[alphawave]

Hi I just got a Panasonic HC-V720 to replace my 10 year old Canon MVX3i mini DV camcorder.


With my old Camcorder transferring my video to my PC was as easy as plugging in the firewire cable and letting windows download from the mini DV tape.


The question I have is:


What are all the files/file types that are written to the SD card and which ones do I need to download/transfer/keep, which ones do i need to leave and which can i delete from the SD card??


Some if the files i know - such as the .jpgs and .mts files but the others i don't know - here is whats on the card right now:


The card has 2 folders DCIM and PRIVATE,


The DCIM folder has 2 sub folders which contain the photos i have taken on 2 different occasions ( no problem with this)


And also 3 files BACKUP.HST, BACKUP.TMP and INDEX.DAT


The PRIATE folder contains a sub folder AVCHD which in turn contains 3 folders AVCHDTN, BDMV and PANA_EXT




The AVCHDTN folder contains 2 files THUMB.TDT and THUMB.TID



The BDVM folder contains 3 sub folders:


CLIPINF - containing 2 files 00000.CPI and 00001.CPI


PLAYLIST - containing 3 files 00000.MTS, 00001.MTS and 00000MPL


STREAM - empty folder


and 2 files INDEX.BDM and MOVIEOBJ.BDM




The PANA_EXT folder contains 3 files; BACKUP.CPI, BAK-S00.PDI and BAK-S01.PDI


Thanks,


Kev

 

[bsprague]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new camera.


The file structure is created to a standard called AVCHD and it is a relative of the Blu-Ray standard developed by Sony and Panasonic. Wikipedia has some good reading on those subjects.


Panasonic has some special features built into the HDWriter software they gave you with the camera. That software uses all those extra files to keep track of things. Every other editing software does not care about or use the extra files. The only files that count are the .jpg and .m2ts or .mts. In other words, the big ones.


To make the "special features" work you have to use the HDWriter as your system to transfer your clips and photos to your computer. HDWriter can't work with out all the files.


One feature is to join sections of a long video clip, like a concert. Do to file size limitations, SD cards have to split a long shoot into 4GB chunks in the camera. HDWriter can put those chunks together in one file.


Another feature us "lossless" editing of 1080p60 files. Most 3rd party software does not do that well, or at all.


My "workflow" for a couple of years has been to use HDWriter to move and catalog my photos and video clips. Then I would use Adobe products to work on them. I've added a couple cameras to my collection and no longer do that. Instead I use an Adobe LIghtroom to move all my files from my cameras to an organized folder structure. When I put the card in the computer, Lightroom pops up in the transfer mode, I double check the settings and it copies only the .jpgs and video clips. I abandon all those little files. When the transfer is complete, I back up my files. When backed up, I put the SD card back in the camera and use the camera to reformat the card producing a "clean" system for the next shoot.


There is no reason you can't use Windows Explorer or the Apple equivalent to move files.


You may want to review the HDWriter documentation to see if there are special features you want to use. If not, ignore all the little files.


Good luck and have fun!


Bill

 

[alphawave]


Thanks,

That explains it!

 

Kev