AVCHD workflow and ERROR MESSAGE

Hi all -

I just started working with AVCHD footage. Yes, I know the transcoding is a bear. I'm looking for a good workflow summary? I've been reading P2 workflows and imagine it's similar in theory - but what pitfalls are there specific to AVCHD?

For example, I just got my first major error message and I'm worried. I mounted my card, log and transfer, and get:

"NO NAME" contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.

Copy the contents (using finder - drag-and-drop - not sure how else to do it??) to my external hard drive - same message.

I check the folders and the directory seems exactly the same as the other 6 cards Final Cut has been able to recognize. What could be wrong with this card... and how do I repair it?

THANKS!

Also, I'm working on an Intel MacBook Pro, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, OS 10.5.6, FCP 6.0.5. I haven't done anything different from the last 6 times I offloaded cards, so I'm not sure what the problem is... Any thoughts would be MOST welcome as it's not a reproducible shoot!

Anybody out there who can suggest a fix? Or even where I might go to do a directory repair on my SDHC card? The directory looks the exact same as all the other directories for folders FCP could read...

Please give your full system specifications, what computer, what drives, what camera or deck, how everything's connected, what settings are on the media, what settings you're using in Final Cut, and finally what version of the software, of the OS, and of QuickTime are you using

As I said above, I'm working on an Intel MacBook Pro, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, OS 10.5.6, FCP 6.0.5. I shot on a Panasonic HMC150. QT version 7.6. I am transcoding to ProRes 422 in FCP. It's a 16 GB Kingston class 4 card.

On the 10 other cards I've now offloaded everything works fine, it's just the one card that's giving me problems. The data is there, but it gives me that error message. Unsupported media or invalid directory structure. But the directory looks exactly like the directories in the other folders that work. What is the 'correct' directory structure for AVCHD media? Could one of the files have gotten corrupted, and if so, how do I tell? And how do I fix it?

I'm based in Los Angeles so suggestions for a vendor or shop here would be very welcome.

This is only my fourth day shooting on this project and it alarms me that I've already 'lost' a card's worth of media.

Please help! Thanks!

Okay, it seems that this program Voltaic HD can transcode the .MTS files without the rest of the directory:

[www.shedworx.com]

It's super slow, supposedly, but if it works it's better than losing the footage. Problem is - it only converts to Apple Intermediate Codec. If it works - once I get the AIC Quicktimes - how do I convert those to ProRes 422 in FCP? And will there be a quality loss?

Thanks.

This might sound basic, but if this happened to me, I would carefully clean the card contacts, and carefully try again.

If you follow the AIC route, and then go to prores 422, I think that there would have to be a loss in that process. This is not my workflow, so someone else will comment, but AFAIK, all you need to do is set up a new sequence, using the apple pro res 422 setting, and drag the AIC clip to it.

Personally, with any cards with flat open contacts, I always do the 'clean with the fibreglass pen" trick that all stills photographers have had to do, many times. hth, kl

I am having exactly the same problem, I've been importing HD AVCHD for a year with no issues but yesterdays footage will not log and transfer - the error message

"other data" contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media..

I believe this is because I changed my workflow today.

I generally import everything we shoot, then get rid of duff footage by right clicking on a clip in the FCP browser, selecting "reveal in finder" and "move to trash" from the finder window. I then get the 'Ghostbusters' logo on the alias / shortcut in the FCP brower window (a red bar, top left to bottom right) indicating that the alias no longer points to a valid media file - and have to delete that separately.

That's all cumbersome and yesterdays client generated a lot of duff footage - so I thought I'd preview the .MTS files on the SD card direct (they are in /volumes/CANON/PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM) using VLC player (works fine most of the time on my machine) and delete (trash) the duff footage.

I did this, and now the remainder will not transfer.

I imagine there is metadata in other directories that - while not required to play individual files, enables log and transfer in FCP.

If anyone has solved this problem I would appreciate some help; so far my new workflow has added 5 hours to my day....and I'm not through yet...

I've just forced this error to occur by recording two clips on a new card.

FCP Log and Transfer correctly identified the card and offered to import the clips, showing both as thumbnails.

I closed the Log and transfer window, trashed one of the .MTS files in finder (as duff footage) and tried to log and transfer from the card gain.

I received the same error message

"NO NAME" contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.

It seems you cannot delete .MTS files on a card from FINDER, you have to delete clips in the camera or after tehy have been logged and transferred.

I still have all yesterdays shoot orphaned on this card as FCP will not import it.

I will move on to see if there is a tool to restore the directory / metadata structure (I tried re-insertion of card to the camera and shooting a new clip onto but the camera did not rebuild the structure0 - any help gratefully appreciated!

I have managed to overcome this problem, but not very elegantly.

Using a trial card, I shot 3 clips as above, and deliberately corrupted the file structure by deleting one of them in Finder. FCP reported the error message.

I put the card back in the camera; all thumbnails - including the one for the deleted clip - were present. I tried to play all the clips and there was no error reported but only the 2 which were present actually played.

I deleted the non-present clip ON THE CAMERA (i.e. deleted the thumbnail) and the camera must have rebuilt the list because when I removed the card from the camera and put it in the mac- Hey presto - FCP worked fine and recognised it.

Moving on to the 16 gig card with over 200 clips on it - amongst which I could not recall which were present and which missing.....I did the same process, it took longer.

First I deleted all old-dated material on the camera - then tested and FCP still reported the structure as invalid.

I then searched through the trash and copied over the files I could see from yesterday, back to the card - luckily that seemed to be enough, and I was spared trawling through hundred of them trying to reconcile the thumbnails with the clips to delete the appropriate thumbnails on the camera.

I've read that some people use use Toast 9 /10 or Voltaic to import orphaned .MTS files..... needless to say FCP's "open timeline" .....won't let you drag and drop MTS files onto it at latest version 6.0.5 .

I have discovered that the file structure must be preserved. So to delete .mts files that are junk you have to replace them with "dummie" files with the same name. Thats it.

otherpaw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi all -
>
> I just started working with AVCHD footage. Yes, I
> know the transcoding is a bear. I'm looking for a
> good workflow summary? I've been reading P2
> workflows and imagine it's similar in theory - but
> what pitfalls are there specific to AVCHD?
>
> For example, I just got my first major error
> message and I'm worried. I mounted my card, log
> and transfer, and get:
>
> "NO NAME" contains unsupported media or has an
> invalid directory structure. Please choose a
> folder whose directory structure matches supported
> media.
>
> Copy the contents (using finder - drag-and-drop -
> not sure how else to do it??) to my external hard
> drive - same message.
>
> I check the folders and the directory seems
> exactly the same as the other 6 cards Final Cut
> has been able to recognize. What could be wrong
> with this card... and how do I repair it?
>
> THANKS!

I have a JVC Everio HD300 (AVCHD) camcorder,i am annoyed with the MTS files, for they counldn't be edit on Adobe Premiere.According to my own experience using MTS Converters, I am convinced that there is MTS sofware called Pavtube MTS Converter powerful in converting MTS. I used it and found it supports plenty of video and audio formats such as MP4, 3GP, 3G2, AVI, MPG. MOV, MKV, AVI, FLV, VOB, SWF, MP3, FLAC, OGG, WAV, AC3, M4A, MP3, WAV, etc.
Comparing with other converters, I prefer Pavtube one because of its fast conversion speed and its pretty good output video and audio whcih satisfy me.

How to convert MTS to MOV for editing on FCP