OT: What is a realistic method of viewing AVCHD?

michaelshive wrote on 6/27/2008, 10:55 AM
Just purchased a Canon HF-100, strictly for home use with the family. I understand the workflow for editing AVCHD files currently consists of transcoding to another format - whether you use Final Cut, Vegas, etc.

However, if one simply wanted to view the .mts files without doing any conversions are there any realistic workflows right now? I have a XBOX 360 set up to connect to a Vista windows media center but try as I might I can't view these files unless I convert them to something else (WMV for example). Converting .mts files to anything takes forever so I'm hoping someone has come up with a solution to stream .mts files to my HDTV. Does anyone know of current workarounds other than just playing the files back from the camera? I'd really like to keep them native so I don't spend so much time rendering - also I've seen a noticeable degradation when rendering to WMV HD 9 @ 15Mbps.

Comments

Laurence wrote on 6/27/2008, 11:03 AM
The easiest way to view AVCHD footage is with a PS3. If you have a memory card in your AVCHD camcorder you can pop it in one of the PS3 memory card slots. If it is a hard drive model, you can connect it to the PS3 with a USB cable and view it right off the camcorder hard drive.
Xander wrote on 6/27/2008, 11:24 AM
I have to agree that the XBOX360 sucks as a media center for none Microsoft formats. I hope they fix this or I may actually have to get a PS3.
LSHorwitz wrote on 6/27/2008, 12:16 PM
The DivX Player (freeware) plays my HF100 files directly with no other processing required. I do have CoreAVC codecs installed but not sure they are neccesary or being used for playback with the DiVX player. You need to find the .mts files in the Streams folder on your HF100 SD card, and open and play them with the DiVX player.

I have a very fast CPU (Quadcore QX9650) and it handles AVCHD content extremely well. You may not have enouugh CPU, memory, etc. depending on your hardware.

Larry
michaelshive wrote on 6/27/2008, 1:32 PM
Can you hook up an external hard drive to the PS3 and stream them from that? If so, I'll just get a huge external USB drive and dump them all to that.
jrazz wrote on 6/27/2008, 2:03 PM
Yes you can hook up an external USB to the PS3 as long as your PS3 has USB ports. :)

j razz
Laurence wrote on 6/27/2008, 8:54 PM
That and the drive has to be formatted as fat32 rather than NTFS.