FCE Quality Loss of Video when placed in Timeline

Hey everyone, I'm fairly new to editing with HD formats. I currently am using a Panasonic HDC-TM700. Here is my problem:

I'm using Final Cut Express and have converted the raw .MTS files (from my camera) to HD .mp4 files with HD H.264 codec using iSkysoft Video Converter. I've tried multiple formats as well. Whichever format I have, the video shows on my preview pane within FCE as the quality that it was shot in without any loss (that I can notice). But, when I put it on the timeline and render it, there is noticeable quality loss.

I'm not sure what's going on, could someone please shed some light or point me in the right direction?

Thank you ahead of time!

LethalWolfe said:

First off you shouldn't be using MP4 w/FCE. AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) is you only alternative, IIRC. Secondly, what are the settings of the sequence you are dropping the clip into?

Click to expand...

I believe I'm using AIC now after logging and transferring the footage right from the camera. For some reason when I first tried this it wasn't recognizing the camera but I got it to do it somehow now..

But now, I'm still getting the same result. The quality looks beautiful in the preview pane, but once it touches the timeline the quality is hacked down.

I'm new to FCE, so the settings would be found in Sequence -> Settings correct?

I've included images below for you to see the comparison and also my Sequence Settings.





I'm a noobie so I would really appreciate help in trying to understand how to edit my footage to it's full quality potential! Thank you.

martinX, thank you so much! This was extremely helpful. Everything seems to be working fine, although I have a somewhat related question:

I'm trying to log/transfer video but it will only read my camera memory and not the SD memory inside the camera. Is this typical or is there a way around it?

When I try to create a path to the SD card in the camera, it just says, "AVCHD" contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media."

Any ideas?