Panasonic HDC-TM90 owner needs advise on camcorder to DVD transfer

Hdwriter will copy your 1080p60 files to your computer as is unchanged.You can do some editing also.
but,they wont play on most bluray player.there not part of bluray specs.
My sony player will play the files on a bluray disc if they are on the disc as data.or from a usb card.
You can watch them on your computer also.Just not to bluray or dvd disc.
Some people get them to play on playstation.do a search on the here,but you have to do a lot on your computer to get it to work.

Posting the same topic in two threads is considered rude everywhere there is a forum on the internet. Save the moderator some time and delete one of them yourself.

You might do some reading on Wikipedia. Look up "AVCHD". Basically it is a method to take advantage of high quality data compression put forth by Sony and Panasonic. Version 1.0 did not include 1080p60. Version 2.0 does and it is less than a year old. That is why, on my camcorders 1080p is selected as an alternative to AVCHD choices like "HA". Consequently, only the newest players handle 1080p60 well. It may take another year to see 1080p seamlessly implemented in camcorders, software and players.

Newer Panasonic BD players will accept the SD card from your camera into a slot in the front and it will play 1080p60 in all it's HD glory with a menu. That would be about like doing what you were doing with mini DVDs.

Getting 1080p60 to optical disk is a little trickier. I'm not sure, but I think HD Writer converts it to 1080i when writing to either a Blu-Ray disk (if you have a burner) or AVCHD DVD disk. If you want DVDs, they are always in standard definition.

(Note that you need to understand that an "AVCHD DVD" is a unique use of cheap DVDs to hold up to about 30 minutes of HD video. It is not a "DVD" and won't play in a non Blu-Ray DVD player.)

There are a few other ways to watch 1080p60 on a flat screen HD TV. Hook your camera to the TV with an HDMI cord. Another is to use your computer to directly copy the video file to a "data DVD" and play it in a newer BD player that accepts those files. (Some say a PS3 can do that but peak bit rates of 1080p can overwhelm the PS3.) Another, is to copy the video file to a thumb drive or portable HDD and plug into the USB on newer BD players like current Sony BD players have. Another is to do the same with a USB card reader and the SD card from your camera. Another is to buy a media player like the WD Live TV models. Some stream their files over wifi to their TVs or BD players. You can also plug current laptops to current TVs with HDMI cords.

The "standards wars" over codecs, containers and compression between manufactures have made this complicated. Good luck!

Bill

I believe Canon records thumbnails in AVCHD/AVCHDTN/THUMB.TID and AVCHD/AVCHDTN/THUMB.TDT files. I think that Panasonic camcorders do not store thumbnail files, although I need to double-check. You might need to author thumbnails yourself.

Forget about it. You already have a computer with a DVD burner, that is enough.

By AVCHD they mean AVCHD 1.0, which did not have "AVCHD Progressive" mode. This is limitation of AVCHD 1.0 and of HD Writer. But you can use other tools from simple file copy to third-party authoring programs to preserve 1080p60 on a DVD.

AVCHD 1.0 or 2.0, you will not be able to watch this on a DVD-player. As for PS3, I've heard that it struggles with 1080p60, but if you turn all filters and extra processing off, it can play it more or less fluidly. Search for Steve Sebu's info about 1080p60 playback on PS3.

Read this and come back with more questions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD

Step 1: Shoot a test clip in 1080p60 that is about a minute long.

Step 2: Transfer it to your computer with HD Writer and pay attention to where it goes and write down the file name that is most likely a long number.

Step 3: Use Windows Explorer to copy that file (the number.mts), and nothing more, to a DVD data disk. Your goal here is to use your DVD burner and a DVD as a data storage system like you would with important business files.

Step 4: Put the new DVD in the S470 and see if it plays. I bet a couple of blank DVDs that it will. If it doesn't you will need to buy a newer BD player.

While you are at it, look at the size of your 1 minute test movie. What is wrong with 1080p60 is that the files are huge. What is right with the AVCHD system is that the compression works well and the files are smaller.

After you get done with this, shoot another test video in the lowest AVCHD setting and play it the same way. The "engine" in the BD player and TV may make these shots have plenty of eye appeal. The exception will be if there is lots of fast action, like sports or horse racing.

If your videos are so long that they won't fit on a cheap DVD, then get a Blu-Ray burner so you can use expensive Blu-Ray disks. Of course, none of this matters if you are having fun spending money on your hobby because there is lots of cool stuff to buy!

Bill

It think it can be burned to a very high quality and watchable disk in HD Writer. When your camera was designed, manufactured and sold, there were so few 1080p players, it was not included. You have AVCHD 1.0 stuff. You might be far less frustrated if you focus on getting the most out of the very high quality system you have.

You ARE trying to get "raw" data to a disk. You keep writing that you want your original quality 1080p60 files on a playable optical disk. Within HD Writer (AVCHD 1.0) it "cooks" your data into 1080i instead of p, even if you have a BD burner.

Most call it "original quality" video, not "raw" data. And, a better word than "cook" would be "render", since that is the word traditionally used in video.

The hard core of 1080p users like to "combine" or "join" their files to preserve the "raw" or "original" quality. I don't know anything about it, but a program called "multiAVCD" is often used. HD Writer also will "join" original 1080p files and make a new 1080p with the "joined" footage.

Even the hard core of 1080p users accept that few will watch their source files because of the proliferation of viewing choices. When they share their creations with others it will get "cooked" by YouTube, the iPad, the PC, the Android phone, the iPhone and, yes, even the TV itself.

The hard core likes to shoot and store the highest technical quality video they can afford. Then, typically, it gets rendered to the highest picture quality the viewer can watch with the viewers choice of equipment, now or in the future.

Bill