Importing to FCP from sony HDR-SR12

Do you have FCP version 6.0.1 or later?

You don't need an Easy Setup. The process is straightforward.

(1) Mount the SR12 on the Handycam cradle and connect via USB to the Mac. Power up the camera and select "USB Connect" on the camera's touchscreen.
(2) Open the "Log and Transfer" window in FCP6 and wait while the camera is detected. (iPhoto may also open but you can safely ignore this.) The "Log and Transfer" window will then populate with a thumbnail for every clip on the camera's harddrive. You can preview the clips within the "Log and Transfer" window if you wish. Add logging information as desired.
(3) To choose whether clips will be transferred in AIC or Apple ProRes formats you access the "gears" button on the top right of the window. Select the clips to be transferred and add them to the Transfer Queue.
(4) You may continue logging later clips while earlier clips are transferring although I have found recently that this may interfere with the transfer process.

Is there any way to just drag and drop your footage from the HDR's hardrive to your Lacie drive, then use the footage that way...since it's a hardrive? No way to transfer the files from the camera's hardrive to your Lacie, via usb?

*No way to transfer the files from the camera's hardrive to your Lacie, via usb?*

That is the process Frank just described.

rh

Yes, but not with having to log and capture which involves watching the footage.

I just found a program that seems to accomplish this. It's called VoltaicHD: http://shedworx.com/?q=volmac-home.

Seems to work for non Intel machines too!

You don't have to watch the clips (although it's nice to have the option) and you don't have to log the clips (although it's nice to have the option). Select the clips you want, select how you want to transfer, and transfer.

The only difference, I think, is that Voltaic HD transfers the AVCHD files to your computer without converting them for use in FCP, so I guess that could be a benefit if you want to free up your camera and convert the files later. Does that sound right?

Just trying to get a handle on all these wacky codecs as more and more of them keep showing up at my door uninvited.

rh

Is there any way to just drag and drop your footage from the HDR's hardrive to your Lacie drive, then use the footage that way...since it's a hardrive? No way to transfer the files from the camera's hardrive to your Lacie, via usb?

at the time of writing the raw file formats produced by this camera is not natively compatible with FCP, it needs to be transcoded first. if shooting in HD mode then you can do that directly in FCP 6 using Log and Transfer, or you can use a third party app like VoltaicHD (which takes a gut wrenchingly slow 12x realtime to convert the footage ) or you can use the latest version of Toast to covert the footage ... as it stands, sure, you can drag copy the files to the hard disc via USB first (make sure you copy the entire disc BPAV folder directory if you do that) but as noted you will still need to transcode before you can edit with the footage

Equipped with a new Sony HDR-SR12 Handycam and a MacBook Pro 17" Intel Core 2 Duo machine I attempted to transfer the MPEG2 footage via USB. Why Sony did not include FireWire support for this $1,300.00 camcorder is probably due to the Sony engineer's complacency and the bean counters' unchecked power.

Running Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 there is no way to do it. I had to resort to pulling the two MPEG files from the camera's hard drive to the Mac's desktop. Two files because the hard disc recorder has a limit of 1.99 gigabytes per file of course. Using MPEG Streamclip I converted the video files to DV for easy importing into Final Cut Pro.
Even if I had Final Cut 6, I believe I would have had to do the same thing, for you see the geniuses at Apple and Sony will only allow for the transfer of high definition footage from camera to computer, not standard definition. Whatever they can do to inconvenience the consumer they will spend a good portion of R&D on assuring just such an accomplishment. I thought I had figured out a suitable work-around but MPEG Streamclip chopped a second or so off of the end of each clip. Why? Becuase it is free. The footage played perfectly through the camera, however. I had to recover the second or two of footage that I lost so it was back to figuring out how to capture. Tried Final Cut 4 Express. No go. The footage is not HD. Tried iLife '08 and iMovie 7. Not a chance for the same reason. Where was that time tested and superior FireWire interface when I needed it? There it was on my new Sony GV-D200 Digital 8 recorder. Could have also used my $3,000.00 Sony DSR-25 or my $400.00 Formac DV Studio converter. Plugged the $1,300.00 camera into the $600.00 record deck then FireWire into the $2,400.00 computer with $1,500.00 dollars worth of video editing software in it. Changed the capture setting to a non-controllable device and made sure there was no other applications running that could affect the computer's hard drive performance. I concluded that this was real money but real money well spent. It surely was a wise investment, it had to be you see, because I got it to actually work. Even the audio quality is better through FireWire; levels are more properly represented as well. Don't know why.

So to recap:

Latest and greatest Sony Handycam: $1,300.00
MacBook Pro 17" Intel Core 2 computer: $2,400.00
antiquated video recording device just to get FireWire $600.00
video editing software that won't do what I need it to do: $1,500.00
All the hassle I had to go through to do something so simple: Pricey

This is the best description of the impossibility of using the otherwise excellent Sony SR12 I have read yet.

Final Cut Express should hook up via USB, and simply doesn't. In addition to the FC PRO/HD version I already have, I bought this version to use on the road with my MacBook Pro because the SR12 was listed as compatible. Don't believe it - it's useless for that purpose.

iMovie 08 did once hook up to the camera and retrieve video; but that was video shot in SD. Since I shot everything at max quality, which is 16MB ps @ 1920 x 1080, iMovie doesn't want to know. It no longer even finds the device, no matter what I do.

So, I drag and drop files via USB and unpack into AIC Codec using Voltaic. Fine, except... Voltaic.... takes.... forever.... even... on... a Mac Pro... and... crashes!! after reaching 100% of any file over 1.3GB. Which lots of my files are, being 15 or 20 minutes long. Worse, inconsistently, Voltaic loses sync by around 21 frames out of 25 (PAL). Which is a drag, especially after you have been waiting hours to get hold of useable material.


BTW: I couldn't get MPEG Streamclip to work at all.

I will now try the genius route of daisy-chaining the camera into a device with Firewire out - thanks for that tip, it might just save me another week!

Sum up: SR12 is a great camera. No tape, 120GB HD, great. BUT it has absolutely lousy, terrible, mind-numbingly tedious software support. I'm used to finding my way around bottlenecks in workflow, but not this time.

Unless by some miracle new software appears to make this otherwise very nice camera compatible with Mac / FC express OR FC Pro OR iMovie (even)it's destined for Ebay and someone with a PC, which, I understand, may just work.

*and... crashes!! after reaching 100% of any file over 1.3GB. Which lots of my files are, being 15 or 20 minutes long.*

Perhaps a bit OT from the original post but... sounds like you have a Scratch drive that is not formatted MAC OS EXTENDED. If your drive is formated for PC you will have file size limitations.

rh

All the drives are Mac OS Extended, so it's not that. Neither is it lack of temp or scratch space - 45GB free on system drive, 500GB free on destination.

BTW the reason I included the full story inc. use of Voltaic for Mac was to illustrate the lengths I've gone to in order to get satisfactory workflow using this camera.

BTW. I understand why you included the "full story". I meant that my answer to one part of your story was a bit OT from the OP's original issue.

rh

It never ceases to amaze me how such technically advanced companies, have such an easy time with technology and such a hard time with integration. It makes you wonder if these guys take the time to test their product. I mean I refuse to believe that Sony produced a camera and knew full well that it would not be compatible with Final Cut.

So to sum all this up! The only REAL way to get the footage into Final Cut is to:
1. Have the Newest Version of Final Cut
2. Log and Capture

And....
1. Voltmatic does work, but very very slow
2. The newest Version of Toast can convert the footage as well.

So there are the only solutions???

Yes, it's frustrating. But, I *have two latest versions* - FCP and FCE - and neither works. Believe me, I have tried and retried every way I know and some I didn't know. Log and Capture certainly doesn't do it, in my experience.

Do you have a G5's as listed in your profile? If so, Intel Macs are needed to deal with AVCHD that the SR12 uses for HD. Oh, and you need FCP 6.0.1 or newer. I don't know about FCE or iMovie '08, but they do all need an Intel Mac to transcode AVCHD.

Eddie O

Ed, sorry but you're wrong.

I have FCP 6.0.4 and the very latest version of FCE. I have both Intel and PPC Macs. Neither Intel Macs, nor PPC Macs will import, transcode or otherwise recognise AVCHD from the Sony SR12 using Apple software.



The Sony SR12 produces .MTS files. The software which definitely transcodes this kind of AVCHD - Toast 9 and Voltaic - works on either Intel or PPC Macs. I've been running both for four weeks.

UPDATE Thanks to this forum and some other web gleaning, I bought and tried Toast 9. It runs around 10 x faster than Voltaic, will import direct from camera, and hasn't crashed or produced any out-of-sync files in 5 hours - so don't waste your money on Voltaic, get Toast 9.

Message was edited by: Dean_Innit