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Chuchichan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
343
2
Maryland
I just purchased a Panasonic DMC-ZS7 camera and apparently it captures video in MTS format. I'm not able to view these files both after I copy them to my Mac and also after I upload them to smugmug. I can only view them on the camera.

I have a powerpc G4 running mac os 10.4.11 and firefox 3.6.16. Any idea on what I can do to view these files and more importantly view them on smugmug? Do I need to convert each one?

Thanks in advance...
 

Chuchichan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
343
2
Maryland
Wow, that G4 will be hardly able to play the compressed .mts files, but maybe this can help:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/510939/
via http://www.google.com/cse?cx=011016...e:forums.macrumors.com&hl=en&as_qdr=all&meta=

Thanks for this information. So, you're saying basically that even if I don't want to play them on my Mac and just want to upload the raw file to SmugMug this won't work? To view them on SmugMug, I should convert them first and then upload them? This seems a bit tedious and time-consuming. So basically with AVCHD cameras this has to be done? Wish I knew about this before purchasing it...
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
Thanks for this information. So, you're saying basically that even if I don't want to play them on my Mac and just want to upload the raw file to SmugMug this won't work? To view them on SmugMug, I should convert them first and then upload them? This seems a bit tedious and time-consuming. So basically with AVCHD cameras this has to be done? Wish I knew about this before purchasing it...

Yes, transcoding has to be done. If you would have a Windows PC, you could play them easier, but it needs a lot of CPU power to decode the MPEG-4 stream AVCHD cameras use, thus your G4 would be quite slow for this.
If you want to upload to SmugMug, you definitely need to transcode the video to whatever they support, as AVCHD is meant for consumer and prosumer cameras and not for internet video.
 

Chuchichan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
343
2
Maryland
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Chuchichan said:
Wow, that G4 will be hardly able to play the compressed .mts files, but maybe this can help:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/510939/
via http://www.google.com/cse?cx=011016...e:forums.macrumors.com&hl=en&as_qdr=all&meta=

Thanks for this information. So, you're saying basically that even if I don't want to play them on my Mac and just want to upload the raw file to SmugMug this won't work? To view them on SmugMug, I should convert them first and then upload them? This seems a bit tedious and time-consuming. So basically with AVCHD cameras this has to be done? Wish I knew about this before purchasing it...

So, if I take videos in avchd format with this camera, I will only be able to view them on the camera? What is the point then? It seems like way too much work to convert them for viewing on a computer or to upload.
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)



So, if I take videos in avchd format with this camera, I will only be able to view them on the camera? What is the point then? It seems like way too much work to convert them for viewing on a computer or to upload.

If you don't have access to a Windows PC, then playing AVCHD video on a Mac is more of a hassle. But as I mentioned before, your G4 will have its problems playing the native AVCHD video, as the CPU has to decode the MPEG-4 stream constantly, thus you probably have a stuttering playback anyway.
You can connect the camera to a TV with the appropriate inputs (HDMI perhaps) and view the footage via that.
Or you can let iMovie import the video overnight and have playable .mov files using the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) being up to 49GB per hour in size (with 1080p footage).
 

Chuchichan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
343
2
Maryland
If you don't have access to a Windows PC, then playing AVCHD video on a Mac is more of a hassle. But as I mentioned before, your G4 will have its problems playing the native AVCHD video, as the CPU has to decode the MPEG-4 stream constantly, thus you probably have a stuttering playback anyway.
You can connect the camera to a TV with the appropriate inputs (HDMI perhaps) and view the footage via that.
Or you can let iMovie import the video overnight and have playable .mov files using the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) being up to 49GB per hour in size (with 1080p footage).

So, basically AVCHD format is a big hassle if you would like to view videos straight away on your computer or upload them to a website like SmugMug. It would make much more sense to have a camera that records in AVI or MOV straight away?
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
So, basically AVCHD format is a big hassle if you would like to view videos straight away on your computer or upload them to a website like SmugMug. It would make much more sense to have a camera that records in AVI or MOV straight away?

There is a lot more to it and as obsolete obsolescence is programmed, manufactures of gizmos hardly think about users with old computers.
.avi and .mov are containers, like .mts is. A container is able to store video (in this case) using a variety of codecs, AVCHD is using MPEG-4 codecs like AVC/H.264. .avi files can use MPEG-4 codecs too, as evident in Divx and Xvid encoded videos. .mov files can use MPEG-4 codecs like H.264 too. It is just, that the .mts container is the hassle and MPEG-4 is meant for at Intel computers or fast G5s.
 

Chuchichan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
343
2
Maryland
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Chuchichan said:
Wow, that G4 will be hardly able to play the compressed .mts files, but maybe this can help:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/510939/
via http://www.google.com/cse?cx=011016...e:forums.macrumors.com&hl=en&as_qdr=all&meta=

Thanks for this information. So, you're saying basically that even if I don't want to play them on my Mac and just want to upload the raw file to SmugMug this won't work? To view them on SmugMug, I should convert them first and then upload them? This seems a bit tedious and time-consuming. So basically with AVCHD cameras this has to be done? Wish I knew about this before purchasing it...

So, if I take videos in avchd format with this camera, I will only be able to view them on the camera? What is the point then? It seems like way too much work to convert them for viewing on a computer or to upload.
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)



So, if I take videos in avchd format with this camera, I will only be able to view them on the camera? What is the point then? It seems like way too much work to convert them for viewing on a computer or to upload.

Is this an accidental double post?
You already asked this question.
 

Chuchichan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
343
2
Maryland
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

simsaladimbamba said:
So, basically AVCHD format is a big hassle if you would like to view videos straight away on your computer or upload them to a website like SmugMug. It would make much more sense to have a camera that records in AVI or MOV straight away?

There is a lot more to it and as obsolete obsolescence is programmed, manufactures of gizmos hardly think about users with old computers.
.avi and .mov are containers, like .mts is. A container is able to store video (in this case) using a variety of codecs, AVCHD is using MPEG-4 codecs like AVC/H.264. .avi files can use MPEG-4 codecs too, as evident in Divx and Xvid encoded videos. .mov files can use MPEG-4 codecs like H.264 too. It is just, that the .mts container is the hassle and MPEG-4 is meant for at Intel computers or fast G5s.

I thought you said that even a new machine (unless it has a lot of power) is not able to play mht files straight away? If I had say a new MacBook Pro, I'd be able to just copy the mht files to the laptop and double-click them and play them (like what I'd do with mov or avi files)?
 

Chuchichan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
343
2
Maryland
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

simsaladimbamba said:
So, basically AVCHD format is a big hassle if you would like to view videos straight away on your computer or upload them to a website like SmugMug. It would make much more sense to have a camera that records in AVI or MOV straight away?

There is a lot more to it and as obsolete obsolescence is programmed, manufactures of gizmos hardly think about users with old computers.
.avi and .mov are containers, like .mts is. A container is able to store video (in this case) using a variety of codecs, AVCHD is using MPEG-4 codecs like AVC/H.264. .avi files can use MPEG-4 codecs too, as evident in Divx and Xvid encoded videos. .mov files can use MPEG-4 codecs like H.264 too. It is just, that the .mts container is the hassle and MPEG-4 is meant for at Intel computers or fast G5s.

I thought you said that even a new machine (unless it has a lot of power) is not able to play mht files straight away? If I had say a new MacBook Pro, I'd be able to just copy the mht files to the laptop and double-click them and play them (like what I'd do with mov or avi files)?
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)



I thought you said that even a new machine (unless it has a lot of power) is not able to play mht files straight away? If I had say a new MacBook Pro, I'd be able to just copy the mht files to the laptop and double-click them and play them (like what I'd do with mov or avi files)?

I said that at least an Intel CPU is required, meaning a Core Duo or better Core 2 Duo.
You can try Movist though first on your PPC G4 Mac, as I just downloaded an .mts sample file, and Movist opened it without a hitch, but my C2D 2GHz CPU was used for 100% out of 200% available CPU and it was only 720p.
 
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