I really would like to purchase Final Cut Pro X but I would like to check one thing. I need to know if Final Cut Pro X will import .MTS AVCHD files. These were recorded on a Panasonic 1080p Camcorder. I also have 1080i footage. I understand the methods of importing into Final Cut but I don't know if FC will work with these files. I would like to import then edit and then output to bluray.
Many thanks in advance.
Steven
Mac OS X (10.6.7)
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.
I don't know if I can answer that. My AVCHD camera shoots video in an interlaced stream (even in it's segmented progressive mode), so on the camera my files are technically 1080/60i, not 1080/60p. But I can tell you that what I do have imports painlessly.
There are several applications for converting individual AVCHD files. Voltaic works fine. Look in macupdat.com and search for AVCHD.
Also Turbo264 from eyeTV converts them but (until now) with bad quality. Rate is too low.
Hi Michkhol,
What's Clipwrap like? I thought Handbrake looked okay and did a reasonable job but it does not convert in batch or atleast not easily. Clipwrap looks like it points to a folder and off it goes. This appears to be a great option for shifting .mts footage into FCP.
Many thanks
Steven
Here is the link to drop box.
There are two things in this archive.
#1 the file encoded using Premiere Elements 9 as a 60p MP4 (no edits, just dropped in timeline and encoded).
#2 The archive of the camcorder file.
I downloaded it from your link and tried it.
First the bad news: so far I haven't had luck with the archive. FCPX's Import window does see the archive when I click "Open Archive" and navigate to it, and even 'mounts' it as a camera under the camera list, and even has the "Import All" button lit, and will go thru the motions of an import, but it never let me see the contents, so nothing got imported. Tried 3 or 4 different times, and tried renaming the archive back to "NO NAME" like on the card, and even tried using FCPX to create it's own archive of it, which it seemed to do, but again, nothing would import from it.
The good news is, the MP4 you had in there imported into the media browser perfectly, and plays in the timeline just fine, with the audio. Reports it as a 59.94fps clip. If I apply an effect to it, it has an orange bar over it, plays in realtime while the effect renders in the background, then the bar goes away. So the MP4 file works like a charm.
I'd be happy if someone else tries the archive though, just to be sure.
FYI, I'm on a late 2010 iMac i7, OX 10.6.7.
German_Doc wrote:
In fact: it works fine with sony 1080p50, perhaps it is a specific incompatibility with pana footage.
That seems to be the case. Summer only started 2 days ago, so I'm crossing my fingers that the plugin from Panasonic will be released within the next 3 months! :-)
Please read again my posting. I talked about progressive fullHD footage from my Sony TX100 (as I said), which can´t be logged directly from fcpx.
It has to be rewrapped into a mp4-container by i.e. "remux" and than brought to fcpx by "import files ...".
Yeah, it sees the archive, but not the clips.
That seems to be caused by 1080p60 not being officially supported in AVCDH yet.
Have you tried 720p60?
I don't get why you want to film in 1080p anyway. Your camera's lens limits the resolution, anyway.
I bet there's no big difference between 720p and 1080p.
Maybe stick to 720p? Practicly same quality / resolution. Less space. No hassle in conversion.
Or just rewrap it.
No, I'm responding to the original poster of this question.
I'm not missing your point.
He asked for HIS camera specifically.
Thanks for not paying attention and then criticising me.
Apple said Final Cut X, btw. That is the product name. The number has nothing to do with the version of the codebase.
And, btw.: 1080p60 is not an official part of the AVCHD spec. Right now it is unsupported by the AVCDH importer of FCPX and I think FCP7. And that is why Panasonic want to release their own tool to rewrap the files beforehand by summer.
But I think this is also Apple's fault. Let's just settle it there.
BTW ... if you have artifacts in your Pana-footage coming out of "remux": try Media Converter, it is free and also does a simple rewrapping (no transcoding). And there ist clipwrap, but it costs some bugs.
Forget Clipwrap! Media Converter for the win!
I just downloaded it and in less time than you can blink, it took my 1080 60p video and made it imovie editable! Surely FCPX will work with this too. Right now I am saving it using the quicktime export mode at 59.94 FPS...i'll post it later... my upload speed from this hotel is 0.5 MBPS - yeahhhhhh...pfffffffffttttttt.
For someone like me, I don't like premiere elements, but it works. Premiere Pro would be awesome, but then I'll want to go out and buy a quadro card for decent performance... = $1,500 for a decent performing premiere pro experience. iMovie ***** - too limited in features.
I am not going to use multicameras anytime soon... I'm not a professional. I would like to create better than average home movies, add some sharpening to make up for the deficiencies of the camcorder lens, dabble with surround sound, add some neat effects, etc. Is FCPX for me?
No ... Media Converter per default results in mov and not mp4
No ... Media Converter works fine with Pana footage.
Yes ... Remux does have problems with Pana footage.
So just go with Media Converter and do not prejudice.
That's (slugginshess, artifacts) what I have in FCPX and FCP 7 at 1080p60 with H.264 codec. It seems like both do not support it well. Converting to ProRes seems to work though. May be the next OS X update resolves this (FCPX recommends 10.6.8).
Tried Media Converter with my Pana footage (1080p 60fps on a HDC-SDT750 which is nearly identical camera to the TM700) and same as all the other rewraps.... green frame around once per second. Tried 4 different rewrap programs, all the same. Clearly this issue isn't related to the rewrap program.
OK, but ProRes converting results in huge file size and a little loss of quality - like every conversion or re-encoding. So re-wrapping has much more advantages. FCPX has a problem with the h.264 in the files which iMovie has not. I hope Apple has a look on my prevuos post with the Console entries to fix the problem.
Import of AVCHD .MTS files
