Final Cut X and 1080/60p from Panasonic TM-700

Anyone know if Final Cut Pro X can handle 1080/60p directly from the Panasonic TM-700. They only talk about AVCHD on their web site, but nothing on TM-700 is listed. Took an SD card to the local Apple store and they don't even have Final X on any machine in the store in Syracuse New York. They said to call the 800 number at Apple but all they could tell me is that if isn't on the list it hasn't been tested. They don't have many Panasonic cameras on their list yet. Should also say I don't have any older Final Cut on my New Mac. The Apple site says that some SD cards can be read directly, but all that is listed is AVCHD for Panasonic. According to the Panasonic instruction book Macs can't import 1080/60p and you must go to AVCHD which I have done for imovie, but didn't buy the Mac Pro for imovie and have been waiting for Final Cut X for months. Thanks for your help!

As far as I can tell, the HDC-TM700 is shooting to AVCHD.

[www.bhphotovideo.com]


www.derekmok.com

Have been shooting everything in 1080/60p which looks outstanding, but must go through a converting process that changes it to AVCHD and that has been the only way to go to the Mac up to now. When I play the AVCHD back it doesn't look as good as the 1080/60p played from the camera or putting the SD card into my Blu-ray player. Have seen others raise the question before X was released, but no one seems to know if it can now be passed to the Mac without converting. As I mentioned the Panasonic instruction book says that Macs can't accept the 1080/60p, but isn't this what was expected from Final X.

> Have been shooting everything in 1080/60p which looks outstanding, but must go through
> a converting process that changes it to AVCHD

Okay, stop. You're mixed up about your formats.

1080 is a frame size (1920x1080). 60p is a frame rate. AVCHD is a codec. The first two are not a substitute for the last one. You've probably been shooting 1920x1080 at 60p, in AVCHD format.

[www.lafcpug.org]

And if AVCHD is at all involved in the process, then the files in the camera are already in AVCHD format. To edit, you need to convert it to something like ProRes 422.

There is no point judging image quality on the camera's screen. A small screen will automatically make the image seem sharper and the colours more saturated.


www.derekmok.com

I am talking about the way it looks on my 46 inch LCD TV. If I run it through imovie it doesn't look as good as from the SD, even though I can burn to a Blu-ray from the Mac Pro. Reading directly from the Panasonic instruction book page 129: 1080/60p scenes cannot be imported to a Mac. Then it tells how to convert and then import. Panasonic does not make this limitation with the software they have for PCs. Then they say HD Writer AE2.1 is not available for Mac.

a link where this issue came up before Final X was released:

[discussions.apple.com]

Maybe I can add some clarity to the problem. If I play 1080/60p original camera footage on an SD card and play it back on the Panasonic Blu ray player on the large LCD, it looks great, but if I convert in the camera to AVCHD and put it on another SD card and play it back on the same blu ray player it doesn't look as good as the original even before it goes into the Mac. So obviously I want to take the 1080/60p footage and input to the Mac without degrading it.

Did you actually read the link I provided for you?


www.derekmok.com

Yes, I know there are outside programs to convert, but all of these tools were designed for the OLD Final Cuts. Final Cut X was, as I understand it, expected to be the new deal, so do we know if any of this stuff is needed. This is one of the reasons why I have been waiting for X, so these other steps wouldn't be needed.

After returning to the Apple store in Syracuse today and being told they still don't have Final X loaded on their computers, I decided to just buy it and find out for myself. It will not directly download 1080/60p from the Panasonic TM700. You must convert to AVCHD in the camera, which means that if your work is on an SD card you must copy to the internal memory and then convert to AVCHD as you again copy onto another SD card if you want to preserve the 1080/60p. Even after it is converted to AVCHD, it still will not read directly from the card, only the camera. Well anyway I have it working and burned my first Blu-ray ok and will figure out the rest. I don't care about multiple cameras and a lot of other stuff the pros are complaining about, but I guess you get what you pay for and can only hope Jobs kicks some butts and they will in time accept the 1080/60p. It does interact with my Blu-ray burner OK as it recognized I had a RW and asked if it could over write the Blu-ray disc. I guess at one time Jobs said he wasn't going to support BD, but at least he has with X.

Late answer, but I still want to share my experience with all the Panasonic TM700 users. When I tried to use the 60p AVCHD files from TM700, I found that most of my videos couldn't be imported to edit. When searching on the net, I know it’s a format problem. As I know, Apple ProRes is the optimal format for FCP native editing. So, I tired to transcode TM700 MTS/M2TS to ProRes 422 with a top MTS Converter for Mac users. I got the solution also from someone's post. You can link to [forum.moses.tu-berlin.de] to get some tips to help you out.