Sony Handycam AVCHD Metadata and Adobe Premier CC

[storrm]

Hi all,

Can anyone tell me why AVCHD .mts files I record using my Sony Handycam HDR-GW66VE are unable to have their metadata read by applications such as Adobe Premier, yet Exiftool has no issues at all?  As an example, I import my mts files using Premier's Media Browser function which correctly identifies the files as AVCHD.  The file is imported with its name changed to the date/time of the original recording, yet when you view the metadata there is hardly anything there and most importantly (and worryingly) the clip time information is missing.  Please see the attached screenshots from Premier and Exiftool to help you understand.  What I'm looking for is the metadata Exiftool is able to locate to be shown inside Premier so i can then show the data inside the clips e.g. time, date, GPS data etc.

Thanks for any help in understanding this very frustrating 'feature' of Premier

[Phil Harvey]

I understand why Premier doesn't display AVCHD metadata:  The AVCHD format doesn't support metadata.  So instead, the metadata must be embedded inside the video data stream (See my comments here), which is idiotic because then you essentially need a full video decoder for each different video codec.

- Phil

[storrm]

Thanks for replying personally Phil.  Its much appreciated.  However, I'm a total novice when it comes to understanding how meta data is attributed to content, so I still dont understand why Exiftool can read it yet Premier cant.  Surely if one can, the other could if it looked in the same place?  What am I missing.

Humbly yours,
Matt.

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Matt,

You are correct.  If they do the work then of course they can read the same information.  But trying to get Adobe to listen to a feature request like this may be next to impossible.

- Phil

[storrm]

Thanks again. Is it viable to consider using Exiftool to move the data to the fields Premier is reading? I'm assuming Premier is looking somewhere for the data, therefore it seems plausible to me that rather than ask Adobe to update Premier, that I try to find a way to place the relevant information ExifTool is able to read into the relevant locations Premier is reading. Is this a viable way forward?

[Phil Harvey]

Not for AVCHD.  As I said, this container format doesn't support metdata.  Also, ExifTool doesn't write this format (and never will, for this reason).

- Phil