Panasonic Camcorder .MOD format woes

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12th July 2010, 08:47 PM
Andie

Panasonic Camcorder .MOD format woes

Last desperate attempt to find out if the .MOD video format can be converted to something useful. :(

Basically, we have made the mistake of purchasing some Panasonic camcorders, without realising the video formats issue. The Panasonic software is useless for editing, and doesn't recognise any network drives, so is driving me round the bend. The file extension for the recordings is .MOD, and I've had a good look on the forums here, but the convertors I have downloaded don't recognise the format. Windows Media Player plays only the sound and doesn't seem able to find a suitable codec.

Is there any hope? Or should we sell them on eBay and start again?
12th July 2010, 08:57 PM
SneakyBeaky

AVS video convertor claims to recognise it.
AVS Video Converter - a universal AVI to MPEG Converter, AVI to DVD Converter.
Another one here: but this site gets a spam warning!
MOD Converter, convert/import mod files to avi mpg wmv mov mp4 using mod converter
13th July 2010, 08:26 AM
Andie

Thanks. I'll have a look at these and post back any success I have.
13th July 2010, 08:53 AM
Arthur

Expression Encoder 4 can edit MOD files. The standard edition which is free can only save in WMV format though.

To play them in WMP I think you need to install ffdshow-tryouts and set it to decode MPEG-2 videos.

Wikipedia also mentions you can use ffmpeg to change MODs into MPGs. e.g.

Code:

ffmpeg -i myClip.mod -vcodec copy -acodec ac3 -ab 384k myClip.mpg -acodec mp2 -ab 192k -newaudio
13th July 2010, 09:51 AM
RTFM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SneakyBeaky

AVS video convertor claims to recognise it.
AVS Video Converter - a universal AVI to MPEG Converter, AVI to DVD Converter.

Another vote here for AVS.

We use it to convert videos to a .mov format and then import into Premiere CS4 using the apple presets.

:)
13th July 2010, 10:04 AM
judyB

Hi, I don't know if this is a good idea but I've found just renaming the file extension to .mpeg works. I'm not an expert on video formats, codecs etc - but it gets the video into movie maker and has no discernible effect on the quality.
13th July 2010, 03:04 PM
K.C.Leblanc

1 Attachment(s)

Quote:

Originally Posted by judyB

Hi, I don't know if this is a good idea but I've found just renaming the file extension to .mpeg works. I'm not an expert on video formats, codecs etc - but it gets the video into movie maker and has no discernible effect on the quality.

We found changing .mod files from Canon FS100 camcorders to .avi usualy made them work. However since we also have Serif MoviePlus we're now discouraging the use of movie maker.

I've attached a little doofer I made in Autoit so students could change the file entention.
14th July 2010, 11:28 AM
Andie

Thanks all. Used AVS Video Converter (link above) and that worked fine, with a really easy interface. Shall have to investigate getting an activation code to get rid of the annoying watermark, but not expensive as we will only need one copy on a laptop to run the conversion. I'll have a play with changing the file extension too though. Would be cheaper.
14th July 2010, 11:34 AM
Andie

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arthur

Expression Encoder 4 can edit MOD files. The standard edition which is free can only save in WMV format though.

To play them in WMP I think you need to install ffdshow-tryouts and set it to decode MPEG-2 videos.

Wikipedia also mentions you can use ffmpeg to change MODs into MPGs. e.g.

Code:

ffmpeg -i myClip.mod -vcodec copy -acodec ac3 -ab 384k myClip.mpg -acodec mp2 -ab 192k -newaudio

Thanks. I did see the stuff on Wikipedia about ffmpeg, but was put off by command line interface. Have had a look at the ffdshow link you sent me, and it appears to be in another language so I followed the link from there to the SourceForge page:

ffdshow | Download ffdshow software for free at SourceForge.net

Will probably download that too. Thanks. Very useful.

Edugeek is as ever brilliant at helping folks out!
15th July 2010, 03:26 PM
Alis_Klar

Strangely YouTube Downloader - Software to download and convert YouTube video has an excellent conversion function which can take many formats as it's input and will output them to many formats (think it prob uses ffmpeg) works on files from a Sony HDD camcorder and on VOB files from DVD camcorder. As a quick fix converted them to WMV which were editable in windows movie maker
15th July 2010, 03:30 PM
plexer

I use WinFF - Free Video Converter of for the Panasonic we have I just use dvdflick this will rencode the video and make your dvd for you.

Ben
16th July 2010, 10:18 AM
Alis_Klar

I have been asked to buy 2 camcorders for SLG to film lessons and to facilitate teachers to edit the footage and upload it to the VLE. We don't need any fancy features such as transitions really.

Seem to be having difficulty finding video editing software that it most importantly VERY easy to use and is modern and will accept most exotic camcorder formats such as MOD and TOD.

Thinking Windows Live Movie maker should fit the bill but this only works on vista or win7 and 95% of our machines are downgraded to XP. S'pose I could upgrade a few to Vista.

Don't really want to go down the route of playing with dodgy codecs and plugins for windows movie maker 2.1 as I suspect teachers would run into issues. Also for ease of use want to avoid converting the footage before editing.

Have been looking at Corel, Pinnacle and Serif Movie Plus but they all seem to have a relatively cluttered interface which may confuse staff who just want to do some basic editing and save to a web optimised format.
16th July 2010, 10:29 AM
Dos_Box

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andie

Last desperate attempt to find out if the .MOD video format can be converted to something useful. :(

Basically, we have made the mistake of purchasing some Panasonic camcorders, without realising the video formats issue. The Panasonic software is useless for editing, and doesn't recognise any network drives, so is driving me round the bend. The file extension for the recordings is .MOD, and I've had a good look on the forums here, but the convertors I have downloaded don't recognise the format. Windows Media Player plays only the sound and doesn't seem able to find a suitable codec.

Is there any hope? Or should we sell them on eBay and start again?

Arrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! It's like BETT all over again!!

*Russ brought a camcorder with him to take footage and interviews on and it too had a rubbishy propriatary codec which ment much faffage all around getting it into a useable 'common' format. I HATE manufacturers that do this to their products. You hear us Panasonic? STOP IT! It's upsetting people. What's wrong with mpg, avi, mp4 or any of the raft of other formats? Sheesh.

** Goes for a lie down after that unpleasant trip down memory lane.
1st November 2010, 08:42 AM
JJonas

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dos_Box

Arrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! It's like BETT all over again!!

*Russ brought a camcorder with him to take footage and interviews on and it too had a rubbishy propriatary codec which ment much faffage all around getting it into a useable 'common' format. I HATE manufacturers that do this to their products. You hear us Panasonic? STOP IT! It's upsetting people. What's wrong with mpg, avi, mp4 or any of the raft of other formats? Sheesh.

** Goes for a lie down after that unpleasant trip down memory lane.

Are there any HDD camcorders that support a usable common format? If there are perhaps we should name them and enter a pact to only buy those camcorders.
1st November 2010, 09:06 AM
Marci

MOD is another wrapper for MPG, so just renaming from .mod to .mpg will work usually. You can get them to work by renaming to .avi, but some software still won't accept them as it then expects an avi container with diff codecs within, but sees an mpg stream so chucks it's dummy out.