Video Tools

Collection of tools to help extract and merge video clips from Sony AVCHD camcorders.

Dependencies

You must be on macOS or Linux.

Install Homebrew or use another package manager.

$ xargs brew install < brew.txt

Workflow

The following workflow works for my HDR-SR10 using macOS 11.2.2

1. Use USB Connect to get videos off camera
2. Navigate to AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM to access MTS files.
3. conv.sh on all MTS files to get MP4 files.

(WARNING: Don't delete MTS files without verifying that MP4 files are not corrupted)

4. merge.py on newly generated MP4 files to merge videos taken closely together
5. find_short.py on these MP4 files to find remaining files that are really small.

I suggest manually reviewing these files before deleting them:

$ rm $(./find_short.py 5 *.mp4)

Documentation

concat.sh

Concatenates two MP4 videos into one.

Takes two MP4 files as inputs.

The contents of input2 are appended to the end of input1 and input2 is deleted.

This is a destructive operation, so make sure to save your original MP4s.

Usage:

$ ./concat.sh input1.mp4 input2.mp4

conv.sh

Converts MTS files to MP4 and retains date metadata.

Takes at least one input MTS file.

Results in one MP4 file for each MTS file.

Does not delete MTS files.

Operation is non-destructive.

Usage:

$ ./conv.sh *.MTS

duration.py

Calculates the total duration of given videos.

Takes at least one input MP4 file.

Operation is non-destructive.

Usage:

$ ./duration.py *.mp4

find_short.py

Lists all very short videos.

Takes an integer for number of seconds maximum and at least one MP4 file.

Only lists files, does not delete them for you.

Operation is non-destructive.

Usage:

Find videos under 5 seconds in length.

$ ./find_short.py 5 *.mp4

merge.py

Merges related MP4 videos by time difference

Takes at least two input MP4 files.

Uses concat.sh to merge MP4 videos and merges on maximum time difference calculated by timediff.sh

This is a destructive operation, as it calls concat.sh. Make sure to save your videos before using this.

Usage:

$ ./merge.py *.mp4

timediff.sh

Gets the difference in time between two MP4s.

Takes two MP4 files as inputs.

Gets the number of seconds since the first video ended and the second video began.

Operation is non-destructive.

Usage:

$ ./timediff.sh input1.mp4 input2.mp4