Importing AVCHD video in .mp4 container from Samsung camcorder

Question

Hello anyone and everyone,
     I recently purchased a new Samsung camcorder (Model: HMX-H100N) and wish to use Premier Pro CS4 to edit the resulting video. The camcorder records video to an SDHC card in 1080i avc1 in an .mp4 container (the exact specifications as shown in GSpot and MediaInfo below) which when I attempt to import into premiere a green square is displayed. I have tried several AVCHD 1080i as well as HDV 1080i presets none of which have resulted in anything other than the green square or "Format Not Supported" error messages. I'm running Windows 7 (x86) OS and have several codecs (filters) installed including ffdshow, CoreAVC, DivX 7 as well as the built in Microsoft DTV-DVD filter and the MainConcept (adobe2) H264/AVC decoder. During normal playback of the .mp4 file Windows Meida Player seems to use the built in Microsoft DTV filter and playback is flawless, I would assume that Premier is attempting to use the MainConcept filter which seems to be unable to decode the files. Any help is appreciated.
MediaInfo:
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                         : avc1
Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                         : 9mn 38s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Width                            : 1 920 pixels
Height                           : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Original display aspect ratio    : 16:9
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Resolution                       : 24 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Interlaced
Scan order                       : Top Field First
Stream size                      : 1.14 GiB (99%)
Title                            : SAMSUNG AVC
GSpot:
Container:
avc1: MP4 Base w/ AVC ext [ISO 14496-12:2005]
- isom: MP4  Base Media v1 [IS0 14496-12:2003]
Recommended Display Size: 1920 x 1080
Video:
Codec: avc1 Name: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Pics/s: 29.971 Frames/s: 29.971
1920 x 1080 sar: 1.778 (16:9) dar: 1.778 (16:9) 

Answer 1

I have bought a Samsung HMX-H100NM for my son, and we have had the hardest time importing the video cilps in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Here is what I found so far:
- If you check the video size on the "green square clips", it's completely bogus. It might be set to  4x13 instead of 1920x1080 for example.
- There was a firmware update for the HMX-100N on the Samsung web site in late December 2009.  As of January 17, 2010, it is not there aymore.  I was told at the end of December 2009 that there would be a new firmware upgrade in January 2010, so maybe a new version is coming soon.
- After upgrading the firmware (I'm not sure exactly what happened with the old firmware installed, except that importing didn't work at all), I find that I'm able to import some clips if I set the camera resolution to "fine" or "superfine".  The other resolution still gives me clips that I cannot import. When a clip import is successful, I can play the vide. However, if I save the project and reopen it, I will get "green squares" in lieu of some of the good clips. Rebooting the computer and reopening the same project might give me a different set of bad clips. I have reported this as a bug.
- Just for the heck of it, we tried importing the same video clips in Adobe Premiere Elements and that worked just fine.
In summary:
1. Try setting your video resolution to "fine" or "super fine" in camera.
2. Try using Adobe Premiere Elements.
3. Pray that we get a fix in Premiere Pro soon.
4. I'm looking for recommendation for a different video camera that will work "out of the box"