echo off
title Merge Files

set /p choice="Enter path to merge to: (eg. C:\video\test.MTS)"

if "%~1"=="" exit
if not "%~1"=="" SET one=%1
if not "%~2"=="" SET two= + %2
if not "%~3"=="" SET three= + %3
if not "%~4"=="" SET four= + %4
if not "%~5"=="" SET five= + %5
if not "%~6"=="" SET six= + %6
if not "%~7"=="" SET seven= + %7
if not "%~8"=="" SET eight= + %8
if not "%~9"=="" SET nine= + %9

copy /b %one%%two%%three%%four%%five%%six%%seven%%eight%%nine% "%choice%"

echo AVCHD Joining Complete.
pause

Just copy this code into a .txt and rename into .bat. Then you can just drag and drop the files, by selecting them and drag the first one on the .bat. You will then be prompted to input a destination path and name. You can merge a total of nine files into one this way.

Cheers!

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.

Here is my problem: since I switched to OSX "El Capitan" on my mac pro, my Final Cut Pro displays the rushes in a very dark way, as if there was a gamma adjustment problem. I tried to play with the settings of parameters in every way and I have not found a solution.

At best, the problem appears when the playback bar on the timeline is stopped. And as soon as I put in reading, the image appears as normal.

Any idea ? best regards

I hacked my GH2 a few months ago and things have been pretty lovely so far. A couple weeks ago, however, as I was importing some AVCHD files from my SD card (64GB SanDisk Extreme) into Final Cut Pro X and some of them gave me this error upon import:

"Import Failed: The following clip encountered an error during import and is still referencing media on the camera: Clip Name: 2012-12-01 19:21:00 Event: X Original Name: Clip #X Volume: NO NAME"

After looking around, I noticed that the files that presented this issue had a strange timecode. Instead of displaying a normal start time of "00:00:00:00" they started with "23:27:41:06". Only some files are like this, and as far as I can tell it only happens to clips that used lenses that have been adapted to the camera (non-4/3 Panasonic lenses).. Other than that I don't know what's going on.

Has anyone else had this issue? Is there anything I can do to fix it?

Cheers

I have a new imac + latest imovie version + hacked gh1 + 100Mps Max Latitude Hack + pana gold class 10 card.

If I shoot FHD 1080p25fps and load the movie in quicktime directly from the sd card it tells me I have 108Mbit/s bitrate. If i now import using iMovie and again load the file to quicktime by clicking on the file stored in the imovie library (i.e. not using imovie at all) it tells me i have about 37Mbps. However, I cannot see any difference in quality.

What is the reason for this? Is it an OSX artifact?

I loaded the Lpowel 100Mbps max latitude hack without modification.

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!

There isn't a lot of NLE specific information out there on how to properly un-squeeze, and Voldemort's ebook was a starting point for the math that lead to the above solution. There are some assumptions about sharpness and the way one un-stretches that seem a bit quirky or hard to follow, however.

All of my grabs and little vimeo tests and things up this point have been done that way and I am happy with the results. However I'm soon going to be starting the edit on a little feature, and due to my geographic location I have a pretty solid chance of some manner of theatrical projection and I want to start from the ground up with that in mind in the edit.

A couple of days ago I tried what I thought might be a more 'proper' workflow, which was to run GH2 files through 5D2RGB and then through compressor changing the pixel aspect ratio to 1.333. The result was a clip that looked correct, but when I put it in FCPX, I noticed it was slightly taller than my previous efforts. It matched other clips only if I changed their vertical scale to 80 instead of 76. At this height, however, neither match the 'widescreen' button from the plugins, which I take to be a guide for 2.39:1.

I'm wondering which is 'correct' and/or what am I doing wrong, in every case. Obviously, slight variations in squeeze may pass essentially unnoticed, but there must be a 'proper' mathematically correct process for this.

I also at some point of course need to come up to 2k resolution to meet the DCP standard. It's not a huge jump but I'm wondering if I should incorporate that into my initial workflow as well. There were some posts on the BMC forum recently about uprezzing to 4k that were quite illuminating, it seems that the method and amount of color information can play a big role in how well this is accomplished. I've uprezed GH2 frames to 4k in photoshop with pretty good results so honestly I'm not too worried about the jump from 1920 to 2048. Still, I don't know if FCPX is enough, or Compressor might be better, and/or if both the un-squeeze and up-res can be accomplished at once?

Right now I'm looking at:

1.) High quality intra hacked .mts files into 5D2RGB, outputting ProRess 422HQ (unless we think for my later purposes 444 would be better?)

2.) Where to go from here, for un-squeeze and up-res?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I believe the anamorphic part of the equation should have a more definitive answer than the net seems to provide.

For instance, I am recording using the 100Mbps Aquamotion v2 hack, and I want to transcode to normal Prores 422, which is about 115Mbps for 1080p24. I don't want to transcode to HQ (220Mbps) or 4444 (330Mbps) if I don't have to. But am I losing quality? How much? I would rather have my file sizes be nearly half and have 98% of the quality of the hack, but I wouldn't make that sacrifice if I'm only getting 70% of the hack's capable quality. So some input from those who are more knowledgeable would be good.

Is this correct?

Aquamotion v2 100Mbps -> Appropriate Editing Codec -> Prores 422 or DNxHD 145

seaQuake 176mbs -> Appropriate Editing Codec -> Prores 422 HQ or DNxHD 220

Of course this thread should be an open discussion of different hacks and editing codecs not just relevant to me as the "Original Poster," I'm just starting things off.

-Chris