Have footage from Sony HVR Z7U - Flash card and files are avi how do I use in FCP?

Finally got flash card for my Sony HVR-Z7U but when I drag and drop files from card to Mac they are in avi. When I import to FCP it says I should transfer them to proper format using media manager but I don't seem to have that on my computer nor would know how to use anyway. Is there and easy way to take care of this issue?

-ian

Provided that you have the codec needed to play the AVI files in QuickTime Pro, use that app, Compressor Visual Hub, MPEG Streamclip or other program to convert the files into a codec that will match your FCP Sequence settings.

-DH

Okay I'm confused. This flash card memory devise that attaches to my Sony HVR-Z7U is supposed to speed up the capturing process rather than waiting in real time for the mini-dv tape to transfer to FCP. Which it would be faster if all I had to do was drag and drop the files from the card to FCP. But if every time I do this I then have to go and run it through quick time to convert avi to a quick time then that defeats the purpose. There must be another way. Anyone know?

-ian

You should not need to do any transcoding with HDV files from your Sony camera. Have you gone out to Sony and downloaded their software for FCP? With their software it does become a one step process.

--ken

Well I down loaded that driver (not sure if it was right one though) but it had no effect. This is becoming quite frustrating as flash cards are supposed to speed up work flow but i'm actually 12 hours behind now cause I can't figure out how or why the camera records to avi when FCP only accepts QT's? And obviously how to get the .avi files in to my project so I can work on them.

Here is the message I get: The following media files are not optimized for FCP. Recommended to recapture or use Media Manager to create new copies of files to improve their perfomance for multi-stream play back.

Help!

-ian

I have had people come over with Z7 cameras and the process works as advertised. I don't know if you have dnl the correct drivers or if you have the camera set to the wrong format.

Post over at the lafcpug board as they work with the Z7 and should be able to help.

[www.lafcpug.org]

--ken

So here I am. I have camera set to HDV 1080i / 24 pscan. When I drag and drop files from card to FCP I get the above message stating I should use Media Manager (which I don't know what that is) or recapture but I obviously don't know how to capture correctly. What am I doing wrong?

-ian

You still need to get the Sony plug-in so you can do a "Log and Transfer" of the files. I don't have the Sony site link handy but here's the name of the .dmg file I downloaded: SonyRecordingUnit101.dmg

Once you have that file, you'll be good to go.

Phil Cramer
Indianapolis