I often find that when someone says a feature isn't "supported" what they really mean is that they won't provide support for it.

Obviously that's not what the support tech told you but it seems to actually be what's happening since the only place where support is lacking is within the vendor/customer interface.

The fact of the matter is that Vegas does indeed play (almost all) MTS files on the timeline AND if you are working as an editor for hire and someone brings you a drive full of MTS files then it's most likely what you're going to use. There are times when you just aren't going to have a choice, especially if you pulled the files off the camera and then reformatted the camera media.

If SCS wants to insist that MTS files be converted to M2TS extensions then they need to actually prevent you from bringing MTS files into the project, preferably with an offer to copy/convert them to M2TS files.

All this is still beside the issue which is what's wrong with the media from your camera? Anything? Is it just by virtue of having an MTS extension? Is there information missing in the header of an MTS file (coming from a companion file, for instance)? Is it a matter of having a 2GB MTS file that's supposed to be stitched with another file?

Rob

I own the same CX700 camera, and all I do is plug in the USB cable. Camera shows up as a drive. then I file copy all the files to my hard drive of choice, throw the files/clips on the timeline and edit away.Yup, that's what I've been doing with this and with all other similar camcorders. Never had a problem.

But, perhaps this isn't what we are supposed to be doing ...

It would be interesting if someone else from Sony would weigh in on this. I can't tell if the SCS support person doesn't know what he's talking about, or whether he is correct, and I've been doing it wrong all this time, and that this wrong procedure can cause a problem.

I'm very confused at this point ...

"Yup, that's what I've been doing with this and with all other similar camcorders. Never had a problem.

Going by my experience with XDCAM EX footage where the clips are split into 4GB chunks, I'd say Yes, you shouldn't be doing that, you should import using a mechanism that joins all the chunks into one file. Three reasons for this:

1) The chunks may have open GOPs and Vegas will not be able to handle this correctly. I don't know about the AVCHD cameras but this is certainly an issue with the XDCAM EX footage.

2) The one clip will end up on the T/L as several events rather than 1. That may or may not create grief during the edit that you can avoid by joining the chunks in the first place.

3) Depending on the camera and how it records the chunks each can be buried deep in a complex folder structure that you'll spend a lot of clicks navigating to.

This isn't just a Vegas issue. Although I haven't tested the above with the CX700 and Vegas I know we've had issues with clients who've shot with that camera and tried pulling the separate files directly into FCP.

Bob.

My first experience with Sony support was being told that Vegas Pro "did not support H.264 files." It went downhill from there... :)

Maybe what they do is take your support question, write it out longhand, ask around if anyone's got an envelope, ask around if anyone knows what the postage to India costs... and so on... and when they finally get a letter back they throw it away and make something up.

Honestly, if they aren't outsourcing it maybe they should start. that way we could get made-up answers quicker.

Rob

None of my files are over 2GB.

None of my files are over 2GB.

And by that I assume that none of them are very close to 2GB. Presumably they can't be over 2GB.

The thing here is that probably most people's first impulse is to just grab the MTS files off the camera, just as you would with still images. It's counterintuitive (and lots of extra steps) to import the files using another application. So Vegas should account for this by nagging you about importing MTS files properly or even helping to process them if they're orphaned from whatever sidecar files they might need.

Rob

"None of my files are over 2GB. "

That being the case then support are missing the point as the files will be the same regardless of the extension being MTS or M2TS.
I guess though you should jump through all the hoops, see if your files still cause a crash and get back to support.

Bob.

Why can't they be over 2GB? My camcorder records 4GB .mts files. After i copy the 4GB piecs to the hard drive i combine them into single files for each event, often resulting in 10, 20, or even 50GB files.

I'm just parroting the 2GB bit. Don't really know if it's 2GB or 4GB, or if it's camera dependent. Nor do I really have a dog in the race as to whether you use MTS or an application that turns them into M2TS files.

If there's a point to doing the import "through proper channels" it would be that the software programmers might have focused on that method and neglected the other.

But really, it just seems like the support tech is wrong.

BTW, how do you combine your MTS files? Just curious.

Rob

"Why can't they be over 2GB? My camcorder records 4GB .mts files."Varies by camera. My Panasonic TM700 will record 4GB .mts files whereas my Canon HG21 will only record 2GB files. Haven't tested the AC130 yet. Edit: Quick test on the AC130 - not surprisingly, it's also 4GB.

...Jerry

If you use 32 bit signed integers, you can have - 2^31 to 2^31-1 (-2GB to +2GB approx). For 32 bit unsigned integers, you can have 0 to 2^32-1 (0 to 4 GB approx).

@JohnMeyer
Although the troublesome clip is less than 2 GB, is it by any chance the second or subsequent chunk of a clip that would have been longer than 2 GB if glued together properly? If so then it could be missing vital info.

> "Although the troublesome clip is less than 2 GB, is it by any chance the second or subsequent chunk of a clip that would have been longer than 2 GB if glued together properly? If so then it could be missing vital info."

This is exactly what I was thinking. If you are dragging and dropping the clips from your camera mounted as an external drive to your internal hard drive than you may be causing this problem yourself by not ingesting the footage correctly.

You should be using View | Device Explorer and importing your footage through the Vegas Pro Device Explorer. This will stitch back together any footage that was split due to the FAT32 file system on your camera. If your camera isn't recognized by the Device Explorer, then use whatever software that came with your camera to stitch these files back together.

Just to repeat, you CANNOT just drag and drop files from your camera and expect them all to work due to the splitting of files by your camera.

~jr

> "But really, it just seems like the support tech is wrong."

Actually, the Sony web site is wrong because it does not list MTS as a supported format (even though it is). You can't expect the support tech to be a videographer. People who work in call centers often have no first hand knowledge of the area that they support. They are just reporting what their company is telling them and according to the web page that John Meyer linked to, it does not list MTS as a supported format. So the web page is wrong.

~jr

JR,

Yes the website is wrong. However, SCS should be providing reference material to their support techs though a different channel than public web pages.

It's true that call center agents often don't have first hand knowledge. In fact, call center turnover is usually high enough that they'll never develop that knowledge. However, it's SCS's responsibility to provide that knowledge and training.

If it takes 7 weeks for them to look up a marketing web page then there's a problem. Given 7 weeks, they could do what I do when I write their sort of training, and check more than one source.

<edit>Realistically, they would have been answering other email during those 7 weeks rather than researching one question. It's the job of the support manager to make sure the training is happening and the reference material is correct. And, unfortunately, most of the people who write the training are under time constraints and relying on engineers to provide the right info. They also aren't checking their facts.</edit>

Rob

I thought I'd look back at this thread because I was confused about something. I shot a little footage on my GH1 today and dutifully imported it into VP11-64 using the Device Explorer. Vegas imported two MTS files. I was under the impression I'd get M2TS file extensions. Evidently not. But then the largest file was only a gig.

I guess I could let the camera run for 50 minutes to get more than 4GB of video...

Rob

When I transfer .MTS files from my Sony camera using the supplied PMB software, the files get a .m2ts extension. If the clip is under 2GB, the file is transferred without change (checked with FC /B command). Only the file name is changed.

Longer clips that were chopped into 2GB or less chunks get re-assembled into complete clips again without user intervention.

When I rebuilt this system (and the one at work too) I didn't install any of the Panasonic software that came with the camera. I guess if Vegas' device explorer doesn't care then I don't either, but maybe I should let the camera record for an hour and see what happens.

Rob

I've had no problems opening up .MTS files in Vegas v11. Here's a screenshot of an HD clip I took using my Canon Vixia HF S100 camera. As you can see this is an MTS file with AVC video at 1920x1080 resolution.



I should mention that I just dragged the file into the Vegas Timeline from Windows Explorer!

Gary,

Yes, dragging from Explorer has been my usual experience, and I know full well that you can drop straight MTS onto the timeline without jumping through any hoops, but since this came up a few months ago I just wanted to take another look at it. I was under the assumption that using Vegas' device explorer would change all MTS files to M2TS. Seems I was mistaken.

Rob

The .MTS files may open in Vegas if you merely drag them to the timeline rather than using the import utility, but you are likely to get a glitch at the junction between two chunks of what should have been a single clip. That is because the chunks are arbitrary cuts without reference to I-pictures (frames).

Got it. I was using Vegas' device explorer. It appears to leave my clips as .MTS files. Wasn't what I was expecting.

Rob