I have a Panasonic Lumix. Does anyone know if there is software which will recognise the video with Ubuntu?
Hi Aitch, and welcome to the forum 
If they are AVCHD files (.mts) … this topic may be of interest:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=9627.0
Lightworks (beta) is also due out for Linux on or around the 30th of this month … and I’m sure I read somewhere that will be able to edit AVCHD too
[EDIT]
Does VLC 2.0.3 not support AVCHD (.mts) ?
Someone in another forum suggests VLC 2.x.x will play .mts (AVCHD) fies, but they’re jerky … the suggested fix is -
In VLC 2.x.x …
Go to Tools > Preferences
In the lower left of the box click the checkbox Show settings All
Then go to Input/Codecs > Video Codecs > FFmpeg and look for the option called Skip the loop filter for H.264 decoding
Change it from None to All
Then restart VLC
I can’t test this, as I don’t have any .mts files … but worth a shot 