Importing from a Panasonic HDC TM700

Joe after converting the video into Apple Intermediate Codec you should not have a performance issue at all. Both Final Cut Express and iMovie are using this codec for editing purposes. However you will face most likely the same issue I have - shift in brightness after converting the raw material into AIC. I have so far not received any suggestion/solution how to prevent this.

Btw Transforming the H.264 raw material to AIC takes some time but that doesn't matter as you can do it in a batch style using mpeg streamclip

Cheers Oliver

Alan Somers wrote:
I created an Automator workflow to make it a simple drag-and-drop process. You can get it from my MobileMe public folder ( http://public.me.com/catservant) and it's named Rewrap2M4V.app.

It requires you to get the ClipGrab application ( http://clipgrab.de/download_en.html) because it uses the copy of ffmpeg embedded in ClipGrab's application bundle (it's the only up-to-date compiled copy I could find reasonably easily). ClipGrab must be installed in the /Applications folder in order for the workflow to work; the workflow itself can be installed anywhere.

Then, just drag and drop the .m2ts or .mts files onto Rewrap2M4V.app. The converted files will have the same name with a .m4v extension appended.

Thanks for your help so far, I downloaded the 2 apps on the above post, I also havent a clue about these things, but once the mts file was dragged onto the rewap2M4V, it renamed it as xxxx.mts.m4v and imported into iMovie fine. One thing I noticed however is it changes the time the movie was taken, to the date it was "rewrapped".

This is a little concern for me as I want the dates kept, although it looks like this can be done manually in iMovie back to the original date. Also the file size shrunk a little from a test clip in mts format of 168Mb to 158Mb, so how is this?

I dont understand what its doing, and if you say it doesnt convert or change any resolution/frame rate etc that this looks like an option for me.
thanks again

Alan,

First of all Thank you for providing the work flow. I am very new to mac, just got my first iMac. I am unable to decide wheather to go with a Panasonic TM 700 ( great reviews) or Sony cx550v. I was reading a lot online to find a way to use iMovie with TM700 ( 1080/60, mts and m2t) finally landed on your thread.I followed your instructions and installed both applications. Downloaded one mts and 1 m2t raw files from vimeo. Dragged and dropped the files on ur work flow, it created the .m4v giles, great. But when I dragged and dropped the m4v files into iMovie '09 ( version 8.0.6(821)) its not loading. Nothing is happening . Please help. I kept the TM700 in amazon cart, and not purchased...waiting to see some success in this process to finalize the purchase. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you
venu

Alan,

After posting this question, I read more on the same thread, I found that some one mentioned that I need to drag the file to the 'Event' instead of Project. I tried it and worked. Wow...great work Alen. I am now placing my order for TM700 confidently. And thanks to every forum member, keep up the discussion on TM 700 video editing.

Venu

Hi Alan, thanks for posting the Rewrap2m4v work-around to import 1080/60p video from my Panasonic HDC TM700. I have used it to flawlessly bring over my video clips, but I had also recorded some clips in 1920HA format 1920x1080/60i (presumably?). Should I have not done that? I ask because the non 60p clips have been giving me problems in Final Cut Pro. I get flickering green screens and occasionally the picture looks really pixelated and looks like it is going to break up. I now know I should have used Final Cut Pro's Log and Capture tool to import my non 60p clips, but it's too late at this point. I'm asking if the rewrap2m4v should be used only with the 60p clips. I have been troubleshooting the problem with my clips for weeks and just want to confirm that is probably the cause of some of my clips being a little garbled. Thank you.

Mario

Alan,

I was able to move .mts files in to iMovie Event, but noticed that the Audio is missing. Is there any thing I missed? Any help is appreciated.

venu

As it turns out, you need to download and install Perian.
http://perian.cachefly.net/Perian_1.2.1.dmg

Hi Alan,
First of all thanks for posting this, but I have a question. I might be doing something wrong.

I have downloaded both files and installed the clipgrab app in the applications folder.
The Rewrap workflow I have sitting on my desktop.
Now when I drag an mts file onto the rewrap workflow icon nothing happens?

Is there something I'm doing wrong or is it outputting the finished files to a folder I'm not looking in?

Any ideas or help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

It's a very crude app. You should see an icon in the menu bar indicating that an Automator workflow is running. In Snow Leopard, it's a spinning black gear. That's the only indication you'll get that it's running. The converted video should appear in the same folder where the source video is.

Nope I'm not getting anything at all. Tried redownloading the Rewrap app incase there was something not working in the first copy but still the same.

I'm getting a feeling I'm doing something wrong since it works for everyone else, but I don't see how I can be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp-OUfJ_cWw

I've done a screencast of the process incase you can point out anything that I'm doing wrong.

If you notice it flickers in my app bar at the bottom as if it's trying to open something but it closes again immediately.

Cheers

Alan,

What is this PerianFly ? Is this self installable? Where do I need to install this one ? Can you please elobarate the steps that I need to follow?

venu

I've managed to get it working now.

After a good 7 or 8 tries of redownloading the one in the mobileme folder I decided to try and find someone who had a working copy to send me their app that they knew was working and it worked first time for me. So I'm not sure if there's something been altered in the version on the mobileme folder, but it wouldn't work with me at all.

Might be worthwhile checking it out.

Thanks though

Thank you Alan.

After installing Perian 1_21.dmg, and after one shutdown and start up of my machine, I had to delete the existing m4v files from every where, re created and re loaded in to iMovie event. It WORKED now.

Thank you so much .

venu

Beezer123 is there any way that I could get that copy from you? The Automator workflow worked the first time I had it but then stopped working so I reinstalled it and it isn't working anymore :S