Well, it turns out to be pretty simple. It seems that when the GH2 is power cycled, it makes a new playlist in the AVCHD structure (you can tell because there are multiple .MPL files in PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/PLAYLIST/), and FCPX only sees clips from the most recent playlist with no way to switch to another playlist.

After a little hunting with a hex editor, I found that PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/INDEX.BDM tells the importing software (at least in the case of FCPX) which playlist to look at. There is a number at the end that matches the number of the most recent playlist file (eg 00001) for 00001.MPL. So if you import the visible footage, you can then backup INDEX.BDM and use a hex editor to change that last number in it to the number of the previous playlist. You're just changing a single byte! Save, then open the FCPX import window again (maybe you need to relaunch FCPX? - don't remember) and the clips that were missing will probably be there. I assume you could repeat the process if you had 3 or more AVCHD playlist files on the card.

for a free hex editor on mac, I recommend Hex Fiend: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22589/hex-fiend

Don't use a normal text editor – more than that single byte will probably change and you'll be sorry.

So to summarize

If missing clips in FCPX import:

• import what you can see
• check for the presence of multiple .MPL files
• change the 5 digit number (eg 00001) in INDEX.BDM to refer to a different .MPL file
• import again in FCPX - missing clips should show up

attached are some screenshots of changing the contents of INDEX.BDM.

Hope this tidbit of knowledge helps some people out. I wish I had discovered it a year ago – would have saved me some aggravation for sure.

Otherwise, anyone got a clue how I can convert mts to raw images? Is that even the best conversion to try with the gh2 hack?

I just post a few workflow ideas for Avid and also Edius to get around some common problems.

Some cameras (eg GH2) wrap the 1080/25p in a 50i (25fps) container or do other weird stuff like show you a very strange framerate.

Workflow Avid MC6 or higher:

• create a 1080/25p project
• AMA link your card (don't rename your files otherwise your AMA Link doesn't work)
• In your bin enable the "field motion" column/heading and with a click on the line(s) Avid interprets the file(s) as progressive or progressive strobe.
• Transcode to Avid DNX and hope for the best because Avid struggles a lot with GH2 files (Avid is king with pro files but h.264 isn't pro for him).
• When you run into transcode troubles you have to transcode the files that didn't work with a 3rd party program like usually Squared5 (doesn't like my GH2 files too), so like Adobe media encoder.

if you have files with weird frame rates

• Open the Console (Under Tools) and type eg. "SetAMAQTForcedFrameRate true 25.00" and hit enter
• some message appears and your linked AMA's are now 25fps (or whatever you typed in)
• you have to type in the commando every time you start your Avid (doesn't remember it)
• to stop type "SetAMAQTForcedFrameRate false 0"

If you have different framerates / resolutions you can mix and match them in Avid

• work in another project on a different framerate / resolution
• open your main project
• import the bin(s) from the other project(s)
• Avid will handle everything

And because I'm on field in the middle of nowhere with a small laptop I take this approach to check my files, make a rough cut or transcribe an interview.

Workflow Edius: Basically you don't have to think about anything

• drag in whatever you like
• change some files to another field motion
• mix other framerates/formats,...

I don't love Edius, but you have to love some features of it like working with everything native on a small laptop or ...

hope this helps ciao, Hans-Peter

Also I started using Driftwoon X t8 and it is amazing,,, I am wondering if anyone has had spanning issues with a sandisk 32gb 45mb/s.

thanks for the help

I found this on the Apple App store check it out.... It is a free program for Mac users to convert AVCHD footage to Mov files. I tried it out on a couple of clips seems to work out fine especially for free :-) Just do a search for it in the App store.

Best Regards

Today she tells me that when he was editing the Final Cut dont recognize the files and not allow you to import. I dont have idea who it could be, before I used FC and Premiere on Mac without problems. On my computer (Windows) I can see the files.

Any suggestions for the Final Cut to recognize them?

Thanks!

In an AVCHD timeline in Premiere Pro CS6, I imported two clips, one the original MTS and the other a converted ProRes of that clip. But the result was not fixed by only 15 and 235 input/output adjustment, it required something closer to 40 and 215. And that did not mean that the result was the same, there was still more blue in the highlights and shadows in the MTS vs. the ProRes. Further adjustment would be needed, but the ProRes conversion was more balanced.

This was just my first test, and I'm no expert in this, but it seems like conversion to ProRes still makes sense. What are other people's take on this?

You then have to Right-Click 'Show Package Contents' to Get inside each subfolder, down to the Stream folder before you can open your .mts files for playback. This also happens whether registered mts files are with movist or not.

Let's hope they sort out native support of the AVC/mts/mpeg-4/h264 standard before the release version!

Update: With 10.8.3 The same problem persists with opening SD cards' MTS files. You'll have to go through the usual Open Package Contents or rename the Private Folder to get inside the folder tree.

Can somebody please post here how to download, configure, compile, and use within the terminal ffmbc to rewrap MTS files and convert to Prores/DNxHD? I am personally interested in Mac OS X but others may need this for windows also.

Thanks so much!!!

@sampledi

I would also like to be able to connect the drive via USB to my Dune Smart D1 media player. Currently the Dune will not directly read my Sandisk 64g 95mb SD cards which I think maybe a Dune/ExFAT incompatibility issue.

I believe the GH2 formats SD cards to ExFAT.

After searching for a definitive answer I'm still not certain whether to format the hard drive to NTFS or ExFAT. Advice needed - TIA

I'm using Windows and Premiere pro CS5. The same thing was on Apple and Final Cut.

Is there any solution to that? I must have PHOTO JPEG as an output.

Here is a sample picture: http://shrani.si/f/g/a5/vhSletJ/test-gh2.jpg

Thanks for the help

today I´ve tried some different codecs after I downloaded hdcinematics' DSLR Post Prep Utility and here are my findings among Cineform HD (which I normaly convert to), Avid DNxHD and just mts. I usually transcode to CF, because Premiere Pro has a hard time to decode avchd on the fly, when it´s getting serious (multiple streams...).

In Premiere Pro the response time to dragging the time indicator along the timeline was worlds better in both CFHD and DNxHD. Between the latter two I couldn´t really make out great differences here.

So I went into After Effects to check the same thing there. Here I got no mentionable timely difference in response time to my wild dragging of the current time indicator. Even the mts performed equally, compared to CFHD and Avid.

BUT: The adpative resolution came down to 1/4 on both CFHD and mts. On DNxHD it stayed on full and then eventually came down to 1/2 while maintaining a great response time. I didn´t expect that.

Tomorrow I will redo my rendering tests, my preliminary results just don´t make sense right now.

I am using Vegas so no problem here, but my buddy uses FCP and says he cannot import his files without re-coding. Is it possible to remux them into a container that FCP would "swallow" so there would be no need for recompression ? ;)

Sorry for the rookie question but i could not find an answer in the search... so please be gentle guys!

Thanx in advance