As we all continue to enjoy our new AVCHD cameras, we're going to have larger and larger libraries of .mts/m2ts files sitting on our hard drives, DVDs, etc. A system is needed to catalog these, to be able to quickly find source files, as well as edited versions...

I'm currently creating a new folder for each shooting "session", with a description and a date in the folder name, and then renaming the .mts files themselves... But that's very limiting -- tagging videos is hard, searching by anything other than a part of the name is impossible...

What are you currently using? Are there any good software tools available for this?

I use the software (HD Writer) that came with my Panasonic SD5 to transfer files to PC. It organizes files very nicely by date and provides a thumbnail for easy identification.

Dave

I use the software (HD Writer) that came with my Panasonic SD5 to transfer files to PC. It organizes files very nicely by date and provides a thumbnail for easy identification.
Does it require the camera to be connected? Can it work off a card that I took off the camera and inserted into the computer card drive?

I use a card reader rather than the camcorder. As long as I use ONLY the Pany software, I can put edited stuff on a DVD and/or copy to SD card (in reader) and play through camera's HDMI or component out.

For someone wanting to simply (clean up) home video. I think this makes an ideal combo. You can do quite a bit with just the bundled burner - and not even own a computer, but the software gives you more flexibility.

Dave

Does it provide any options for tagging/descriptions to make it easier to search through a large library?

I use the software (HD Writer) that came with my Panasonic SD5 to transfer files to PC. It organizes files very nicely by date and provides a thumbnail for easy identification.

Dave

same thing with the sony sr11. the included software does a great job of organizing all your clips, complete with thumbnails and metadata. you can import directly from the camera or the memory card, and you can store your data in any folder you'd like.

same thing with the sony sr11. the included software does a great job of organizing all your clips, complete with thumbnails and metadata. you can import directly from the camera or the memory card, and you can store your data in any folder you'd like.
Can you export archived files to another drive? Or to several drives, striped, like to DVDs? How the database is maintained? Can you export it too, with all paths kept pointing to proper files?

NTFS allows adding arbitrary properties like descriptions to files. Thumbnails is also not a problem. Copying from NTFS to NTFS is not a problem. But copying to other systems like FAT32, removes the attached information.

If the software provided by Canon or Panasonic or Sony does not allow backing/copying the archive to another media, then this software is no better then bare NTFS services.

Talbain, can you move the files to an external hard drive or do they have to stay on the native drive with the program?

The Canon software (Pixela) allows you to create albums and put little comments in for each file, but there's no way to search through that, or even browse comments easily (you have to click on each file to see the comment). It's extremely non-friendly, it offers only the most basic features.

I was hoping for something a lot more powerful / user-friendly... Something like Picassa, but for video!

Well, silly me, Picassa can import videos, too... I just had to rename .mts files to .m2ts. Ok, on to playing with Picassa to see how well it works with videos!

I've used WhereIsIt:

This program will scan your media (i.e., hard disk, cd/dvd) and present it in windows explorer like context. If there are any descriptions it will import them, or you can enter them in yourself.

I tried the Video Files Thumbnails Plugin to see how it works. You can set it to either grab the first frame, the 'middle' frame or a fixed frame in. Of coarse you can enter descriptons of the files.

Now I'm going to try and see how the program reacts to an m2ts file. I'd like to archive my m2ts files on an AVCHD-DVD, but if I rename any m2ts files then they get renamed to numbered name when I burn the disc. So I'm hoping at least I can import the directory into whereisit, and catalog them from there (thumbs & descriptions).

WhereIsIt does have an export feature to Excel, etc which is nice.

I'll let you know if I can get the thumbs plugin to recognize the m2ts extension on my system.

There's a plugin called DescMovies, but it only understands AVI, MPEG1/2, MOV, and VOB files. :(

I just tried the thumbs plugin and manually added *.m2ts in the accepted extension list. I was surprised it actually worked, but I only tried it with one m2ts sample file I downloaded.

I see it managed to retrieve this info out of an mpeg-4 file it scanned:

640 x 468, 25.000 fps, 871.3 kbit/s (1:00)
XviD MPEG-4 codec
MPEG-1 Layer 3 (MP3), 96.0 kbit/s, 44100 Hz, stereo
---
Software: MEncoder 1.0rc2-4.2.1

The thumb of the *m2ts file was there, but none of the above info was retrieved. I guess for me the resultion, etc. isn't that important. But for cataloging, the thumbs seems to work well, and you can add your own description. I wish there were a plugin for video length, though.

Is there a quick and painless way to rename the Canon generated files from 001 etc. to embedding dates in them like 20080622164645 much like Sony cams do?

Is there a quick and painless way to rename the Canon generated files from 001 etc. to embedding dates in them like 20080622164645 much like Sony cams do?

I use this to batch rename my pictures. I usually embed the date and time in the file name: http://www.herve-thouzard.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=1

I use this to batch rename my pictures. I usually embed the date and time in the file name: http://www.herve-thouzard.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=1

Thanks seattlite. Looks like this will do the job. But, I couldn't find a way to embed military time instead of AM/PM in the filename. I can live with what the program offers, but it would be nice to have the flexibility to choose the time format.

Thanks seattlite. Looks like this will do the job. But, I couldn't find a way to embed military time instead of AM/PM in the filename. I can live with what the program offers, but it would be nice to have the flexibility to choose the time format.

Speaking of flexibility, try Flexible Renamer (also free). You can provide any custom format for date/time to be inserted into the filename.

Speaking of flexibility, try Flexible Renamer (also free). You can provide any custom format for date/time to be inserted into the filename.

Thanks Pulzar. It worked like a charm.

An issue that no one has addressed is how to organize the files on a harddrive. I use chronilogical order.

\data\2007\01 Jan
02 Feb
.....
12 Dec
\2008\01 Jan

I put all my pics and video files in this folder structure. If I have a specific event that I want to segregate, I create an additional folder under the year\month\ like vacation, family reunion, Katy's BDay, etc... I have been doing this for over 8 years and it works very well. Now when I want to create a project, slide show, etc.. I have a separate directory for these projects. I copy over any files that I need from my source pice/videos, add music, or whatever else I need for the project. Finding source material is very easy since it is stored chronologically. Example, all Christmas pics of the kids are in 2000\12 Dec, 2001\12 Dec, etc... Easy to find. This way you can make modifications specifically for a project without modifying original.

You can store your souce material in this fassion and still use all the tools above to view the material. Remember, the tool you use today may not be the tool you use tomorrow. As such, be careful when using a tool that creates a database to store information about a pic, video, etc.... This may not work with other tools in the future.