WinDVD 8 will not play AVCHD / m2ts files

[jrpuck]

I recently purchased WinDVD specifically and only because it was claimed that it now supports native AVCHD playback. I am now thinking that perhaps I made a mistake. The video files that I retrieve from my video cam (Sony HDR-SR1) have the extension .m2ts and this extension is not apparently recognized by WinDVD 8, and there is no way to get WinDVD to open these files or to associate them with WinDVD. If there is something simple that I am missing that I need to do in order to get WinDVD to play these video files, please tell me.

Searching the help file was no help at all - Searching on 'm2ts' or 'avchd' produced no results, the only thing even close to relevant was this helpful tidbit: "to play HD video files, select 'Open File,' then select the video file and click 'Open.' " I'm sorry, but that's just insulting. Give me a break- I know how to open a file and play it. But in this case, m2ts files will not even appear in the Open File dialog, - so how can I open them? Using the right-click menu in Windows Explorer and selecting "Open With" does not work either - I cannot select WinDVD.exe as the program to open these files. So I am at a loss at this point.

Sorry if I sound rude, but I am a little frustrated that there is so little info on this topic either in your help files or in your support knowledgebase. Please help.

Thanks in advance.
Jim

[Ron P.]

Try doing your search using the keyword "avchd", then in the bottom block enter the author etech6355. Search the VideoStudio forum, and the bottom drop-down select Ulead Range of Products.

You should find numerous posts, while not be directly related to WinDVD, but may have the answer you're after. Etech6355 is our "resident expert" on the m2ts, avchd.

[jrpuck]

Thanks for your suggestion. Alas, as you said there is nothing about WinDVD. As far as I can tell, WinDVD does NOT support AVCHD, and it does NOT recognize or play m2ts files.

Perhaps Cyberlink is the way to go....

[Ron P.]

Which version of WinDVD did you purchase? According to Corel's Website only the Platinum version supports the M2ts format.

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/ ... 6553865668

HDTV Support
WinDVD 8 can navigate and decode MPEG2 Transport Stream video so users can watch captured HDTV programs. WinDVD 8 also provides navigation tools so users can easily select content to view.

[jrpuck]

WinDVD 8 Platinum

[jrpuck]

As I said before, WinDVD does not recognize m2ts files. They will not even appear in the open file dialog box - it's as if they don't even exist. Changing the "file types to display" filter does not offer an option to show m2ts files. So there is no way to open or play them. I even tried adding a folder of m2ts files to a playlist, - there the m2ts files acutally show up, but the playlist either simply won't play, or it causes WinDVD to crash. "WinDVD MFC Application has encountered a problem and needs to close...."

From what I can tell, there is no way to get WinDVD to recognize, open, or play m2ts files. That is the format of the AVCHD files as they come off the hard drive on the SR1. WinDVD may require conversion to a different file format before it can handle them, in which case "full support for AVCHD" is something along the lines of false advertising, IMHO.