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Forum Discussion
OS X 10.8 can't open AVCHD files on NAS
I use cameras recording video in AVCHD format: MPEG-4 clips recorded using a Blu-ray-like file/directory structure. Mac OS X 10.8's Finder treats this directory structure (typically PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/...) as a "Quicktime object", letting you double-click on it to see thumbnails of the clips inside it and play them directly. Final Cut Pro X also lets you open these "archives" and import the media therein.
- When I use such a folder structure on my local hard drive, it works as expected.
- When I use the same folder copied to another Mac's drive, shared via AFP, it works as expected.
- When I use the same folder copied to the ReadyNAS, shared via AFP, it fails: Quicktime reports, "CANNOT OPEN", while FCPX reports, "[folder name] contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure."
- When I copy that same folder BACK from the NAS to local storage, it works as expected!
- FileMerge (file/folder comparison utility) reports that the local and NAS directories and files are identical in every byte.
ReadyNAS Ultra 6 running RAIDiator 4.2.19 or 4.2.22 (both tested), with four WDC WD20EARS disks in X-RAID2. Full read/write access granted in user-mode security.
Mac mini and MacBook Pro running 10.8, 10.8.1, and 10.8.2.
Wired Gigabit Ethernet to all machines using a Netgear GS105 switch and Netgear WNDR3700 router/DHCP server.
I'm guessing it's something subtle in the AFP networking implementation, as the same directory accessed on another Mac works as expected. But that's just a guess. Any ideas / solutions? I can easily supply a sample directory with a single clip (shot with a DMC-GH2) if that'll help.
- When I use such a folder structure on my local hard drive, it works as expected.
- When I use the same folder copied to another Mac's drive, shared via AFP, it works as expected.
- When I use the same folder copied to the ReadyNAS, shared via AFP, it fails: Quicktime reports, "CANNOT OPEN", while FCPX reports, "[folder name] contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure."
- When I copy that same folder BACK from the NAS to local storage, it works as expected!
- FileMerge (file/folder comparison utility) reports that the local and NAS directories and files are identical in every byte.
ReadyNAS Ultra 6 running RAIDiator 4.2.19 or 4.2.22 (both tested), with four WDC WD20EARS disks in X-RAID2. Full read/write access granted in user-mode security.
Mac mini and MacBook Pro running 10.8, 10.8.1, and 10.8.2.
Wired Gigabit Ethernet to all machines using a Netgear GS105 switch and Netgear WNDR3700 router/DHCP server.
I'm guessing it's something subtle in the AFP networking implementation, as the same directory accessed on another Mac works as expected. But that's just a guess. Any ideas / solutions? I can easily supply a sample directory with a single clip (shot with a DMC-GH2) if that'll help.
9 Replies
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- Could you please supply the sample directory for further assistance.
- Two sample directories at http://www.adamwilt.com/xfer/GH2/
GH2-AVCHD.zip - directory in a zipfile, with one video clip created after deleting previous clips on the SD card one at a time (the "delete single" option in the camera's delete menu). When this directory is transferred to the NAS, the "private" directory and all AVCHD-related subdirectories appear on the NAS as regular directories. When transferred back to a local disk, they appear as Quicktime objects, openable from Finder into QuickTime. Zipfile is 7.3 MB.
GH2-AVCHD2.zip - directory in a zipfile, with one video clip created after deleting all previous clips on the SD card (the "delete all" option in the camera's delete menu). When this directory is transferred to the NAS, the "private" directory and all AVCHD-related subdirectories appear on the NAS as Quicktime objects, but attempts to double-click them result in "cannot open" errors. When transferred back to a local disk, they appear as Quicktime objects, openable from Finder into QuickTime without problems. Zipfile is 6.4 MB.
Neither clip is a work of art; they're simply short, 3-4-second-long focus-pulls on the ReadyNAS OLED panel, just so there's something to test with. Both clips have been verified to perform this way even after being zipped up, uploaded, downloaded, and unzipped. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to help. Thanks! - Interestingly, the former directory (where the private subdirectory appears as a normal folder on the NAS) is importable into Final Cut Pro X while still on the NAS, whereas the second (where "private" appears as a QuickTime object) is not. Both import correctly once transferred back to the local disk.
- I'll look into this.
franklahm wrote: I'll look into this.
It's a case sensitivity issue. As you may know OS X filesystem is case insensitive, ie you can't have two file "test" and "TEST" in the same directory and the OS X API will return the entry for "test" when asked for "TEST". By contrast, the NAS uses a case sensitive filesystem and Netatalk (the opensource AFP fileserver running on the NAS) runs on top of that.
Unfortunately, the Finder mechanism for detecting whether a simple folder containing AVHCD media shall be presented to the user like a file is based on the Finder inspecting the folders contents behind the scene, looking for a file INDEX.BDM nested somewhat in the folder hierarchy:FOLDER/PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/INDEX.BDM
Now, as long as the folder is stored on a Mac (HFS+ filesystem, case insensitive) it doesn't matter if the Finder looks for the file by the name "index.bdm" or "Index.bdm" or "INDEX.BDM", all names will match the filename. But when you copy the folder to the NAS unit case matters.
Unfortunately the Finder looks for the file twice (verified with a network traffic analysis): once with the exact name "index.bdm" and then later with "INDEX.BDM". So no matter which case the filename has, both searches can't equally match on a case sensitive filesytem.
I recommend filing a bugreport with Apple, they're really the only one who could fix this.- Wonder what happens if the Finder does the same search on a volume formatted HFS+ Case Sensitive?
ncollingridge wrote: Wonder what happens if the Finder does the same search on a volume formatted HFS+ Case Sensitive?
Good idea! See yourself:
- Thanks, franklahm, great work! I will file a bug report with Apple, and we'll see what happens.
(The first directory has the file as "INDEX.BDM", while the second's file is "index.bdm"!) - I filed a bug with Apple, and after several months, they came back with "will not fix". They consider lowercase file/foldernames in an AVCHD folder structure to be an implementation bug that the camera vendor should fix. Sigh.
So the fix for the poor user stuck in the middle is to manually traverse the folder structure and make sure all AVCHD files/folders are uppercased. I wrote a utility to do it for me; it's free for anyone else suffering the same problem: avchd2AVCHD.
Thanks to all who helped out!
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