Final Cut Pro X - Import AVCHD?

ctzsnooze wrote:

If you 'convert' or 'transcode' your MTS to a new mp4 (or AVI or any codec) using re-encoding you achieve nothing other than deterioration of your data because the conversion will not be lossless. If you convert MTS to mp4 and the mp4 is smaller in file size you can be SURE you lost quality. Or audio channels. MediaConverter and the like do this. They should be avioded at all costs. Don't go this way! It's SLOW, tedious and causes loss of image and/or audio quality - and is unnecessary.

No, Media Converter uses rewrapping: http://media-converter.sourceforge.net

Lossless & fast!

ctzsnooze wrote:

To avoid loss of quality, and to do things quickly, just rewrap the MTS, which puts the original h.264 data that your camera put into the MTS file into a Mov container that can be opened directly in FCP. Original quality of both video and audio as shot. Rewrapping is fast (data is copied, not transcoded). That's how to do it. It's well worth the $50 for clipwrap if you've got lots of MTS files on a hard disk.

Media Converter is free.

AFAIK all these rewrappers (there are a few more)

are based on FFMPEG (free, see http://ffmpeg.org).

Hi coxorange,

I tried to install the rewrap preset but I keep getting a failed notice as seen on this screenshot.

What am I doing wrong? (The preset is on my desktop).

I've installed my Media Converter when I was on Snow Leopard. This is an istallation problem which can occur on OS X (Mountain) Lion. Maybe this helps:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3384992&group_id=506830&atid=206 0884

(I haven't used this tip, but I think on another Lion Mac I just copied the preset manually in the presets folder (.../Library/Application Support/Media Converter/Presets) double-clicked and saved it.)

The problem is rewrapping to the QuickTime framework is not all that FCP does when it imports nor is it all that a rewrapper like ClipWrap does. It strips out the compressed AAC audio and replaces it with uncompressed Linear PCM, which is very important to the process and to editing in FCP. You definitely, positively do NOT want to convert to MPEG-4 or to AVI on that we're agreed.

I managed to manually place the preset in the folder and then decided to test it on an MTS clip.

I save all my SD card contents on a hard drive, so navigated to them only to discover there was not an MTS file in sight!

Since saving I have upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion.

Today I opened the saved SD cards to find that the folder structure had altered dramatically.

It appears to be simplified and the "Private" folder is no longer a folder but a QT type file which when double-clicked opens in QT Player.

All the clips appear to be there and capable of being used but everything is drastically different.

Any idea what has happened . . . . is it ML related?

Tom Wolsky wrote:

... like ClipWrap does. It strips out the compressed AAC audio and replaces it with uncompressed Linear PCM...

Media Converter does that too, and you can even modify the bit value (PCM signed 16-bit little-endian, PCM signed 24-bit little-endian...) by editing the preset. I guess this is not possible with ClipWrap.

Karsten answered my query.

The new folder appearance is due to ML and by continually right-clicking on the "Private" file and selecting "Show Contents", you eventually end up with the familiar complex folder structure.

The last time I looked at Media Converter it simply passed through the AAC.

You can't change ClipWrap as far as I know, though it's not necessary as it does it automatically, making it 16-bit Linear PCM, the same as FCP does.

You can deselect the "Linear PCM setting" in the ClipWrap preferences so that you get the compressed audio.

But you don't want to do that. That would be a bad thing.

Agreed.

Tom Wolsky wrote:

The last time I looked at Media Converter it simply passed through the AAC.

The default audio format for the "Re-wrap AVCHD for Quicktime" preset is 16-bit Linear PCM. (I changed this to 24-bit)

Are you sure you mean the same application? (http://media-converter.sourceforge.net)

I learned there are more apps with that name.

Tom Wolsky wrote:

You can't change ClipWrap as far as I know, though it's not necessary as it does it automatically, making it 16-bit Linear PCM, the same as FCP does.

The last time I looked at ClipWrap it was 24-bit Linear PCM.

well I am glad I don't need to do all this stuff but in FCP 7 I found Mpeg streamclip answered my eevry need every time...since I've been using FCPX I don't think I have used the application excellent though it certainly is.

You're right it is 24-bit.

I remember the other problem. It's not handling the frame rate correctly. For some reason it's deciding to make the media 59.94, when it isn't.