MTS video

[novaca]

Is there any way to make the Quick View panel play MTS video files (from Sony video camera)? When I hover over the file's thumbnail in the File Window, the "jumps to next frames" preview appears. In the Quick View panel there is only a static preview (thumbnail). The MTS format is listed in Preferences - File Formats - Video/Audio File Formats. The video overlay icon (play arrow) is not shown for these files.

Many thanks

[Mario]

Microsoft lists this container format as currently unsupported for the Media Foundations API IMatch is using. This format is used by SONY/Panasonic only, I believe.
See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/medfound/supported-media-formats-in-media-foundation 

IMatch supports most variants of .MP4, .MOV, .AVI, .ASF, .WMA, .MPG, .WMV and .TS at this time.

Consider converting your MTS containers into another container format like MP4 using the free FFMPEG software.
There are numerous tutorials out there which explain how to do that on the Windows command line. This is lossless or can even produce a compacter video file without visual quality loss.

[kiwilink]

I just wanted to comment on this thread.  I just imported 11,000 .Mts videos shot with a Vixia  HFS20 High Definition Canon Camera. They were shot from 2010 thru 2021 (I'm now using my Iphone).  I ran into the same thing as posted by Novaca.  I had missed this thread but now that I read Marios post I'll probably remove them (not worth the conversion effort).  

I wanted to post just in case something changes in the future with Microsoft and this format and I miss it.

IMATCH is managing everything else I have (over 200K of images and .Mov videos).  I cannot imagine life without IMATCH and every day I learn more and more new functionality as I use it.  Not a commercial here but I truly love this software more than any software I have ever used.  And the support is the best in the business by far.  Thanks!

Kiwilink

[Mario]

It is how it is. IMatch uses the Windows Media Foundation framework to play videos. While being quite powerful, it does not support all video container variants in use. It could be that there is not much demand for this variant and Microsoft did not bother to implement it. Or it could be a patent/royalty issue where in order to play this specific video format would require Microsoft to pay royalties for every Windows user to whoever holds the patents for this video format...

Many video formats (especially HEIC/HEIF!) are plastered in patents from camera companies, audio companies, smartphone companies and whoever and his mum. A minefield even to look to closely at.

Wikipedia has something interesting to say, including the Library of Congress explicit non-recommendation to use this format: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Image_File_Format#Patent_licensing

Apple users have no choice of course. Apple took care for that. Whatever keeps them in the walled garden...

[Tveloso]

Wikipedia has something interesting to say, including the Library of Congress explicit non-recommendation to use this format: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Image_File_Format#Patent_licensing

...and this item in that Wikipedia article was pretty interesting/funny:

On some systems, pictures stored in the HEIC format are converted automatically to the older JPEG format when they are sent outside of the system, although incompatibility has led to problems such as US Advanced Placement test takers failing due to their phones uploading unsupported HEIC images by default,[6] leading the College Board to request students change the settings to send only JPEG files.

...(although I'm sure not to those that received those failures, for having submitted HEIC Files)

Maybe I need to re-think my continued use of that format...

[Mario]

I'm no fan of patent-protected and non-open file formats.
These are only beneficial for the vendor/maker, never for the public. HEIC/HEIF, all the proprietary and undocumented RAW formats, image and video files with encrypted sections "for your protection" (actually, to prevent legal reverse engineering) etc. Never good for the public, only for the corporations.

If Microsoft would not provide a HEIC/HEIF codec, I could not support it in IMatch.

Microsoft does not include the HEIC WIC codec by default, users have to download it explicitly. It's free, but I guess Microsoft has to pay royalties for each user and they try to keep the number of users small, to not have to pay royalties for 1 billion Windows PCs out to Apple, Nokia, and others.

Apple just co-invented HEIC, let hundreds of companies tie patents to it and then forced all iPhone users to use HEIC. I don't own an iPhone, can you switch the storage for RAW images to DNG (like Android does) and for videos to MP4? These formats are widely supported on all platforms.

[Tveloso]

I believe there is a setting on some iPhone models to shoot raw files in DNG format...(but I'm not sure about generating videos in MP4).

[mopperle]

I believe there is a setting on some iPhone models to shoot raw files in DNG format...(but I'm not sure about generating videos in MP4).

On latest iPhones (AFAIK 12 Pro upwards) DNG (Apple ProRAW) is for photos only and no problem. Videos can either be recorded in H.264, H.265 (HEVC) or ProRes 422.
If you are recording videos for professional purpose, ProRes is recommended, for any else H.264 for best compatibilty.