Please would anyone share their wisdom on any or all of these points. I would so love to get the HG10 workflow down but there are so many stumbling blocks. I don't want to use the included software (SE versions).

First, I learned the expensive way that Athlon xp processors will not work with Canon HG10 avchd files, so I replaced the whole machine (grrr..). Not complaining anymore with a new system :)

Have software: VideoStudio 11 Plus and WinDVD 9 (I'm so mad for committing to Corel like this).

NEED HELP ISSUES

1. Using Guidemenu to transfer scenes to PC strips away all of the non-"stream" files such as the playlist, the thumbnails, etc. GuideMenu renames stream files to .m2ts (adding the '2'). Strange that GuideMenu has a "Write back to camcorder" option for content that it downloaded. When it writes back, it only puts a .m2ts stream file back (since it never copied the other meta-files) and so there is no thumbnail on the HG10 for each scene - instead just a big "?"

2. I can successfully import the GuideMenu created .m2ts files into VideoStudio 11+, and can edit it. If I try to make a DVD, at rendering time, I always get "Unspecified Error [5:0:0]"

3. (this last one is more about WinDVD 9)

If you use Guidemenu to transfer movies *from* the camcorder, they are converted to .m2ts format. This prevents WinDVD9 from recognizing them. The only thing WinDVD recognizes from Canon's hg10 is the Streams folder (.mts only), which can only be copied to the harddrive (unconverted), using Canon's very limited HG10 backup utility.

This means that I have to back up every file on the camcorder (every time using HG10 backup utility) in order to access 1 single file in any DVD viewer - otherwise playback features are limited. Here is an example of lost features from viewing the .m2ts format that GuideMune outputs...

If I rename the .m2ts file to .mpg, WinDVD can open it but then not all features seem to work. For example, the WinDVD A-B bookmark point selection feature won't work.

First, I learned the expensive way that Athlon xp processors will not work with Canon HG10 avchd files
Not true.

If you use Guidemenu to transfer movies *from* the camcorder, they are converted to .m2ts format.
Not converted, just renamed. If you have a scene longer than 2GB then the tool will concatenate several MTS files into one M2TS. Again, this is just binary copy /b operation.

This prevents WinDVD9 from recognizing them.
In Windows, you can assign any program to any extension. Or you can do "Open"->"All Files".

[INDENT]If I rename the .m2ts file to .mpg
This is quite stupid as M2TS and MPG are different containers. You are lucky that WinDVD analyses internal file structure, not just relies onto extension.

What an unhelpful reply. You're not trying to help, you're just trying to show how much you know and how little I do. Why bother?

On the AMD processor problem, you would have come across as less cocksure (not a good thing) and more unhelpful if you actually corrected my error. I should have said that the established problem is with the bundled ulead software and old athlon xp processors. Bet you knew that.

"In Windows, you can assign any program to any extension. Or you can do "Open"->"All Files"."


You cannot do this with WinDVD9. The ulead/corel software somehow disables its entry in the Windows "choose the program" utility.

"This is quite stupid "

Thanks. WinDVD won't open the file with an m2ts or mts extension. In the "Choose the program" dialog, you cannot even browse to the WinDVD executable. Renaming is the only option. It wasn't stupid.

No comments on the Canon backup utility? Something you would have had to agree with.

What do you know, you are right. Please accept my apologies. I just tried WinDVD SE that comes with Ulead MF 5.6, and it is the same story: it does not have "all files" in the open dialog, and it does not play my video if I use Windows "Open with" assignment.

But it is crappy anyway. It takes like half a minute to start, the AVc decoder is slow, and you cannot fine-tune or turn off deinterlacing. If you have 25p or 30p footage you want deinterlacing off, but you cannot turn it off in Intervideo decoder. Also, you might want to use "bob" deinterlacing for more fluid motion portrayal and to get rid of ghosting, cannot do this either.

Windows Media player, on the other hand, does not seem to be able to turn ON deinterlacing. So it is no good too.

I use good old BSPlayer 1.37, it is very fast. I also use CoreAVC codec, it costs only $15, it is very fast and has deinterlacing options that you can switch the way you like. I suggest trying it. They have a trial version. Just go to coreavc.com. Works on my dual-core AMD 2.2GHz like a charm, churning full 60fps.

You cannot do this with WinDVD9. The ulead/corel software somehow disables its entry in the Windows "choose the program" utility.

It doesn't disable it, it just never bothers to put it in the list. It's easily fixed by clicking on "Browse.." button and selecting the WinDVD executable.

It seems that WinDVD is dependent on the extension to tell it how to interpret the file, though, as .m2ts and .mts files are binary equivalent.

This means that I have to back up every file on the camcorder (every time using HG10 backup utility) in order to access 1 single file in any DVD viewer

You just need to rename .m2ts back to .mts, that's all. You can do it manually, or you can get a batch renamer software (there are some nice free ones out there) that can rename all your files in one shot...

Thanks for this help. First, I am using WinDVD9, the $ one. As with your impression, I gave up on the SE it instantly, thinking Corels claims about avchd support in the full WinDVD9 version were honest. For that matter, I also tossed MovieFactory in favor of VideoStudio 11+. I wish I new about Pinnacle at the time :(

Amazingly, even WinDVD9 will somehow not allow Windows to add its executable (at least on my system) to the list of programs that can open the .mts or .m2ts extensions. Try this using "browse" option in the Windows "Choose program..." utility. Browse to the WinDVD9.exe and try to make the association. At least on my machine, linking these extensions to WinDVD9 (and probably SE too) is somehow disabled.

I use "A.F.5 Rename Your File" as you suggest.

There doesn't seem to be a way to keep the thumbnails with the stream files unless the Canon Backup Utility is used. Guidemenu only pulls and writes back the stream file, ignoring all other file types.

The problem affecting writing back to the camcorder is pretty large here. I can't be the only one dealing with this. If you lose the thumbnail using GuideMenu to download to PC, then writing back streams to the camcorder is pretty much useless, except maybe for 1 file. I happen to use playlists and wish to write back multiple files from a date.

Its insane to have to transfer all or no files from the camcorder using the Backup Utility. This is the only way to preserve thumbnails and make transfer back to the camcorder worthwhile.

Hmm. Being download using the Backup Utility is so worthless, I haven't even tested writeback, so I'm not even sure how well it works.

You could try something like this:

1) start from a blank SDHC card
2) record a short clip.. now you should have 00000.m2ts or something like that on the card, along with all other supporting files
3) rename the video on your PC that you want to put on the camera so that it matches the above file (00000.m2ts)
4) overwrite the short clip .m2ts file with your file

The thumbnail will be "wrong" when displayed by the camera (i.e. it will be the thumbnail of your short clip), but the video will probably play fine...

I haven't tried this myself as I haven't had any interest in putting videos back onto the camera... but that's what I'd try to do as a quick fix.

The other option is to use one of the DVD authoring programs that support blu-ray to create a blu-ray disk image, and then pick out all the generated files from there. See here (http://www.elurauser.com/articles/avchd_to_bluray.jsp) for the renaming rules.