Import of AVCHD .MTS files

Hi,again.

To sum it up:

When working with AVCHD you have two options.

1. You can import directly from the SD Card — go to import from camera for that.

2. You can copy the full — with all folders, exactly everything that is on the card — contents of the SD card to a folder on your hard drive an archive it that way. If you want to import an archived SD card later on you can go to import from camera and then go for the open archive button, then point to the folder where you keep the back up of that specific card.

It is not possible to import .mts files on their own.

AVCHD on Final Cut needs camera data that is included in the other folders of the SD card.

That's why it's called "Import from camera", even if you only insert the card directly.

If you only backed up the .mts files and that's all you have you will have to convert them outside of Final Cut beforehand. I recommend to make the best of the situation and just download the free tool called "Handbrake".

With Handbrake simply convert the .mts files to mp4 with the same bitrate. You won't lose that much quality. It's really no big deal.

So, if your camera records with AVCHD 17 Mbit for example, convert to mp4 with 17 Mbits. And then import to Final Cut.

In the future be more careful of what you do: read the documentation before you delete something and try to keep a full backup of your cards. I always have a card backup in the project folder, because AVCHD doesn't need that much space anyway.

Hope that helps.

Yes Clipwrap will transcode to many different apple prores formats. See attached screenshot with your video loaded up in it and the drop down selection. Re the audio, no I don't have any sync issues and have been doing this in FCP7 for almost a year. Only just starting in FCPX obviously but it seems the same so far. My Panasonic HDC-SD700 outputs 5.1 AC-3 and I have found that I have to select the "convert audio to LPCM" box for the audio in the converted clip to be accepted by FCP - not doing this could be the reason some people are having problems. In FCPX it still seems to recognise my audio as 5.1 channel after doing this but I haven't looked into this much yet. Your original clip seems to be 2ch AC3 so imported into FCPX as stereo but I would still click the audio convert button to be safe.

I am very much an amatuer and just doing home movies of the kids for overseas relatives so have made things up as I've gone but for what its worth my workflow is this:

1. Backup the original files from the camera to an archive drive for long term storage

2. Convert the original files to prores using clipwrap and store the new prores files on a firewire drive (my scratch disk)

3. Import prores files into FCP

4. Edit in prores at 1080 50P

5. Export completed project as a master file at same settings as the sequence (1080 50P prores)

6. Archive the master file and use it in compressor for creating lower quality version for various purposes as required in the future (i.e. 720p version for youtube etc)

7. Once the master is complete I delete all the prores clips and the project and just keep the original mts files and the Master output file in archive (mainly because I don't have enough storage to keep the prores files once I am done as they are huge and I don't ever need to go back and re-open projects).

Tom, to be fair, it's called Import now 😉. For those who are curious if AVCHD import actually works, in short, yes. I have a Panasonic TM900. I have successfully imported 1080/60p material directly from the camera into a 1080/60p (yes, 59.94p) project with no rendering. The playback studders a touch with my quad-core iMac i7 (2.8Ghz/8GB), but I'm sure if I took the time to proxy the media it would be fine.

I have also successfully used the 24 Pfs (24p wrapped in 60i) recording. I Imported the clip. Selected it. Went to Setting view of the Inspector and clicked Deinterlace. I then put the clips into a 23.98p project. -- Be sure to set the project up first to the correct framerate and then bring in the clip. -- It rendered, and I have a nice filmic project without telecine artifacts or any other issues.

One thing that I noticed with FCPX 10.0.6 is that, when I connect the camera via USB, it will only recognize the internal memory as a Camera on the Import screen. I was able to import files from the card on the camera by putting the card (SHDC in my case) directly in the computer. At that point, it was recognized as a Camera with all the clips ready to import.

I was NOT able to just import the .MTS files directly from the Finder. -- This is where I think the back and forth on this thread is coming from. -- I don't know why the limitation - it might have to do with the file not being in the correct file structure, with all the ancillary files that the camera creates, that is used to indicate things like which MTS files go to which clip, metadata, etc.

Message was edited by: Mark Garrett - Edited for clarity

You can import individual clips, yes, but only from the camera itself, the memory card, or from a camera archive. You can't import individual MTS files that are on your hard drive, unless the file structure from the memory card is in place. Many of us only copy the MTS files to our hard drives because we use our own file/folder structure. And while we can play these files in VLC and convert them with a plethora of software, we still cannot import the individual MTS files directly into FC unless you preserve the file structure from the the camera archive.

I've been trying it - in the Import Camera window, there is a button for "Create Archive", but it only works if I have a camera card or flash drive online. If I deselect them, the button is grayed out. In other words, I can use that button to create a (backup) archive of what's currently on the card (or flash drive) and store it on my Mac hard drive (the archive seems to be only read by Final Cut - it has an ".fcarch" extension in the finder, with a silver film canister icon with a keyhole in the middle). But that's all I can get the button to do. Next to it there's an "Open Archive" button for opening already created archives.

You can't import .mts files directly from the Finder. If you navigate to them from the Import dialog, it will have them grayed out. FCPX doesn't work with them directly, like I was thinking it would from the demo at the Las Vegas sneak peak. It rewraps the MTS file on ingest from the camera and saves it as a MOV file on your Mac, in a format that QuickTime Player reports as "AVC1". I don't think it transcodes (unless you check "optimize media", which transcodes it as a ProRes file); if you import without checking "optimize media", it looks like it just rewraps it, because it doesn't add much to the file size. I imported a 12MB .mts file from the camera and it shows up from "Reveal In Finder" as a newly named 12.7MB MOV file. So I think it's just rewrapping it, but it definitely doesn't work with MTS files directly, only ingesting them from the archive on the camera media, or a Final Cut archive.

That's been my experiences so far.

kevinfromnorthborough wrote:

I have same issue... have a Panny 700. I shoot in 1080p 60fps. Can't import in any of the suggested methods... direct connect (camera doesn't show up on list); archive; or file based. It doesn't matter if I try and import from any of the directories, or specific MTS files... they are greyed out. very dissapointing.

I used Aunsoft to convert to prores first, then it was fine. But that's a lot of extra hassle considering the FCP spec sheet says it supports Panny AVCHD. Bottom line, I don't believe it does.

The rewrap features in Aunsoft or the other home grown ulility that lots of people use with iMovie to rewrap don't work either. Once you rewrap an MTS FCP sees a green frame at least once per second (probably every 60th frame if I bothered to figure that out).

This looks like a bug to me.

Thanks for this - I have the TM700, as well, and suspected that it might not work since it goes beyond the AVCHD spec at 1080 60p mode. I haven't been able to find any evidence that this mode is in fact the "Panasonic AVCCAM" mentioned in the specs w/rt AVCHD, though I've seen a few people suggest that it is.

Did you try clipwrap (there's a restricted demo) to see if it has the same issue as aunsoft? I wouldn't necessarily think it would make a difference, but it's one of the few variables you have control over to try at this point...

The good news is that it works after converting to prores, I suppose.

I have a HDC-SD700 and have been using clip wrap to transcode it's 50p (based in AU) footage to prores and then importing into FCP7 for almost a year and it works fine. I have tried to import the native .mts files direct into final cut x and failed through all methods (direct files and with camera connected) so I am pretty sure that it still doesn't support the native 50p which is frustrating. Importing the clipwrap transcoded prores files to final cut x works fine still. I can't see why clipwrap wouldn't work the same with your 60p as I assume panasonic hasn't changed the codec. I will get your footage and check it tonight.

Actually, with FCPX 10.1.1, I regularly import single .MTS files. They import flawlessly with no discernible loss of video or audio quality -- and are then transcoded to ProRes for editing. Prior to 10.1, I simply used an inexpensive program called Clipwrap to transcode the individual .MTS files to ProRes prior to importing them into Final Cut. There may be good reasons to import the entire folder structure -- and actually, I would love to find out what those reason are -- but for my purposes, importing individual .MTS files directly into FCPX works beautifully.

Nope, you must import MTS files directly from the camera, from a memory card (with the original file structure in place), or from a camera archive. This is a major bummer for me too because having to use camera archives is stupid. I store all of my MTS files in folders on my hard drive, sorted by date or subject.

Panasonic is supposedly releasing a Final Cut plugin called AVCCam Importer that will allow FC to work with MTS files directly. But I don't know if that's being released for the last version of Final Cut Pro, or if there will be a solution for version X as well? It was announced back in April.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1302543677.html

I hear you, but let's not forget that Final Cut still is, and always was, a Quicktime based editor. Quicktime hasn't changed, it still can't support raw MTS files, so therefore Final Cut won't. It has more to do with QT than FCP.

But at least the new FCP rewraps MTS files on the camera media into MOV files that are basically the same size. I can easily work with this. My previously saved MTS files I will have to convert with ClipWrap first.

Just tested the dropbox mts file and it works fine when converted to prores using Clipwrap (with convert audio to LPCM checkbox ticked). Imports fine into final cut x with video and audio all looking like it is working properly - see attached screen shot showing the info for the clip on the right.

So here is the Freeware Solution as clipwrap in fact has some problems with 1080p50 / 1080p60 (also with my Sony TX100).

Go and get "remux" for Mac. It is free and does support batch processing. It rewrappes the video to a mp4-container and it only transcodes the audio in acc format (you have to set this option).

It is lightning fast as it leaves video untouched/untranscoded.

Just import those mp4 into fcpx and it is fine.

I convert my TM700 1080/60p video with ClipWrap into ProRes. This has proved to be the most reliable way. ClipWrap has problems with transcoding multichannel audio from these cameras, but there is an option to convert it to 2-channel. For me it is not an issue, I don't use the builtin audio for production anyway.

Just to confirm, i got the updated version of ClipWrap 2.4.2 as well and it worked for me very nicely! Thanks alot! it worked for me in FCP X.

FYI: it only took about 10 seconds to "wrap" a 1 minute clip 🙂

MacBook Pro

15-inch, Early 2011

Processor 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7 (11A511a)

Camera

Cannon VIXIA HFM30

original files were .mts and the output files were .mov and easily read by FCP IMHO.

now, im not a professional editor or anything but it worked so im satisfied! good quality too 🙂

I've found that you can copy the Sony camcorder's BDMV directory to your desktop and the import function will recognize it as a camcorder, allowing you to import from this folder. It will only recognize folders with the name BDMV. These folders will work as archives.

My camcorder managed to screw up it's file structure and create 2 versions of the BDMV folders one in a top folder and another under a top folder AVCHD. The camera would only recognize the top folder version. Copying the 2 BDMV folders in turn to the hard drive allowed me to import both to FCPx.