But since you are recompressing.... why do you recompress to AVCHD that is not an easy-to-edit codec ? Why don't you render in other codecs ?

shooter71,

The program that will perfectly fit your needs is called VideoReDo TV Suite with H.264. That's exactly what I am doing: "simple way to simply combine AVCHD mts files together with no editing at all into another larger .mts file"

http://www.videoredo.com/en/ProductTVS.htm

You could try this:

copy 00001.mts /b + 00002.mts /b + 00003.mts /b OutputFilename.mts

Or other methods mentioned in this thread:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=698437

I love Vegas. I'm a fan, a lifelong user, and I'm staying with it regardless.

But it is too much to ask for a AVCHD Smartrender?

Sony cameras usually come with PMB (picture motion browser) aka Sony Picture Utility. Use it to transfer your movies from your camera via USB. It glues together clips that have been cut at 2GB boundaries and also renames the clips to shooting time and date, which I find very handy.

The suffix is changed from .MTS to .m2ts. Clips less than 2GB are transferred with no change. No recompression takes place at any time.

"But it is too much to ask for a AVCHD Smartrender?"

Hear! Hear!

I am stuck at Vegas 9c because it was the last version that at least partly smart rendered AVCHD. It will smart render clips that have no change or have had the tail chopped but not if the head has been chopped. Better than nothing.

"copy 00001.mts /b + 00002.mts /b + 00003.mts /b OutputFilename.mts"

The /b should be next to the copy command:

copy /b 00001.mts+00002.mts+00003.mts OutputFilename.mts

PeterDuke,

How are you actually using PMB do combine MTS files? I have looked at this software and even talks with Sony Tech help and they confirmed that is can not combine .mts files togehter. Does this have to be completed before the files are downloaded from the camera? All of my files are currently on the PC and when I open the PMB software, I don't see any means to combine them.

Thx.

Shooter71

shooter71,

If you shoot continues video with your cam (one hour non stop for example) and file size reaches 4GB in size on cam's internal HDD or memory card you camcorder will split that file into multiple pieces. When you import that video to your PC using PMB it will join that video (those multiple files) into one big file (if you have NTFS on your PC) during import. That's it.

If you files of separate video segments are less than 4GB you will have to join them yourself.

I tried PMB once and that was it.

Your best bet is to invest in VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264.

shooter 71,

I always use PMB to import video files from my HDR-CX160. If you copy directly from the memory card (or internal memory) using Explorer each file will have an .MTS extension. If you import using PMB (which I find faster), the resulting clips will have an .M2TS extension. Once imported, you can combine/rearrange the indivdiual clips into a single file. To do this, select the clips to be combined, then select "Manipulate" from the top menu. Then select "edit" from the pull-down menu and you will see an option to "Combine videos". A box will appear which permits clips to be selected/deselected and the order changed. Once happy, simply hit the combine button and then wait--it does take a while. The name of the combined file will the the name of the first selected file with an extension. I've done this a few times and it works very well. However, I don't know if it will work with files that have been imported using Explorer with the .MTS extension or whether PMB will import files from a folder already on your hard drive. Hope this helps. Good luck.

wwaag

Incidentally, such .M2TS clips from PMB load very quickly onto the Vegas timeline. Using V10, I have routinely selected over 200 clips at a time without any problem or significant delay.

When I transfer files from my camera to my computer via USB using PMB all the 2GB chunks (or less) that form a single scene are combined into a single file. You can't combine the chunks using PMB after the chunks have been copied to the computer by some other means that I know of. I don't have to do all the rigmarole that wwaag is talking about.

wwaag wrote:
[I]"... simply hit the combine button and then wait--it does take a while."[/i]

It probably re-encodes. And if it is the case you lose quality.

When I use VideoReDo to combine files it is very quick, no re-encoding.

mozartman wrote:

"It probably re-encodes. And if it is the case you lose quality."

Pretty sure there is no re-encoding. Example: I just took 13 files (60P) totaling 1.02 GB (video length 5' 33"). Combine time was 1 min 37 sec. I suspect that's mostly the "copy time". I doubt if any encoder is that fast--especially, on my machine.

Added: I also have VideoReDo. Using the latest version, I combined the files in roughly 1 min 30 sec--roughly the same. The resulting file in VRD is a little smaller (.99GB), but opens just fine in Vegas.

Bottom line-both programs work.

wwaag,

What is your version of PMB? I don't have option to "Combine videos". My version of PMB 4.2.10.15030.

I like working with combined large files as well (with markers at the scene changes). What I do is rerender to XDcam .mp4 (mpeg2 in a .mp4 container). I do my rough color correction at this point to and normalize any dialog. The XDcam .mp4 footage is so much more CPU efficient, and it smart-renders.

So you convert MPEG4 to MPEG2 for editing. Then if you do colour correction, stabilisation or other processing it gets rendered again. I presume you deliver in the converted MPEG2 format, or else you will have to render again even if not processed.

You could try this free one as well:

http://vontraining.net/download/

/Ulf

PeterDuke,

When you stated a single file is created from a single scene that is comprised of "chunks", is that only related to when the video goes beyond 2 GB in a single record session and it combines those?

Most of my small files are the result of when I start and stop the camera. I assume in this case, PMB is not able to identify these small clips as a single scene and auto join them to a single file. Correct?

I have downloaded the VideoReDo TV Suite and so far it seems to be working pretty good. I will do addtional files soon to insure no other unforeseen pixelation or issues arrise at the join sections that I have seen in other software.

I have also read in the formums that some software methods to join files impacts how the resultant .m2ts file is able to be edited / rendered later on in Sony Vegas. Anyone seen anything issues with working with joined m2ts files in Vegas?

Just curious also if anyone else tried the freeware that Ulf suggested at vontraining.net/download/ (as copmared to VideoReDo TV Suite which $95).

I'm not buying yet another application to do what Vegas should be able to do. Much less take the time to learn the UI, figure out the bugs and workarounds in that program.

For now I'll just transcode my AVCHD content on render and cross my fingers that Sony will eventually get around to this. Just about every consumer camcorder made, and many prosumer models use AVCHD. SmartRender for this format should be a top priority for MovieStudio, and once it's coded for that application the legwork is done for Vegas.

I'm done with the days of downloading huffyuv to capture lossless, then virtualdub for this or that, and Vegas to edit, then frameserve to TPMGEnc, and on and on and on.

I have come to the realization that wasting countless time on every little technical aspect of a video or photo or song isn't worth it. Either you get to the artistic and emotional content and get it across or you're polishing a turd. I guess I'm getting old!

MozartMan wrote:

"What is your version of PMB? I don't have option to "Combine videos". My version of PMB 4.2.10.15030."

I'm running version 5.8.01.009211. I checked for updates and it indicates this is the latest.

"Most of my small files are the result of when I start and stop the camera. I assume in this case, PMB is not able to identify these small clips as a single scene and auto join them to a single file. Correct?"

PMB automatically joins chunks from a single scene that have been cut into 2GB or less chunks to comply with the file system used in cameras.

wwaag says that it can do more, but I haven't tried that because I don't normally want to combine individual scenes into a single file. He has a later version than me, however.

PMB can make AVCHD discs without recompressing and I presume it will join scenes together into a single file but I have not tried it with more than one scene.