How do I import an AVCHD file into Final Cut Pro 7.0.3

You need to use Log and Transfer - menu File > Log and Transfer - (not Log and Capture or Import) to bring in AVCHD files. The AVCHD files need to be in their original file structure (either off the camera media or off a complete copy of the card that included the entire card directory.

Log and Transfer will transcode the file to an FCP7 edit friendly format like ProRes.

The one exception to this is if the AVCHD files were shot at a higher frame rate than 29.97. 60P was not a standard AVCHD format at the time FCP7 was abandoned by Apple so support for that format was never implemented.

If you have 60p AVCHD material, you can use an application like Edit Ready to convert it to ProRes.

http://www.divergentmedia.com/editready

MtD

It is some coincidence to me that I spent about six hours yesterday trying to find the answer to this question and when I decided to ask on here, the very last question asked in this part of the site, is virtually the same.

I would like to point out that I have been using Final Cut Pro for about ten years and when I started shooting HD about four years ago, I learned somewhere, much to my frustration, that it was necessary to have footage converted by a third party application to ProRes 422 before being able to start work editing. As an example of how time consuming this is, I shot about 25 minutes in 109 clips on Friday and it took over 24 hours to convert using Toast. Because my camera shoots 50fps and I usually edit at 25fps, ClipWrap, the de facto standard application, is unsuitable.

Anyway, feeling frustrated and thinking that maybe, after four years since I bought my first Panasonic HD camcorder, there might be a new solution, I went on the hunt yesterday and was quite surprised to find that there was actually a process to import straight from the camera's card within Final Cut Pro 7, as mentioned by Meg The Dog; i.e. Log and Transfer. There are Apple articles about it and video tutorials explaining how simple it is and yes, it looks very simple. However, these articles and tutorials seem to have been written, at least in the most part, prior to the launch of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Articles on the subject written after this time focus on the fact that it is not possible to use Log and Transfer from an AVCHD SD card file structure because after the launch of OS X 10.8, the folders AVCHD and BDMV in the chain to get to the STREAM folder where the MTS (AVCHD) files are saved are seen by the Finder as QuickTime files. Final Cut Pro 7 cannot overcome this hurdle for some reason.

From what I can gather, there is full support for AVCHD within FCP7, there are numerous videos showing how to Log and Transfer AVCHD to Apple ProRes 422 within the application, the options and mechanism are all there but it is the operating system which broke this and for seemingly unfathomable reasons - who wants to double-click an AVCHD file and have it open as a QuickTime library with no discernible purpose?

If one extracts the content of the SD card by right-clicking one's way through the file structure, Final Cut Pro 7 can not recognise the files as AVCHD because apparently, the file structure is integral to the import process. Likewise, by changing the names of the AVCHD and BDMV files (thus converting them into folders) breaks the file structure too - so in these cases, either FCP 7 rejects the files or they appear in Log and Transfer as greyed out and any attempt to import them fails.

As a Mac user of 32 years, I cannot for the life of me get my head around this. I know Apple wanted to encourage editors to move to FCP X but even now, however many years later, everybody I know who used FCP 7 before the launch of FCP X (apart from one whose company made them change), most of whom are professionals, still uses FCP 7. To me, it looks like Apple have been deliberately making life difficult in order to force people into using FCP X but even after doing two full courses on FCP X, it seems a lot of hard work compared to FCP 7 and a simple tweak in OS X could save a lot of people a lot of time and frustration. I have a friend with a PC who can import AVCHD straight into Sony Vegas and scratches his head when I tell him that I have to spend hours converting files in an application that is supposedly industry standard - I saw a recently made Hollywood film (2015 or 2016 - I can't remember the title) but during the credits, it said it had been edited in Final Cut Pro 7. In just about every other respect, FCP 7 is fully functional and superior to the iMovie+ which is FCP X.