Importing from a Panasonic HDC TM700

tt1729 wrote:
Would you mind sharing with us which options ffmpeg needs for this? Thanks.

Sure. It's quite simple really:

ffmpeg -i <input file> -acodec copy -vcodec copy <output file>

The "copy" option does just what it implies: it copies the audio (-acodec) and video (-vcodec) tracks into the new container without transcoding. I believe that ffmpeg uses the file extension of the last argument to determine the wrapper type. I was amazed at how fast the process is.

I'm glad everybody is having such good luck with the workflow. I can't take full credit for it: I discovered the ffmpeg trick in another thread; all I did was wrap it into something more Mac-friendly.

I plan to update the workflow app to remove the requirement for ClipGrab, embedding a copy of ffmpeg into the application bundle.

Slerker wrote:
Does anyone know if Alans fine workaround (big thank you for that) will produce a file that is readable by Final Cut Express as well?

I don't know why not. I'm not familiar with FCE, but I can't imagine it wouldn't import the files. They're just MPEG-4 files with H.264 video and AC3 audio in them and QuickTime Player has no problem with them.

Thanks. I was so close. Only I tried using a .mov destination which doesn't work. ffmpeg cares about the extension. Yeah, ffmpeg is awesome. Now, if only there was a faster way to convert to AIC.

Cheers
Tommy

Peter Fal wrote:
Very nice work flow package. Works well and keeps 60 fps.
Resulting files look good.

I also discovered that iMovie will retain 60fps, which pleasantly surprised me. I tested it by doing a QuickTime export of a video clip at 1280x720 60fps and 30fps: the amount of movement per frame in the 60fps export was half that of the 30fps export when I stepped through the frames in QuickTime Player.

Thanks for this - worked great.

To get it into iMovie 08 I had to drag it into an event. The File, import movie would not select the movie (greyed out).

Once I imported the clip, I was able to export the full size 9 second clip in about 3 minutes on a MBP unibody dual core.

One other note, the response when mousing over source footage and clips is much slower than 1080 60i footage I've gotten off the camera.

sam squarewave wrote:
One other note, the response when mousing over source footage and clips is much slower than 1080 60i footage I've gotten off the camera.

Yeah, I had noticed that scrubbing through the 60p clips in iMovie 7.1.4 is slower (I'm waiting for the next version of iLife before upgrading), but not so much that I think it will be a nuisance, even though I'm running on relatively slow hardware: 2.0GHz first-generation (Core Duo, not Core 2 Duo) MacBook Pro.

My question is exactly that of ddt460 of March 27 2010. However, I don't seem to be anywhere near as savvy. If someone has solved this problem could I ask they share the method with me, please? The answer will, I'm afraid, have to be very specific, with step-by-step explanation.( for instance, I have no idea what "ffeg" means-or even if I've got that right!) I really am clueless- but I learn quickly from good teachers.

I probably did something wrong, but when I tried Mr. Somers work flow and the associated clipgrab process, my 60p video from my HDC-TM 700 converted, but the audio was stripped away. A .m4v file was created, and it was viewable - just no audio.

Alan's workaround allows the my Mac to play the file but trying to play it within FCP gives a 'General Error' and will not play back or allow editing.

However, it does allow me to choose the shots so that I can then Toast them (and multiplying the file size x15! for ProResHQ!).

Augsburg57 wrote:
I probably did something wrong, but when I tried Mr. Somers work flow and the associated clipgrab process, my 60p video from my HDC-TM 700 converted, but the audio was stripped away. A .m4v file was created, and it was viewable - just no audio.

Open the converted file in QuickTime Player and press command-i to bring up the Movie Inspector. Does it list AC3 audio under the Format section? AC3 5.1 audio is working fine for me in QT Player and in iMovie 08.

Here's a YouTube video I created, starting with a 1920x1080/60p video I took with the TM700 and copied directly from camcorder memory, rewrapped to MP4 using ffmpeg, and imported, edited, and exported in iMovie '08 as 1280x720/30p:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svdxqMfJul0

Make sure you select the HD setting in the YouTube player to get the best quality.

So, as you can see, the 60p video from this camcorder can be successfully handled by a Mac. It just takes a few extra steps.

Hello, I just want to point out that if you change the container in Alan's -gorgeous- script (opening it with automator) to avi (resulting in ... -i "$1" -acodec copy -vcodec copy "$1.avi"), for some reason FCP is able to open it without crashing (I've tried every other container with no success). On the odd side, you can effectively place it into the edition timeline, but in order to playback it needs to be rendered.
By the way, you should check out movist "http://code.google.com/p/movist/", which offers a flawless realtime playback of the 700's series footage (even the raw MTS). In fact, it has become my default player for everything 🙂
Nothing else, just pardon my english.

ClipWrap2 isn only limited to 1 minuet... do you know a place that is simple and free where i could find a serial number for it??

Why try to steal this software when the other method works fine?
Please pay for software you use!