How can I edit 3D movies from Sony HDR-TD10 on Final Cut Pro X?

The Sony HDR-TD10 3D camcorder has been superceded by the Sony HDR-TD20V 3D camcorder (http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&searchT ype=search&storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&productId=8198552921666415426). I seriously doubt that the Sony HDR-TD10 was a "commercial disaster" for Sony in as much as the HDR-TD10 was sold out for almost two months after it was intitially introduced in the U.S. in May 2011. It also makes no sense that Sony woudl have introduced a smaller (but otherwise virtually identical) 3D camcorder in the TD20 if the TD10 had been a commercial disaster. You will find that the Sony HDR-TD10 and TD20 are highly regarded by users who post on the AVS 3D Source Components Forum (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=192).

The format in which the Sony HDR-TD10 and 20 capture 1080p 3D footage, the MVC format, is basically a version of the AVCHD format used by most consumer camcorders although since the HDR-TD10 and 20 are 3D camcorders they capture two streams of 1080p with one stream being the full 1080p image and the other being the difference between the left and right eye. It is true that editing 3D footage requires a reasonably powerful computer with a good graphics card, but this is true for editing AVCHD footage as well.

Apple has, to date, chosen not to support 3D in any shape or form, and this is unfortunate. I am viewing Blu-ray 3D videos captured by my Sony HDR-TD10 on a Sony VPL-VW95ES 3D capbable projector displaying the image on a 100 in. wide screen. The 3D footage is incredibly detailed, with beautiful colors and a sense of depth that only 3D footage can give. I have found the 3D footage shot by the TD10 to be very close in quality to the footage of commercially recorded 3D Blu-ray discs which use the same MVC format.

It is unfortunate that Apple has chosen to ignore 3D, and I am hopeful that this will change in the future. The present situation with Apple and 3D is similar to Apple's stance with Blu-ray itself, which has been basically to fail to support Blu-ray at all in OS X. Fortunately for those of us who recognize that Blu-ray is the present gold standard of video quality and use Macs third party vendors have stepped in to make up for Apple's failure to incorporte support for Blu-ray. I regret to say that in the case of 3D support for the MVC format on Macs third party vendors have not yet addressed this deficiency. I am hopeful that this, too, will change in the future.

Tom

You wil be able to do most of the things that you listed in editing HDR-TD10 footage with Cyberlink's Power Director 10 software and you will be able to do all of the things you listed with the more expensive and more professional Sony Vegas Pro 11 software. However, both of these pieces of software are Windows only and will not run on a Mac unless you install Windows and run them under Boot Camp. They will not run properly using any type of virtual machine such as Parallels. Unfortunately, at present there is no video editing software that will allow editing MVC format footage on a Mac. I am hopeful that this will change in the future.

Tom