[Paul Cooksley]

Hi there

Just a quick question about Panasonic's transfer software, HD Writer AE 3.0...

I got the disc with the SD90 recently.

All seems to work fine - downloaded the software to my desktop pc.

Downloaded footage from the camera onto my pc.

When you open the Panasonic HD Writer it finds the footage on the desktop where I stored it no problem.

BUT - I also, as a back-up, transferred the same footage to an external HDD that plugs into my desktop pc via USB. I can see the files on the external drive fine (so they are all copied across ok) but the HD Writer software doesn't seem to be able to pick up anything from an external drive? Is this right? It doesn't seem to give any options on the left hand side (where all the files are) for looking for an external drive????

Or am I not seeing this correctly?

Can anyone please help!!!!

Thanks in advance - appreciated....

[loba]

You have to register the folders you would like to see on the left. I remember seeing this in Options somewhere. I cannot check this as I don't have it installed on this PC. Hope this helps.

[Paul Cooksley]

Originally Posted by loba

You have to register the folders you would like to see on the left. I remember seeing this in Options somewhere. I cannot check this as I don't have it installed on this PC. Hope this helps.

Yes, it does help a - lot - thank you!

[Woody Watford]

Im trying to do this, as I want to store the footage on a network drive. I go to registered folders, and then click add. When i click on the network drive i get the following message:
A Folder not on the Hard disk is specified. Select a folder located on the hard disk and execute again.

I can add any other folder to it located on the C: drive but thats it. Is there anyway around this?

[Bob++]

I just drag the files across to the external drive after editing. No software needed.

[Woody Watford]

Oh yes I can do that, however I need to use HW Writer to access them as they cant be all kept on the C drive as there is not enough space. So I want to keep them on my external storage i have and select them to edit. Copying backwards and forwards is time consuming.

[ronaldkwok]

As mentioned in an earlier post, you need to register the folder with HD Writer before it can be seen by the program. In HD Writer 4.0 that came with my Panasonic V500 camcorder, the function is found in Tools ->Settings -> Registered Folder and then Add. Not sure if it is the same in HD Writer 3.0 but hope it helps.

[Woody Watford]

Thanks ronaldkwok, however you can only add a registered folder that is only on the C: Drive, unless im missing something. As mentioned I want to keep the files on a Network drive and look at them when I want too. I know i could drag this backwards and forward to the C: Drive, but this is time consuming. Maybe version 4 allows you to add other drives with registered folders on them?

[ronaldkwok]

This is my experience with HD Writer 4 and external hard drive, may or may not be the same with version 3 and network drive. You can register folders on an external HD but HD Writer (HDW) will not be able to open the video files if they are just the m2ts file. Every m2ts file will have 3 associated auxiliary files that are created when you use HDW to copy them to the PC and these must be there for HDW to open the video file. Thus if you want to use the video files on another drive, you have to copy the whole folder (the video files with all the associated files) over and register the folder with HDW. Or you can use the Copy to PC wizard of HDW to copy the videos from your media card to the new drive and the auxiliary files will be created. This works on my external hard drive, I think it should be the same on a network drive.

[Woody Watford]

Sounds like 3 wont do what 4 does. I cant even register the folder. Just comes up with a message, saying: A folder not on the hard disk is specified. Select a folder located on the hard disk, and execute again

[Gramuk]

I know this is an older post but wanted to comment for anyone else reading. I have version 4 HD writer and as the OP mentions there seems to be no network support when trying to register files to folders on a NAS etc. I can register to any hard drive on my system - any of 3 internals and an external USB but the NAS drive is never available as a storage option. All access rights are set correct so I know it's not a user rights issue. All other software I have allows network access so it's only the HD writer software which is affected. Not a problem for me since I stopped using HD writer a long time ago.

[5thhorseman]

Originally Posted by Gramuk

I know this is an older post but wanted to comment for anyone else reading. I have version 4 HD writer and as the OP mentions there seems to be no network support when trying to register files to folders on a NAS etc. I can register to any hard drive on my system - any of 3 internals and an external USB but the NAS drive is never available as a storage option. All access rights are set correct so I know it's not a user rights issue. All other software I have allows network access so it's only the HD writer software which is affected. Not a problem for me since I stopped using HD writer a long time ago.

I came across this thread after struggling with HD Writer AE 2.0 and not being able to transfer to my NAS. So it seems it's not worth the trouble of finding 3.0, 4.0, or 4.1 of this software. So what are you using instead of this software? I have a Panasonic HDS-SD60.

[Gramuk]

5th - I stopped using the Panasoinc software after a couple of weeks - I hated the way it would store the aquired files in it's own location of the hard drive. And of course could not directly copy to NAS.
So - I just copy / paste the AVCHD files to a 2Tb internal disk which is used as a "scratch disk" - then I use a couple of software packages for the editing and authoring. For editing I use Sony Vegas 11 HD which is only around 30 to 35 GBP for that version and then once the files are edited and saved in full 50p I can then import them into NERO 11 HD to author them onto DVD or Blureay for the family to view (but they are converted to 25p for DVD format).
All my recordings are full HD 50p and as I say I do all the editing in Sony Vegas and save that as a master file in the same 1920 full HD 50p and store those on my NAS for streaming around the home (to Tv's etc). So there's no issue in manually copying / pasting and using any software editing package - just be sure the software packages provide the rendering resolutions you need before buying etc.
I did have issues with Sony Vegas initially but that was because I was doing the final rendering of the movie at the wrong "bit rate" to reliably stream from the NAS. A little reading up on AVCHD format allowed me to correct my mistake easily. Completely happy with the setup now. You will read may quotes on how you need a powerful PC to edit HD - and I can agree with that. I have an i7 over clocked at 4.5mHz and it is very responsive. Good luck.

[5thhorseman]

I won't be editing very soon. I have an old PC and only bought the SD60 so I could collect footage of my son as he grows up. God knows there aren't enough hours in the day.

Anyways, took a look at my previously downloaded movies (via HDW) and the filetypes are m2ts, cont, pmpd, and tmb, whereas the filetypes on the SD60 are xcpi, mpl, mts, and vpl. It appears that m2ts and mts are similar if not identical, and the other filetypes aren't absolutely necessary, but to be safe I just copied/pasted everything over to my NAS.

Thanks for the info on editing!