Import MPEG-2 files into Final Cut Pro X

I bow to your better judgement, however it is good enough for the project I am working on... I cannot tell the diffence personally, so I can guarantee my client won't! The source material I was provided isn't good enough to be able to notice.

But in future projects, if I need the best quality, I'll convert to ProRes first. I just wanted to point out that FCPX does indeed support MPEG-2 files, because that was the original question.

i think he is saying however if you have the default "use optimzed video" setting enabled renaming to .mod is a good path simply for the sake of expediency is just that if you are trying to actually work in that format that you would encounter trouble. i think i will start using that shortcut myself as a matter of fact it may avoid the neccesity for using streamclip at all (cept for demuxing, strait conversions and the like). Please correct me if i read you incorrectly Tom.

Do you mean "Create optimized media"? I had it unticked. However, since I have pretty much tweaked every part of the video I believe it is pretty much all transcoded now. My Movie Events folder for the project is running at about 35 GB for a 25 minute SD project. The Render Files folder contains a load of data files and plists stating ProRes422.

yes and generally speaking it's a good setting to have checked off (i often check off the proxy media option as well to speed up editing until im ready for export but if you leave that option your final output will be degraded).

Hi I have been trying to sort the same problem, I have a Canon XA10, if I only import the raw (.MTS) files from the camera to my HD, then try to import to FCPX it won't have a bar of it, but if I use FCPX to do the import from the camera straight into the programme it will accept them even with a preview prior to importing so you only choose the files you want, it also imports as .mov files so can use or view in QuickTime where the .MTS I could only open with VLC.

There is a mention of the "camera achieve" in this discussion as apposed to just "the file" not sure where this achieve is but doing it this way does the trick anyway for me with no additional conversion software and the time to do a conversion, so may work for other camera makes. The trouble will be if you are supplied or have files already on HD and no longer on camera!

it's archive not ahceive but the camera and the archive are the same thing essentially. FCP (all versions) does not recognize raw transport streams (which is what mts files are) if you want to offload to disk you must do by using the archive feature or creating an image of the camera volume. i belive FCP X may help you to copy those files over to an "archive" but is is essentially not very different from creating the image.

ok... after all the discussion. What is the best quality settings for mpeg streamclip? I am using similar footage from the archive site.. i know, not the best, but it is what it is. One movie I tried, it worked great, the other... not so much. I used the mpeg4 and transcoded in fcp x, and then used mpegstreamclip to output a 422 prores file (1080i). Was I stretching it too much going from SD to 1080i?

I figure I will have to download the mpeg 2 files (which are over 2 gb), but they should have less artifacts.

Sorry for such a newb question?

personally i wouldn't upscale those clips i would just convert them leave any upscaling to FCP. be aware these clip will already be about 20 times as big in prores as they would be in mpeg2 if you are also upscaling that factor would be closer to 80 times as large.

ok...what settings in mpeg should i use? Mpeg gives me the options of 320x240 (4:3), 426x240 (16:9), 320x240 (unscaled), 720x576 (DV_PAL), 720x 480 (DV_NTSC), 1280x720 (HDTV 720p), 1920x1080 (HDTV 1080i).

The project is 1080i, filmed in 16:9, 1440, 29.97 fps.

If i have to use letterboxes, I'm ok, i just want to get a good quality. I'm actually using several old films in this project so I'll have to do this multiple times.

I did it yesterday and upsaceled with mpeg...went from 500 mb to 40GB...

I'm new at most of this. Thanks!!!!

Hi, Jowie. Thanks so much for your tip on adding MOD. I've been battling for weeks with Apple's arrogance of ignoring mpeg 2.

Mpeg 2, good or not, is very used by many TV Broadcasters which do have a much larger audience than any specific video shown on vimeo or youtube.

I was using mpeg streamclip but, after installing mountain lion, I can see mpeg 2 videos but can't convert them using mpeg streamclip. I tried the beta version for mountain lion but it just doesn't work with mpeg 2.

Compressor, after mountain lion, also stopped accepting mpeg 2. I was managing to use the mpeg 2 files in final cut X and 7 but I had to go through a few time consuming steps and time is one thing I didn't have.

Today I just came across your post and decided to give it a try. I just couldn't believe the simplicity of the thing!

I will optmize the media but now my workflow will be much quicker. Thanks again, Jowie.

Not sure what your problem is but MPEG Streamclip does indeed work with Mountain Lion. It works with the beta version using the MPEG playback component, which you can download from Apple. Apple has never ignored the use if MPEG-2 and has components to encode MPEG-2 built into Compressor.

Hi 3arrows,

Glad you could take advantage of my findings. 🙂

The thing is, Apple isn't really ignoring MPEG-2, since MOD files are MPEG-2 format. For some reason, they've just not enabled import of files with the .mpeg file extension. Hopefully, like me, if you rename your files from .mpeg to .mod, they should import and work fine within FCPX.

MPEG Streamclip works for me in Mountain Lion, although the sound doesn't play through. However, it does appear to import and export all file formats without a problem. I get some video rendering issues in the GUI, but under the hood it appears to still function properly. I've been meaning to see if I could get the audio working again by reinstalling the MPEG-2 QuickTime Component, but I appear to have lost the original installer disk image, and I don't really want to buy it again. Then again, if it ain't broke (broadly speaking!)...

Thanks, Tom and Jowie. Mpeg Streamclip works in moutain lion but I can't convert mpeg 2 files. The screen goes blank and all I have is audio. It doesn't matter anymore because this MOD thing is just brilliant! Thanks again.

i guess its just a matter of Apple not wanting FCP X to be able to recognize any file type it cant preview in real time without transcoding but it does seem a bit silly, they should just have a warning on the ingest screen for these kinds of formats indicating a forced transcode. It is nice there is a way to force recognition since it is a more efficient workflow to have FCP handle the conversion. My 2 cents anyhow for what they are worth.

Hi, Tom. The workflow is very simple: I download mpg 2 files from a Broadcaster's site. I drag them to mpeg streamclip and convert to quicktime mov. After that I edit those files together with my camera files (quicktime mov) in final cut.

It was working just fine but after I upgraded to Mountain Lion I could not do that anymore.

I have mpeg component, I downloaded mpeg streamclip beta version and followed the instructions. I went to security to allow any application etc.

I just can't do what I was doing before. But, as I said before, it doesn't really matter anymore because the MOD option makes for a faster workflow what is absolutely essential for my job, which is news. I guess I could try Sorenson or Episode but not really.