I have found a useful little program called "Smart Cutter" which makes removing the corrupt first few seconds of high bit rate AVCHD (from the hacked GH2) relatively easy.
Of course it would be great if the "start-up" corruption issue was solved...but in the meanwhile (and as much as I like the 100 mbps MJPEG) I still would like to use the hacked GH2 at as high a bit rate as is stable.
The problem was finding software that could: 1) handle MTS files; 2) be easy to work with (preferably a "portable" .exe); and 3) most importantly allow quick trimming WITHOUT re-encoding.
It's not free...but it isn't very pricey either ($40). There's a free trial available so you can check it out for yourself.
@mpgxsvcd "The easiest lossless cutter and joiner out there is AVS Video remaker. It will do a lossless cut and join for the MTS files. It is about $60 and comes with the very full features AVS video editor. "
Have you looked at the output though? It's not very good. I took a non-hacked mts file and cut a few seconds out of it. Lots of artifacting when the scene changes with AVS Video Remaker.
The "blip" will never entirely go away. The codec needs the first GOP to optimize itself. The best we can hope for is that the first second will suck less. Even the factory, unmodified firmware settings exhibit lower quality for the first GOP than subsequent ones.
The easiest lossless cutter and joiner out there is AVS Video remaker. It will do a lossless cut and join for the MTS files. It is about $60 and comes with the very full features AVS video editor.
@Ptchaw, nope, all 24pN stuff using the 65mbps 3gop kae patch.
When I run ffmpeg -formats, I see libavcodec listed at the top ( 52.122. 0 / 52.122. 0 ), but I don't see MTS mentioned anywhere beneath in the file formats / encode / decode list, or any reference to AVCHD if that matters.
I like tsmuxer. One thing I don't understand (maybe I'm doing something wrong)...it allows you to load several files into the preview window but even if they are all ticked it will only trim/mux one file. Is there a way of getting it to do a batch process (same number of seconds) to trim all loaded files?
Even a semi-automatic batch procedure doesn't seem possible, since deleting each file (in the GUI window) as it's muxed doesn't delete the output dialog...i.e. it still thinks the deleted file is the one that needs to be muxed again. Weird.
@Ptchaw, do I need to build ffmpeg with any kind of special options to run this? I just compiled a fresh version with Macports and the script runs, but I get an error when it tries to save out the trimmed file:
[NULL @ 0x7fd09b843c00] Unable to find a suitable output format for 'trimmed.GH2 2011.07.30 - Clip 03.mts'
Best one out there and it's free is TSmuxer. Been using it for years. It can also change the frame rate etc., very fast and no recompression of cut files. http://www.smlabs.net/en/products/tsmuxer/
Automatic or manual fps adjustment while mixing; Level changing as well as SEI, SPS/PPS elements and NAL unit delimiter cycle insertion while mixing H.264; Audio tracks and subtitles time shifting; Ability to extract DTS core from DTS-HD; Ability to extract AC3 core from True-HD; Ability to join files; Ability to adjust fps for subtitles; Ability to convert LPCM streams into WAVE and vice versa; Track language information injection into blu-ray structure and TS header; Ability to cut source files; Ability to split output file; Ability to detect audio delay for TS/M2TS/MPG/VOB/EVO sources; Ability to remove pulldown info from stream; Ability to open Blu-ray playlist (MPLS) files; Ability to convert SRT subtitles to PGS; Tags for SRT subtitles support - tags for changing font, color, size, etc.; tag's syntax is similar to HTML; United cross-platform GUI - Windows, Linux, MacOS.
This might be OT, but how do you guys (and gals) trim out the good stuff from your daylies? I usually just drag in everything from the card to my computer, preview in mediaplayer (win7) and since every clip is bound to have 50 percent crap, I waste lot of space. It would be great to have a fast previewr/trimmer for mts files. Kind of a Fast Stone for video.
about the artifacts- if it trims the video and does not even add another i-frame in the beginning, but starts with just a p/b frame if you happen to cut there, then of course there are bound to be grusome artifacts until the next iframe, which can be few frames til several seconds, depending on gop length.
@test1 There's lots and lots of converters (really designed to do a different job) and trimmers/cutters/mini-editors...some even handle MTS. Finding one that does not re-encode MTS after trimming narrows the field somewhat.
Now if only someone could find one that does BULK trims as a batch process...