Rewraps m2t files, retaining metadata of the camera-acquired clip

The HDV format is now used in a wide variety of production applications, due to the economics and convenient form factor of the cameras and recorders. However, the primary recording protocol of compatible drives is an m2t transport stream, which can’t be opened by the many of the most popular video-editing programs. Editors must transcode the files in another program before working.
A Brooklyn, NY, company called Divergent Media now offers a Macintosh application that batch-converts m2t files to QuickTime HDV movies for immediate editing in any QuickTime-based application, such as Apple’s Final Cut Pro software. Called ClipWrap, the new software recreates time code in the newly generated QuickTime movie, so you can recapture material from the original tape later if necessary.

Mike Woodworth, Divergent’s CEO, said before ClipWrap, if you received a clip in m2t format, you had to use one of the many conversion tools available‚ although each has drawbacks. Many of the non-proprietary products are slow and the result is the creation of a clip that takes up more disk space than the original. In some cases there is also a generation of image loss.

ClipWrap rewraps m2t files (no re-encoding), retaining the original video metadata of the camera-acquired clip. The software places this video data within a QuickTime container so it can be read natively in any QuickTime-compatible application. With ClipWrap, m2t files are immediately converted for native HDV editing in Final Cut Pro. And, because ClipWrap doesn’t alter the video data in any way, there is zero image loss and the speed of conversion is as fast as a file copy.

There’s also Automatic Format Detection, whereby ClipWrap automatically parses the file’s format and chooses the proper output format, so there’s no hassle trying to determine the proper settings (frame rate, image size, gamma levels, etc).

In addition, if your direct-to-disk recorder splits files every 4 GB, ClipWrap automatically detects these spanned clips and will recombine them into a single seamless QuickTime movie.

ClipWrap is available immediately for $49.95. A limited trial can be downloaded from http://www.clipwrap.com. ClipWrap can also be purchased for instant download at www.clipwrap.com/store/.