Slow, Creeping Death by MTS

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
March 27, 2019
5 replies
1728 views

This is a tale that spans months in the life of a miserable, frustrated agency editor.

My company owns 2 Canon C100s which we use to shoot interviews. These cameras generate MTS files buried inside an AVCHD folder structure.

I, the unsuspecting! I, the naive! I, the victim of my own folly! I imported these MTS files via drag and drop.

I've done it for years: used Windows file explorer to navigate to the clips, then dragged-and-dropped them into a bin. And normally, nothing bad happens. All's well. The project is quickly edited and out the door. BUT.

BUT.

If you have a project containing MTS files which were imported this way, and you do a LOT of editing to it...... If you start adding 30+ audio tracks, 15+ video tracks, warp stabilizer, nested sequences, noise reduction, multiple audio filters, etc....if you have a project that starts to get a bit stacked....then slowly, inch by inch, like a python lovingly caressing its dinner, those MTS files will choke, strangle, murder and eat you.

Three(!) of the largest projects my agency has ever delivered have suffered this fate. After the first one slowed to a crawl, and caused me so much grief I had to re-cut it from scratch based on ProRes transcodes (and no, un-linking the MTS and re-linking to ProRes doesn't help. The flaw exists deep within the project file, and there is NOTHING you can do to cure it. Trust me, I tried everything), I learned my lesson and began importing via Media Browser. But it was too late! Two other projects had already been created in the wrong way, and there is LITERALLY NOTHING you can do to cure them once they've been infected. It's a slow cancer, appearing at first benign, but slowly metastasizing into a memory devouring monster.

NO OTHER BUG in Premiere works this way.

NO OTHER ISSUE waits before it creates havoc.

This is the most devious and horrible problem I have EVER encountered in this software, and IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED! If you can ONLY import MTS files via Media Browser, I'm OK with that! But why would you LET me import them via drag-and-drop? All Adobe needs to do is prevent the drag-and-drop import from being possible in the first place, and all will be well. WHY, ADOBE?! WHY?!?!

Please, Adobe! Hear my cry and answer! Let not this injustice stand! Heaven alone can number the souls who suffer while you wait!

This topic has been closed for replies.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

This issue (AVCHD audio file naming) ... is a bane for all NLEs. I work for/with/teach pro colorists, mostly based in Resolve, and they ... dislike extremely ... working with AVCHD files, with every audio file in the entire project named C00001.

So I don't know how many conversations in person, and online discussions, about the best way to rename or transcode that media format. Because ... yea, it's a hot mess for larger projects. And a lot of colorists do transcode any AVCHD, well, and any other H.264/5 long-GOP media either, before actually grading the job. If nothing else, one can do the old offline/online swap out at the end.

How to fix your immediate pain, that's a serious question and maybe @Warren Heaton10841144 could help with that. Some times, you can create a new project file, and import the media into segregated bins per camera, and then ... one imported sequence at at time ... sort the audio mess out. But that can be a right pain for larger projects.

I'll mainly give some ideas on a couple ideas for alternative workflows.

First, of course, many folks and shops I know ... if they are the main or only shop involved ... simply transcode all AVCHD media to a decent, fully contained mezzanine format. The old choices of ProRes, DNx, or Cineform variants.

But often, you can't do that ... as you don't "own" the media, you're just using it in transit, essentially. And if you haven't made arrangements on handling the media like that ahead of time, bringing the subject up while in-process may not be a smooth operator choice.

So at this time, I would strongly suggest, for anyone working with larger projects that have any significant number of AVCHD assets ... you start with a Production mode of Premiere.

NOT a single, massive project with all the media, sequences, et al in one project file.

Within the Production's folder tree, I would have a subfolder for each Sony cam involved. Separate from any other, if they can be identified in any way at all.

Within each camera's subfolder, I would make a project file and import that camera's media, both video & audio, into that project.

The way the Production mode tracks assets across the Production, this gives the strongest way to ensure that you do not get mixed audio tracks within your total Production.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

S

SomewhereInTime

Participant

Dear John, thanks for the post.

I have the same problem and have been going mad looking for solutions, this is how I ended up here.

Your description was by far the best yet the most devastating advice I have found.

I basically made the same "mistake", a couple of days ago I drag-dropped some folders from the finder instead of using the media-browser. From then on the audio started scrambling up. From a few clips that I could fix by renaming-relinking to now 30 % of the project that is in audio-chaos. The more I do the more it all scrambles, as you said, like a growing virus. I tried some advices, but the mess keeps spreading.

I already invested a couple of weeks into this project so it is very hard to let go.

Now that starting from scratch seems like the most painful but best solutions to all this I wanted to ask you for advice:

Did you take any measures in erasing/cleaning the harddrive from the infected files?
I mean does this bug leak into new projects that use the same assets if the old one is still around? Or can I open it as a reference?
Do I have to erase the old project files (and what else on the HD?) or - worst case - reinstall Premiere?
Or can I just open a new project with a new title, then import everything "tidy" by only using the media browser and everything's fine? Is the root of all evil that caused all this the drag-and-drop from the finder instead of using the media browser?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much..

R Neil Haugen

Legend

AVCHD files store a lot of data outside of the folder that actually has the media. And with naming issues ... as so many files that are created by these cameras have the same names ... that data is CRUCIAL to maintaining correct linkage between specific audio/video clips.

Drag/drop of the media files themselves does NOT bring along the metadata the camera doesn't store in the media files themselves. You have to grab or import the folder structure to make sure you get all the needed metadata.

Yea, it's a royal pain in the tushie.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

L

loyal_creator5C17

Inspiring

I love your post! Just a hug of support here, I have MTS issues too, and it's not the drag and drop. In fact, I media browser added the 2 hours of footage and am getting extreme slow down. Anyway. Good luck - if you find a solution - SCREEEEAM back at me. 🙂