I just received the Sony HDR-XR160 as a gift and have not been successful in downloading video footage to FCP 6.0.6 or iMovie 6.0.3.

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Level 1

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I just received the Sony HDR-XR160 as a gift and have not been successful in downloading video footage to FCP 6.0.6 or iMovie 6.0.3.

I just received the Sony HDR-XR160 Camera as a gift and have not been successful in downloading video footage into FCP 6.0.6, iMovie 6.0.3, or any other systems within my computer. After plugging the camera into the USB port of my Macbook Pro (Mac OS X Version 10.5.8) and pressing USB Connect on the camera's LCD panel, any photos and/or still images are automatically downloaded into my iPhoto 6.0.6. However, any video footage comes up in my computer within PMBPortable - the software system that came with the camera. I cannot figure how to export video footage out of the PMBPortable software into editing software or import it within editing software. I read some threads about using MPEG Streamclip, which I have, but I still can't figure out how to move the video footage out of PMBProtable into MPEG Streamclip. Any detailed help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Final Cut Pro 6, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Dec 26, 2011 10:39 AM

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Answer 1

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

Dec 26, 2011 1:35 PM in response to edph14

That's an AVCHD camera right?

Read this.

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Answer 2

Dec 26, 2011 2:39 PM in response to Nick Holmes

Since the Sony HDR-XR160 is an AVCHD camcorder ("FullHD 1080p - HD 1080i - AVCHD - MPEG-2" from the Sony web site), you should be able to click through the folders on the storage media until you find the ".mts" files after your Sony mounts on your Desktop. These are the video files that you want to convert from .mts to Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime files using MPEG Streamclip.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.6 was the first version to support AVCHD. I skipped from 6.0.5 to 7.0.3 before starting to use the AVCHD format all that much. I can't recall if "Log and Transfer" existed yet in 6.0.6, but you might check if it's there (File > Log and Transfer; right next to Log and Capture"). In FCP7, the Log and Transfer window is the FCP way of converting the AVCHD data streams (the MTS files) to something that's easy to cut in FCP.

You're close!

-Warren

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Answer 3

edph14 Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 26, 2011 3:43 PM in response to edph14

Wow! Thanks to Nick and Warren for your help. I found the .mts files in the PMBPortable Software:

>No Name (This is the title of the PMB Portable Storage Media. This comes up when you USB Connect your camera to your computer.)

>AVCHD

>BDMV

>Stream

>.mts files

I dragged all the .mts files into my personal project folder. Using FCP 6.0.6, I then opened my Final Cut Pro project folder:

>File

>Log and Transfer

>Select the video clips you want to transfer

>Add Selection to Queue

FCP provides a menu of your video clips and you choose which ones you want to tranfer. It takes about double the time to tranfer .mts files into FCP, but it works. I didn't need to use MPEG Streamcilp or any other software. Yes!

Thanks again for all your help. I hope others find this information useful.

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Answer 4

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Dec 26, 2011 3:49 PM in response to edph14

A word of warning. Keep your files in the original folder structure. Do not move them.

All sorts of grief can come from messing about with the recorded information/structure (or removing your video files from the supporting information). Think of this as setting up an archival system.

x

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