FCP Patch for AVCHD (AAVCAM)

Does anyone know when a new patch for FCP will come out that will allow the ingestion of AVCHD video directly into FCP? I am new to this and heard that this should be coming out soon....is that correct, and if so, when?

Not that I know of, as this would mean you'd take a lot longer for RT previews as well as to render. And you don't want to render back out to AVCHD anyway.



www.strypesinpost.com

You mean the H.264 MPEG-4 mts file? I doubt that will happen. I could have been done in FCP7 if Apple wanted to do it.

(forgive me I am brand new to this)...so, then to get my files from my new AVCHD CAMERA into FCP I pop my card into the card reader, use Voltaic or something like that to convert the raw footage and then import that into FCP? Wow, seems like alot of hoops to jump through, as well as tons of uploading/conversion time....any thoughts or suggestions? thanks

Hi....Apple sent me here for answers....I have a quick question. In Final Express I need to know if my new AVCCAM AG-HMC150P Panasonic camera can be used with FCE.....if I put the SD chip in the card reader, will FCE recognize it and import it....I hear also that its one gig for every minute....if I have a 50 minute lecture, thats a 50 gig file!! Can FCE handle that...THEN, what happens when I export it to burn on a DVD...what size is it then, because it needs to go on a regular 4 gig dvd...any help would be greatly appreciated....jv

Final Cut Express 4 is supposed to support AVCHD through log-and-transfer, same workflow as Final Cut Pro. I'm just guessing here, but it probably uses Apple Intermediate as its intermediate format; if so, you're going to see a severe quality hit when digitizing.

It sounds like you're just getting started. You should read your manual. It'll go into detail about the log-and-transfer workflow. You're going to have to work something out to get from Final Cut Express to DVD, though. I haven't the foggiest idea how to go about doing that in the absence of Final Cut Pro, Compressor and DVD Studio Pro. Presumably iDVD, but I've never even seen that program running, so I can't advise you there.

Check the manual, as well, to find out what frame rates and formats Final Cut Express will work with. I've heard it's severely limited, but I don't know what PAL formats it will and won't take. The manual will tell you that as well.

This is an AVCCAM camera I believe, Panasonic's prosumer variant of AVCHD. It will not work with FCE. You could transcode the media using ClipWrap to the Apple Intermediate Codec, but you cannot directly ingest this into FCE with log and transfer.

Thanks for the response....you are correct....would it work with FCPro??

Why does MAC WORLD say this then?

Unlike iMovie ?08, Final Cut Express ingests AVCHD footage at its full resolution, as you would expect.

BUT, it also says this:

(Incidentally, Final Cut Express will not transcode the native .MTS files directly; it needs to take the footage from the camcorder. However, a $30 utility called Voltaic can do the job outside Final Cut Express; it works on PowerPC Macs, too.)

How big of a quality hit do you take using one of these programs and will I have a problem with FCE outputting a huge file to iDVD....will FCP solve these problems? thanks everyone

I do not believe this is an AVCHD camera. It's an AVCCAM camera.

The Macworld quote is misleading. You do not have to ingest from the camera. You can ingest from a card reader. You simply cannot access the unwrapped mts files. FCP is the same. If you only have the mts files without the folder wrapper (you should never do) you can use ClipWrap to transcode to the Apple Intermediate Codec.

Yes.

Tom, AVCCAM is AVCHD. It's just a brand name for Panasonic's relatively higher-end line of AVCHD cameras.

Apparently not. There is a difference in the MPEG-4 profile used. Normal AVCHD uses MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Main Profile Level-4.0 while Panasonic's AVCCAM and some Canon AVCHD cameras as well I believe use High Profile Level-4.1. This difference seems to make the material unreadable in FCE. At least I haven't seen anyone who can get it to work properly.

Have you not read the thread? You can ingest AVCHD media directly into FCP from the camera or a card reader or a SDHC slot equipped computer.

Wait a minute, I got raked over the coals by Bob Russo at Avid for FCP being unable to ingest directly-- it has to be wrapped in ProRes. AVid takes in AVCHD "directly." Has this changed? Are we on par with AVID now?

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Cycle your timeline track size with Shift-T !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Final Cut, in both 6 and 7, handle AVCHD through log-and-transfer. That is, the media's transcoded to ProRes before editing.

How this compares to Avid Media Access, I have no idea. I've never used AMA before, even in foolin' around, because I have no tapeless media handy. So I don't know if it reads AVCHD.

My understanding though, which could be totally wrong, is that AMA is effectively useless unless you're in an ENG environment. If you need to go from camera to air in like six minutes, it's great, a killer feature. But if you're working in a traditional creative post environment where you've got piles of media to keep track of, and possibly offline-online metadata and stuff, AMA doesn't earn you anything.

But again, I haven't actually touched it with my own fingers. If somebody wants to drop-ship me an Express Card with some footage on it, I'll happily report back with what I find.

The last time i saw a demo of AMA, I was thinking "cool". Then, I thought... Wow. If that hard drive drops to the floor, I'd be desperately digging for hard drive scraps on the floor like a cocaine addict. Of course, great if you backed up your data, which will then put you back on par with L&T. I have to say, it's a great feature, as it gives you a bit more flexibility, which you may need with quick turnaround events or news (sometimes having just one copy is better than having two and missing a deadline).

Then there's always [mxf4mac.com] . This would give you native access to MXF volumes from within Final Cut, which would more closely resemble AMA.

As for Avid AVCHD support, I tried googling for "Avid AvcHD native support", "Avid Avchd import", and i can't get a hit that is not someone's wishlist. I won't say it's great unless they find a way to work the thing, coz it's so computationally intensive, and right now, i'm imagining that it will work a little similar to cutting Canon 5D footage natively (H.264), where you have to render the whole clip when you apply a dissolve.



www.strypesinpost.com

[i can't get a hit that is not someone's wishlist.]

MXF4Mac looks wild. Anyone using it?

Hee hee. Bob Russo take note.


- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Cycle your timeline track size with Shift-T !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Final Cut Express doesn't actually edit AVCHD, it imports it and converts it to Apple Intermediate Codec, which is a much more editing friendly HD supporting codec.
Final Cut will only handle AVCHD files when it finds them in their original file structure (either by connecting the camcorder or using a memory card reader), not isolated .mts files.
FCE4 handles AVCHD footages shot in 1280*720 and 1440*1080. So when your footages are shot in 1920*1080, you need to convert the MTS to editable format for FCE.

How to make MTS footages editable in Final Cut Express

This is not correct. FCE4.0.1 supports 1920x1080 as well.

All the best,

Tom