I'm thinking of buying Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus

[Ken Jarstad]

Update: I had to leave for the evening but just before I did I tried converting my m2t clip to an mpg file. I used Avidemux, of all things! The file played just great! Apparently, 15+ doesn't handle the transport stream file, direct from the camcorder, very well at all. Saving the file as mpg strips the transport protocol from the file.

[Gerlinde]

That's great, you found a solution for your problem Ken.

You might be able to just change the .m2t extension to .mpg. I was once trying to import a .m2t file into Windows Movie Maker on my Vista machine and it simply crashed the program every time I did this.

Then I red somewhere you could just change the extension and it worked! WMM imported the file and played it flawless.

[Ken Jarstad]

Yes, Gerlinde, converting the file solved one annoyance. I have heard of the trick of renaming files, too. I'm not sure what that means for application file handling. TS is the moniker for transport stream which, as I understand it, adds some overhead code to provide media framing for tape and SDHC cards. If we rename the file, do some applications simply ignore/discard the framing data? Converting the file obviously strips out the extra code. Last time I tried fooling Elements like that it wouldn't buy it. Seems Adobe coders don't trust the file extension and check the video file container for themselves.

One of the most attractive 'features' of a video editor which handles HD formats is the ability to burn an HD project to a Blu-ray compatible standard DVD disk. Elements will not do this but Magix claims recent versions of MEP will. Alas, the trial version does not allow this, not even revealing HD options in the Burn dialog. I wish you or another 15+ user would try this. A couple of the folks on the Magix forums claim they have been able to get it to work.

So, I am about done here - last day of the trial versions. Now I am trying various pieces of freeware to see if I can get HD on DVDs. So far I have used multiAVCHD to create an AVCHD compatible and it has been mostly successful. The playback plays for moment and pauses, plays back and pauses, and so on continuously. Seems the data rate is a bit too high for a conventional DVD. For home movies I could even, as you say, use WMM, save it as an HD WMV or something and then use this tool. Workin' on it.

[Gerlinde]

Ken, I am still not completely clear why you had problems to import/play m2t files in MEP15. As I understand it, I may be wrong, when I capture with PE from my HV30 in HD, the resulting files are stored as m2t on my hard drive. Now, when I open MEP and use the media import function, I can import and pay/edit those files without an issue. But I will double check tonight, when I get home.

I will also check if I can burn HD footage on a standard DVD for play back on a Blue-ray player. I can't really test it since I don't have a Blue-ray player. Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 can supposedly do it:

Built-in HD Disc Burning, Natively author Blu-ray format discs with full motion menus. Or make AVCHD format discs on standard DVDs to play on Blu-ray players

I save my HD videos as HD WMV and play them from my notebook via HDMI cable to my 47" LCDTV, and they look great. I also send those videos to my family and they can play them back the same way or watch them on their computer. But it takes a long time to upload the videos, so I have to keep them below 10min.

[Ken Jarstad]

To be honest, the 7 minute m2t clip was downloaded using HDVSplit perhaps a year ago. If MEP is creating m2t files when using it to capture then there should be no difference. OTOH, if MEP is stripping the ts code then they would be saving as another file type, wouldn't they? I did not try capturing HDV with 15+ so I might have missed something in the evaluation process.

Saving an HD project as an HD-WMV sounds like it might be a good way to go. I'll just have to try it.

I am especially interested if you can make a totally watchable HD video on a standard DVD. TIA

[Gerlinde]

Ken, if all you really want is burning to a playable DVD check out Ulead DVD Movie Factory

http://www.ulead.com/dmf/

[Ron]

Ken, if all you really want is burning to a playable DVD check out Ulead DVD Movie Factory

http://www.ulead.com/dmf/

I can vouch for that and this thread should help a bit - viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6948

[JohnnyO]

I use MEP 15+. I exclusively use m2ts files. MEP15 + does not have any issues whatsoever.

Here is my workflow.

I get the video off my SD card using the software that comes with my camera. The software is "PhotoFunStudio HD Edition". I like this software because it names the files with the date and time taken.

For proxy editing, I need to convert to mpg. I use "Koyote Free Video Converte"r. It does batch conversions which is nice. The converted files are stored in the same directory as the m2ts files.

Next I use a software program called "ExtensionRenamerr" This program will convert extensions for all files in a video. I rename the files with the m2ts extension to mt2sOriginal. Then I rename the files with the mpg extension to mtts. With this freeware program it is very straight forward and quick.

For Organizing the photos and videos in my project, I use Microsoft Live Photo Gallery. This organizer can sort on the date taken. And it even knows the date the mt2s files were taken. There are additional files downloaded to the computer by photoFunStudio, these have extensions of tmb, iis and cont. One of these files must have the date information in them. Because it recognizes the date no matter if it is the mpg renamed as mt2s, or the mt2s original file renamed mt2s. In any case I never touch those files. I use Windows 7. AVCHD is resident in Windows 7. So I do not know if other OSs would recognise the mt2s like Windows 7 does.

Then I edit in MEP15+.

When done, I use "Extension Renamer" to rename the mt2s files back to mpg, and then the mt2tOriginal files back to mt2s.

When I reload MEP 15+, it now uses the original HD mt2s files. I have not had any issues burning with this method. I also sometimes export to DV-AVI and author in DVDAS. No issues there either.

This is the best technique I have found to edit the mt2s files on my old PC. The longest part is the conversion to mpg. All the other steps take hardly no time at all (except the editing of course).

[Ken Jarstad]

Ron and Gerlinde,

I remember Ron was trying to make HD-DVD disks on conventional DVDs but DVD Movie Factory product description isn't real clear about Blu-ray compatible disks. It seems I need to create an AVCHD disk which is another animal. Could you verify if the DMF docs say it will create AVCHD on conventional (DVD-5 or 9) disks?

Most Blu-ray players will play AVCHD but apparently not all. My Sony player supports it and has played some rough tests so far. DMF seems like a real nice product but costs nearly as much as PE or MEP.

JohnnyO, the KoyoteSoft converters handle ts and m2ts files but not m2t files! Seems like an oversight. It seems that you, too, need to convert to mpg before editing. I'm not sure why you have the convert to mtts step.

I have since discovered a free tool named 'multiAVCHD' which can create the file structure for Blu-ray or AVCHD disks and automatically invoke ImgBurn. Fun! Both free! My friend calls me McJarstad because he thinks I'm Scotch. ........... Just tried my first disk from this combo and all I get is a bunch of variously colored macroblocks on the left side of the HDTV. Phttssff!

[Gerlinde]

Ken this is from the Help file inside the program:

Code: Select all

Files with the M2TS extension can easily be dragged down from the Media Pool (above right). You will be asked during the first import if you want to convert the movie into the MPEG-2 format. This question should absolutely be answered with "Yes", since only then will you be able to edit your movies in real time. We also recommend you activate the check box "Don't ask me again". The advantage is that you won't have to answer this query every single time you import individual files.


I tried to open a m2t file that I have exported from PE and I I get the following message:



I can open the file in Windows Movie Maker without a problem. Somehow this makes no sense.

This is also from the help files:



Maybe JohnnyO can shed some light on the question if it is possible to burn HD on standard DVD with MEP

[Ken Jarstad]

Hey Gerlinde, that's really helpful! Thanks for sticking around.

The TS seems to always refer to Transport Stream. But m2t is used for HDV tape transport and m2ts is used for SDHC memory cards and HDDs cams. The MPEG-2 data is encapsulated to make it more reliable on those storage devices. (I've been reading Wikipedia)

It looks like MEP will not accept native HDV files, will accept native SDHC/HDD files but strips the container from them. Seems like it would be trivial to support m2t also. Either way it seems that MEP will really only edit MPEG-2 files so we might be better off to just convert them before attempting to edit.

The disk burning options you've shown are revealed in the MEP help files but simply do not appear in the trial version so there is no way to test my desired feature. I was able to burn an SD DVD from my HDV timeline but the down-conversion was not real good. Down-converting in the camera during capture and burning from a DV timeline would look better IMO.

PS: I wonder what format MEP saves an HDV capture?

[Gerlinde]

Ken, I think MEP will burn a HD WMV file to standard DVD and you even can add a DVD menu. I don't know if it will play on a Blueray player.

[Ken Jarstad]

That disk would be suitable only for a PC. Some folks have HTPCs and it might work for them - or connecting a laptop as you do. I want to distribute family videos. And Blu-ray players are much more affordable these days.

From WikiPedia: "For video, all players are required to support MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and SMPTE VC-1. MPEG-2 is the codec used on regular DVDs, which allows backwards compatibility. MPEG-4 AVC was developed by MPEG, Sony, and VCEG. VC-1 is a codec that was mainly developed by Microsoft. BD-ROM titles with video must store video using one of the three mandatory codecs; multiple codecs on a single title are allowed."

And, "all existing WMV HD titles are encoded using the VC-1 compliant Windows Media Video 9" which means that Blu-ray players can support WMV-HD if they want to but since Microsoft never intended WMV to be more than a PC format the manufacturers usually don't bother paying the royalties to add the support. It is interesting that multiple codecs on a title are allowed. It is also interesting that the Blu-ray standard "requires" all three codecs - at least according to WikiPedia. Do they build in the WMV-HD codec but never implement it? Could a hacker expose the codec and make it usable? Blu-ray players are Internet firmware upgradeable. Hmmmmm.

[Ron]

I remember Ron was trying to make HD-DVD disks on conventional DVDs but DVD Movie Factory product description isn't real clear about Blu-ray compatible disks. It seems I need to create an AVCHD disk which is another animal. Could you verify if the DMF docs say it will create AVCHD on conventional (DVD-5 or 9) disks?

Here's one of the manuals that came with it - I think it does, but I don't have a BD player so I can't be too sure. Keep in mind that this is DMF 6 plus and not the latest version. As my reference thread attests, I have successfully created HD content on a standard DVD and I was truly impressed with the results.

[JohnnyO]

Maybe JohnnyO can shed some light on the question if it is possible to burn HD on standard DVD with MEP

What you need to do is set the project settings to 720x480. Easiest done when you start a new project.

Then even though you are editing HD video, it will fit into s SD project. When authoring it will automatically use the SD settings.