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RSS of all blog entriesAVCHD (.m2ts) Video files in Picasa
About a year ago, my previous camera (a Sony DCR-PC105E PAL Camcorder) died, so I bought a new one. I didn't really like the process of getting the video's on my PC, so I decided to go for a harddisk based model. In addition, I liked how the high-definition video looked.
I ended up buying the Sony HDR-SR8E from Foto Konijnenberg. What I didn't know that the file format the camcorder uses was a non-standard, non-common format. It uses the AVCHD file format (with a .m2ts file extension). (It is non-common at least for now, most new versions of professional video editing packages do support it now, so it is probably just a matter of time before more common tools support this as well. Or that's what I hope.)
For all of my previous video's as well as pictures, I got hooked on Picasa. But expectedly, Picasa doesn't support the m2ts file format. Not even the new version 3 of Picasa. Afther a long search, scattered over months, I managed to get it working. And in fact, it is very simple to get it to work.
How to get AVCHD (.m2ts) files working in Picasa (on Windows)?
First install the codec, by following steps 1 and 2 (that I found in from this post). This ensures that all programs (including Picasa, but also Windows Media Player) can play m2ts files. Then use step 3 to import the files in Picasa.
- Install FFDShow.
- Install Haali Matroska Splitter.
- Picasa can not automatically detect .m2ts files because it doesn't know the file extension. However, by simply dragging the files from Explorer onto Picasa, you will force detect it, and from then on it is a part of you media library. Update: After some more experiments, I found out that you can also have Picasa detect these files with help of 'Tools -> Folder Manager...' by first explicitly removing the folder containing the m2ts files, and then adding it again.
As I'm writing this, I'm stress-testing this setup by mass importing the 70GB of HD movies I recorded to date. Fingers crossed!
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Comments
Picasa3.6 windows7 64bits M2TS canon HD works fine
It may happen ... finally
Great software combination...
Working with over 100.000 picture (and many more identified faces ) and over 10.000 videos DV(avi) , HD(M2TS), MOV, MP4,...
funny and efficient creation tools : Films and diaporamas
Widows 7 64 bits gives 6 Go memory use, GPU to code/decode H264 leave power to processor
... but why the fuck they dont use MP4 for ouput video...
Something is a bit strange
Something is a bit strange here. I've got a clean install of Windows 7 Utlimate RTM from MSDN. Installed Picasa 3.1.0, build 71.43.0. Media player will play the AVCHD files fine from my LZ7 camera. Picasa won't detect or play them. Dragging and dropping into Picasa didn't work.
music
yah i have also install there is no sound. it may not useful for vista.
I installed it also under
I installed it also under Vista and have no sound. sound would be already important for me. someone has a solution?
Thanks
How about delete after import?
Picasa3 does not delete the AVCHD files properly after import. My ZS3 complains about bad movie files afterward and I had to delete them again from my camera. Any fixes for this?
Thanks !
Installed in 5 min on Vista. It works great, except I have no sound, but that's ok.
Thanks !
Picasa and MPEG4 under Windows 7
Oups, sorry for my previous post, Picasa 3.1.0.71.28 finally does not seem to understand MPEG4 videos out of the box in Windows 7 beta 1, even though Windows Media Player read them natively.
AVCHD works nativelly with Windows Seven :-)
In Windows Seven (Win7), MPEG4 is supported natively, so .mp4 .mts .m2ts files work out of the box (also H264).
Therefore in Windows Seven, Picasa understand AVCHD and other MPEG4 without having to install anything else (no need for neither FFDShow nor Haali Matroska Splitter).
Tested with Picasa 3 under Win7 beta 1, with some .m2ts videos taken from a Panasonic DMC-TZ7 and some .mp4 files too.
In also confirm that all these videos work in Picasa 3 with FFDShow + Haali Matroska Splitter (all in 32-bit) under Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit.
Work fine with Panasonic cameras too
Thanks for this very time-saving post.
I confirm that FFDShow (32-bit) + Haali Matroska Splitter enable Picasa 3 to read .m2ts or .mts from my Panasonic DMC-TZ7, under Vista 64-bit.
One other point to note...
Installing these two has broken Picture Motion Browser... Is that to be expected??
Nearly works!
Hi Klaas, Have followed your instructions and am soooo close! Picasa (3.1.0) is in the middle of importing a couple of gigs worth of .m2ts files - all good news. Unfortunately, when I play them, it only manages the first few seconds worth, then the image freezes, sound and timer continue working. Also, I think the image is distorted - it has a sort of broken interlaced appearance, like different pixel rows aren't lined up.
Any ideas? This problem doesn't happen with the (awful) sony picture motion browser.
Cheers, Jason
Hi JM, Were you able to fix
Hi JM,
Were you able to fix this? I have the same problem (windows XP, Picasa 3.1.0, using .mts files from a Sony HDR-CX100) of intermitent lines in the video, especially when there's movement in the footage. Many thanks.
AB
You must feel happy now...
You must feel happy now... My web cam worked for about three weeks that for no-one-knows-which reason it was broken... When I reinstall my wondows it shows that there is some device like camera but still none of applcation to do with it doesn't work(((
Ehi, AVCHD is a standard!
Ehi, AVCHD is a standard! Don't worry.
It works also in XP
Hi Klaas again,
I just installed it on my XP machine as well (XP Media Center edition with all SPs and service packs) and it works great also on this platform.
However, two things might be critical for the success of the installation (hoven't verified however):
- during FFDshow installation in 'Select Components' window, I choose all components showen
- I had already Sony's 'Picture Motion Browser'-Suite installed including 'Handycam Utility', Picture Motion Broswer itself, 'Player for AVCHD', 'Video Disc Copier', 'Import Media Files' and the 'Tools'-folder.
I have the above things in my Vista and Xp installation (see my post on Mon, 2009-02-23 17:51). The above two steps might or might not be critical for the succeess to get m2ts-files to be compatible with Picasa.
anyway, thanks Klaas for this again.
It Works, many thanks!
Hi. On my PC, it works exactly as 'kbals' describes! Thanks You so much for the efforts. I have Vista 32-bit Ultimate (currently in English) with all the service packs and hotfixes. Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce 8800GT and Picasa3.1.0 (build 70.73.0).
BTW. It's a shame, that Google do not offer this as In Picasa Out-of-the-box.
I tried, couldn't get it to work
Windows XP, installed FFDShow and Matroska Spliiter with default settings.
Then tried to drag the .m2ts file into a running copy of Picasa 3, no response.
Tried dragging the file onto the startup icon, it just started Picasa with no new additions to the library.
And finally tried the "Update" method with the same result. Maybe Picasa 3 acts differently?
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