediaPro, which is wonderful!
In summary, in C:\Program Files\Phase One\Media Pro 1\Plug-ins\Importers\custom.txt,
I added 4 lines:
MTS |2|AVCHD Video
mts |2|AVCHD Video
M2TS|2|AVCHD Video
m2ts|2|AVCHD Video
PhaseZero, thank you for emphasizing the needed space to make the file type 4 characters; I missed that the 1st time.
You should get some kind of bonus prize from PhaseOne for helping them make a sale.😉
I really like the program. It is fast, responsive, with a user friendly interface, and now (thanks to your help) can give me a comprehensive overview of all my imaging material.
Happy computing!
Selsi0 -
Hi,
This looks great, but I'm not able to get it to work for me. I'm trying to read sony mts files from a nex5n on a mac pro. I followed the above instructions and pasted the text into the custom.txt file. Now when I refresh the catalog (also tried restarting), it sees the video files but can't show a preview or play them. So they just show up as a file in the catalog without image.
Any advice?
I have to say that it seems like iview used to handle anything, whereas Media Pro has more and more drawbacks such as this on top of the 2 second delay to show the actual media.
Anyway, thanks for any advice in advance.
Peter0 -
MediaPro does not thumbnail or create a preview of MTS movies. But I can play them by right-clicking the file, and chosing "open with... Nero showtime". Nero was not an option by default; I had to bring it in the list of Helper Applications. You can do that directly by right-click\openwith...\Helper Applications...\add..., or in the Edit\Preferences menu. Nero is what can play AVCHD on my PC, Windows XP. You can point to whatever program you have that can play those files.
This is not perfect, and hopefully MediaPro will get an update to support AVCHD fully soon. But in the mean time, I can at least see the files listed in the catalog, and play them directly from there.0 -
Thanks Selsi,
That is a workaround. VLC works fine for this in the Mac platform.
Still it is a frustrating failure of Media Pro that it can't even give a visual indication at all. Maybe not as frustrating as the subjugation to Capture 1 causing the pixellated delay, but a significant drawback for one choosing a DAM now.
If anyone can suggest a mac platform DAM that does not have the delay on viewing media, can handle the range of files that Iview/Media Pro has traditionally been able to access (including avchd now) please tell me.
I've used Iview/Media Pro for 6 or 8 years and labelled and organized over 120,000 photos with it but I think I now have to leave the platform or accept the old Media Expression version.
I also sometimes use Capture one, but just don't get the benefit of the "synergy" between the products that is denigrating the benefits of Iview.
Oh well, any DAM suggestions?
Thanks,
Peter0 -
[quote="NNN634408252271893992" wrote:
but I think I now have to leave the platform or accept the old Media Expression version.
What's wrong with doing precisely that? I'm using Expression Media 2 with no problems to speak of.0 -
[quote="syncrasy" wrote:
What's wrong with doing precisely that? I'm using Expression Media 2 with no problems to speak of.
Well it does seem to be the best option, but I was happy to "upgrade" to Media Pro primarily because of the acceptance of catalogs over 2gb. Since I have 120,000 images and videos, I couldn't make a complete catalog without tiny previews. I just recently saw that there are bugs with catalogs over 128,000 so maybe this upgrade didn't help out for long in that capacity anyway.
And I never shot with sony or produced AVCHD files before and was really surprised that neither Media Pro nor Expression Media will even preview them, not to speak of play them.0 -
[quote="NNN634408252271893992" wrote:
[quote="syncrasy" wrote:
What's wrong with doing precisely that? I'm using Expression Media 2 with no problems to speak of.
Well it does seem to be the best option, but I was happy to "upgrade" to Media Pro primarily because of the acceptance of catalogs over 2gb. Since I have 120,000 images and videos, I couldn't make a complete catalog without tiny previews. I just recently saw that there are bugs with catalogs over 128,000 so maybe this upgrade didn't help out for long in that capacity anyway.
Ah, yes. The catalog size limit. I haven't had to deal with that yet. But as you note, apparently MP didn't really fix it.[quote="NNN634408252271893992" wrote:
And I never shot with sony or produced AVCHD files before and was really surprised that neither Media Pro nor Expression Media will even preview them, not to speak of play them.
Oh, Expression Media doesn't display AVCHD previews either? I didn't realize that. That's too bad. I haven't shot video in years, but if I ever get a Sony (or Panasonic, which I think also uses AVCHD format (?)), I'll be faced with the same problem. Is converting the files to another video format an option?0 -
Fantastic; it works. Thanks for pointing this out. On the Mac, the custom.txt file is in the app package itself, for the record. 0 -
Aaron,
did you get Media Pro or Expression media to play AVCHD files? What did you get to work?
Thanks,
Peter0 -
May be there is some misunderstanding about MP support for special files.
There are multiple use cases for managing files in MP:- files in directory, which are not imported (workaround: edit "custom.txt")
- files in catalog, which cannot be thumbnailed by MP (possible solution: install additional WIC, eg. FPVC)
- files, which cannot be played back directly in MP (only option: use external application)
- files, which have neither thumbnail and playback option (you just can manage metadata)
Files which are unknown for MP still can be opened and played in external applications (and standard external application). I think that AVCHD video files can belong to point 4. The embedded codecs (audio and video) with key technical parameters (e.g. bitrate, resolution, ...) in video containers are also quite relevant for thumbnail display and playback. Note, that the file extension does not give you any reliable information about the used/required container and codecs. Finally the system installation is quite responsible for providing correct codecs for decoding video.
Regards from PhaseZero0 -
After editing the file "custom.txt" it is necessary to exit and restart MediaPro. In addition it might be necessary to kill afterwards with win task manager the processes "ImportSrv.exe" and/or "Media Pro.exe". Seems that otherwise the "custom.txt" file is not reloaded.
I would like to have an option or setting in custom.txt, which allows to import ALL file extensions. I tried some combinations with * and ? but this does not work. A black list would be fine, where you can enter all files which shall NOT be imported.
Regards from Joseph
Here is what I have added up to now in my "custom.ini":669 |1|Tracker Module 669
3gp |2|Tracker Module 3GP
7z |6|Compressed 7-Zip File 7Z
aac |1|Advanced Audio Codec AAC
ari |0|Arriflex raw ARI
bat |4|MSDOS Batch file BAT
bay |0|Casio raw BAY
cap |0|PhaseONe raw CAP
dcs |0|Kodak raw DCS
dll |4|Dynamic Link Library DLL
dmf |1|Tracker Module DMF
drf |0|Kodak raw DRF
exe |4|Executable EXE
flac|1|Free Lossless Audio Codec FLAC
flv |2|Flash Video FLV
k25 |0|Kodak raw K25
ini |4|Text file INI
lnk |4|Windows link LNK
m3u |1|Multimedia playlist M3U
mdl |1|Tracker Module MDL
mod |1|Tracker Module MOD
mov |2|Quicktime Video MOV
mp4 |2|MPEG video MP4
mtm |1|Tracker Module MTM
nst |1|Tracker Module NST
okt |1|Tracker Module OKT
pps |4|MS Powerpoint PPS
ptx |0|Pentax raw PTX
pxn |0|Logitech raw PXN
qt |2|Quicktime Video QT
r3d |0|RED raw R3D
rar |6|Compressed File RAR
rbs |1|Tracker Module RBS
rtf |4|Rich Text Format RTF
s3m |1|Tracler Module S3M
stm |1|Scream Tracker Module STM
swf |2|Shock Wave Flash SWF
tar |6|Compressed File TAR
ts |2|Transport Stream TX
txt |4|Text file TXT
wav |1|Waveform Audio File WAV
xm |1|Extended Module XM
zip |6|Compressed File ZIP0 -
Up to now I did not find a way to import Microsoft Digital Video Recording format with file extension "*.dvr-ms". May be only the renaming of these files to a 4 character extension is the workaround? 0 -
hello
i am trying to get this to work on an imac running os x 10.9 and mediapro 1.4.1
I can't find this custom.txt file to edit it as descibed. is this something you can only do on a PC or an older version?
any help hugely appreciated
thanks0 -
On Mavericks the user's Library folder is hidden.
Use on Finder the menu Go folder with:
~/Library/Application Support/Phase One Media Pro/Plug-ins/Importers/0 -
[quote="NN10534" wrote:
hello
i am trying to get this to work on an imac running os x 10.9 and mediapro 1.4.1
I can't find this custom.txt file to edit it as descibed. is this something you can only do on a PC or an older version?
any help hugely appreciated
thanks
Control-click on the media pro app in the applications folder.
Select: Show Package Contents
Path: Contents-SharedSupport-Plug-ins-Importers0 -
[quote="NN10534" wrote:
hello
i am trying to get this to work on an imac running os x 10.9 and mediapro 1.4.1
I can't find this custom.txt file to edit it as descibed.
Right- (or ctrl-)Click on the Media Pro application, and select "Show Package Contents". In the opened window navigate to Contents / SharedSupport / Plug-ins / Importers
There's Custom.txt (capital C).
Format is:
extension|type|description
Video formats have type 2 (images are 1). Extension must be 4 characters, with a blank at the end if your files have only 3 char. extension. I don't know how to handle more than 4 characters though.
Modifications will probably be lost on updates, so better keep a copy of your modifications somewhere.0
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