Hi -
orion5150edr wrote:
I just bought this new camera to get away from tape.(Sony HDR-HC3) I want to bring over my footage in it original format - AVCHD. I would like to put a copy on an external Hard Drive to archive and a copy on my Computer to edit when ready.
OK, there are a couple ways to do this. iMovie has an Archive feature that will create a folder that contains both the native files from your camera and preserves the internal folder structure. If you don't want to use iMovie, you can use Disk Utility to create a disk image of your camera storage contents/ folder structure. Either way the native files get saved without modification so that you can back them up or use them later. Note that it essential to preserve both the folder contents and structure to later use these copies.
I do not want to convert it to AIC with my IMAC.
OK, don't.
If I buy FCP will I be able to do what I want? Can I do what I want with FCE ( Which I already have)?
If being able to do what you want means edit natively in AVCHD without transcoding to an editable format, then the answer is no. It should be noted the iMovie, FCE and FCP all will import and automatically transcode your AVCHD files as part of the importation process. FCP allows that greatest range of choices of transcoding.
The issue of transcoding is often misunderstood. Your camera shoots and stores video in a highly compressed format that is excellent for shooting and storing, but is very, very difficult to edit.
To get around this problem, Apple's solution (for now) is to transcode the camera files into a format that is edit friendly. These files are much larger than the originals as the transcoding process essentially unpacks the video from the native format in which the frames are woven and chained together in as tightly interlocked packaging as possible and transcodes it, frame by frame into individual packages so that each frames is accessible and the points between each frame are easily found and accessible so that editing can be done These "unpacked" files are what you use to edit your movie. There is little or no quality loss in the transcoding process as it largely a repackaging process and not a conversion one.
The issue of Blu-Ray is still a little murky. I burn Blu-Ray discs using Toast, but note that it is early days in terms of "home made" Blu-Ray discs, and not all "home made" discs play in all (espcially older) set top Blu-Ray players.
Or should I just spend the $1000 on a new PC and used Sony's Vegas Movie Studio and HDDvdIt which I used over a year ago?
Well, this certainly is a viable option. If you were getting everything done the way you wanted to work with the PC setup, it would be waste to struggle through learning both new hardware and software. You should try to get a hands on demo of Vegas editing AVCHD natively, if you can, I have heard reports that it is not a smooth process, but do not have not direct experience.
Hope this helps and good luck!
