Samsung HMX-H106

The new Samsung HMX-H106 is an internal drive SSD that records at H.264. Can I download from this camcorder to a non-Intel Mac G5 with FCP?

I'm not sure what you mean by "download," but like any camera that shoots GOP-encoded video, you're going to want to transcode to an intermediate format for editing. ProRes real-time performance on obsolete Macs is not great, so bear that carefully in mind.

What I meant was that I understand that FCP on a non-Intel Mac will not accept video shot with camcorders that have an internal drive. Not knowing what GOP means (other than Grand Old Party) I wondered if the video clips, shot with this camcorder, that shoots in an H.264 format, can be brought into a FCP project on a non-Intel Mac. Dies that make any sense?

GOP means (G)roup (O)f (P)ictures. It is a way to refer to a family of video compression schemes that rely on not just single frames, but collections of frames to work. It is very computer intensive to try to edit that kind of footage.

What most folks do is to "transcode" or change the compression format of the material before they start to edit. Apple created a great format for this with another family of codecs (COmpressor/DECompressor) called ProRez. The problem that Jeff noted is that only the last versions of the G5 product line (Quad G5 towers) could handle the processing of that format.

I am not familiar with cameras, so don't know what comes out of your Samsung. Could you open a clip in quicktime, then under Window menu open the Inspector? That will list the tech specs of the clip. We know that it is h264, but what is the frame size, and frame rate?

What are the spec's of your computer? model, OS version, and Final Cut Version. With those details perhaps some the gurus here can make a more specific recommendation about what codec to use to edit and how to go about making the transcodes.

-Vance

you cant edit that stuff in FCP,
certainly not very easily.

you really need to convert it to some other format.
ProRes is a good format, but you wont have that in FCP5,
and even with FCP6 i don't think you CAN have ProRes in a non-intel computer.

DVCProHD would be a good option for you.
and you'd use Compressor to convert the footage.


nick