<p>None of the editing tools I know of uses any files other than MTS/M2TS. Supposedly, these CPI files can be used by a Blu-ray player when it plays the content of a card - which is why the structure of AVCHD media resembles the structure of Blu-ray media - but I never play raw videos from my cards.</p>

<p>I preserve MTS/M2TS files only and throw away everything else. Not once in twelve years I needed them.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-10T23:50:24.640Z
2019-01-10T23:50:24.640Z
Rusty Core
<p>Yesterday, while looking for a TC problem in one of my projects, it turned out that some programs are taking important information from files. I don't know yet which file is responsible for this, but it turns out that FCPX extracts e.g. TimeCode from this data during import. If you are working on multiple cameras at the same time and want to work with TC later you should either keep the whole structure or check which file kept the TC information.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-19T08:36:14.133Z
2024-08-19T08:36:14.133Z
Sebastian Pachla
<p>At the moment Panasonic AG-AC90, AG-AC130 only retain timecode in CPI files.[![Panasonic AVCCAM viewer][1]][1] If you don't copy them then you will lose timecode data from the camera. This information is not in the MTS file. Before you decide to dump these files, check if the metadata you need is stored by your camera in the MTS. [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/EGj7hsZP.jpg</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-19T08:54:17.700Z
2024-08-19T08:54:36.027Z
2024-08-19T08:54:36.027Z
Sebastian Pachla
<p>CPI files accompany MTS files in AVCHD containers created by camcorders. 
Various posts on video forums suggest that CPI files should be archived together with MTS files, as they contain metadata about the video. Usually it's even <a href="https://video.stackexchange.com/q/15657/10579">recommended to keep the whole structure of SD card</a>. However, it only works fine as long as an SD card contains recording from a single event. In my case, the videos may be completely unrelated and even taken in different years. Therefore I typically store MTS files only, and organize them by date. Sometimes I also rename the MTS files to something descriptive. Maintaining the AVCHD directory structure or even just MTS+CPI files is an extra burden I'd like to avoid.</p>

<p>In my few attempts MediaInfo seems to extract at least as much information from MTS files as it does from CPI files. Frame rate, resolution, bitrate, recording date and time etc. seem to be all saved in MTS. </p>

<p>So what is the added value of keeping the CPI files?</p>

<file-formats><avchd><metadata>
Do I really need to keep CPI file from AVCHD container?
texnic
# Do I really need to keep CPI file from AVCHD container?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-01-10)

CPI files accompany MTS files in AVCHD containers created by camcorders.
Various posts on video forums suggest that CPI files should be archived together with MTS files, as they contain metadata about the video. Usually it's even [recommended to keep the whole structure of SD card](https://video.stackexchange.com/q/15657/10579). However, it only works fine as long as an SD card contains recording from a single event. In my case, the videos may be completely unrelated and even taken in different years. Therefore I typically store MTS files only, and organize them by date. Sometimes I also rename the MTS files to something descriptive. Maintaining the AVCHD directory structure or even just MTS+CPI files is an extra burden I'd like to avoid.

In my few attempts MediaInfo seems to extract at least as much information from MTS files as it does from CPI files. Frame rate, resolution, bitrate, recording date and time etc. seem to be all saved in MTS.

So what is the added value of keeping the CPI files?

**Tags:** file-formats, avchd, metadata


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-01-10. Score: 1

None of the editing tools I know of uses any files other than MTS/M2TS. Supposedly, these CPI files can be used by a Blu-ray player when it plays the content of a card - which is why the structure of AVCHD media resembles the structure of Blu-ray media - but I never play raw videos from my cards.

I preserve MTS/M2TS files only and throw away everything else. Not once in twelve years I needed them.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2024-08-19. Score: -1

Yesterday, while looking for a TC problem in one of my projects, it turned out that some programs are taking important information from files. I don't know yet which file is responsible for this, but it turns out that FCPX extracts e.g. TimeCode from this data during import. If you are working on multiple cameras at the same time and want to work with TC later you should either keep the whole structure or check which file kept the TC information.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2024-08-19. Score: -1

At the moment Panasonic AG-AC90, AG-AC130 only retain timecode in CPI files.[![Panasonic AVCCAM viewer][1]][1] If you don't copy them then you will lose timecode data from the camera. This information is not in the MTS file. Before you decide to dump these files, check if the metadata you need is stored by your camera in the MTS. [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/EGj7hsZP.jpg


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