Final Cut Pro settings with AVCHD/RENDERING?

RunOverProducti · Jul 20, 2009

I'm getting a HMC150 soon, what my settings should be in FCP for best results? Does it take long to import(render) from AVCHD to FCP?

I was considering buying the JVC-HM100U because it records natively for FCP, but for the same price the HMC150 is a better camera with more recording options...

Is rendering that bad?

I'm using iMac and MacBook Pro, you can see my specs in my signature...

PS

lease reply in regards to this post, I find people sometimes replies with no real answer or no information in regards the thread.

bki122689 · Jul 20, 2009

RunOverProducti said:
I'm getting a HMC150 soon, what my settings should be in FCP for best results? Does it take long to import(render) from AVCHD to FCP?

I was considering buying the JVC-HM100U because it records natively for FCP, but for the same price the HMC150 is a better camera with more recording options...

Is rendering that bad?

I'm using iMac and MacBook Pro, you can see my specs in my signature...

PSlease reply in regards to this post, I find people sometimes replies with no real answer or no information in regards the thread.

I ran into this problem a few days ago with my Canon HG10 and could not figure it out.

I did some research and figured out that this is what you have to do. Drag the AVCHD to your computer harddrive. Then go into FCP and select file>log and transfer. After that FCP is supposedly suppose to do everything else.
Well that did not work for me. And I took the long route which also works.

I bought Toast 10 for $100 and then converted the .MTS files (the file name for AVCHD clips) into H.264. I selected an HD resolution and it looks great. Then I just imported it into FCP and it worked great.

bigbossbmb · Jul 20, 2009

FCP will convert the AVCHD to ProRes in the Log and Transfer window. You won't lose quality and it's an easy codec to edit.

CaptainChunk · Jul 20, 2009

I would avoid bringing H.264 video into FCP. It's not a suitable editing codec.

The L&T window in FCP will transfer the video off the camera and transcode it to ProRes, which is a proper codec for editing. The file sizes will be much larger, but frankly, external FW hard drives are cheap and because of that, space shouldn't be much of a concern.

If you decide to copy the camera video to a hard drive prior to transferring into FCP, make sure the folder/directory structure stays intact, otherwise L&T won't recognize the volume, forcing you to use a third-party app like VoltaicHD (which is a LOT slower).

LethalWolfe · Jul 20, 2009

Yeah, H.264 is a horrible codec to edit with and as long as you have fast enough drives (might need an external FW800 RAID depending on what you are doing) you'll be fine using ProRes.

Lethal

RunOverProducti · Jul 20, 2009

Thank you for replying guys, someone told me that it takes half the time of what you recorded to render, if you have 1 hour recorded, than it would take 30 minutes to render, is that somewhat true?

bki122689 · Jul 20, 2009

CaptainChunk said:
I would avoid bringing H.264 video into FCP. It's not a suitable editing codec.

The L&T window in FCP will transfer the video off the camera and transcode it to ProRes, which is a proper codec for editing. The file sizes will be much larger, but frankly, external FW hard drives are cheap and because of that, space shouldn't be much of a concern.

If you decide to copy the camera video to a hard drive prior to transferring into FCP, make sure the folder/directory structure stays intact, otherwise L&T won't recognize the volume, forcing you to use a third-party app like VoltaicHD (which is a LOT slower).

so how when I take the whole directory structure the AVCHD folder and copy to the desktop and then use L and T it still tells me it cannot recognize it. Am I doing something wrong?

foshizzle · Jul 20, 2009

In the L&T window, at least on FCE4.0, if you've mounted the drive via USB then you'll see everything there. Why would you want to move everything to your desktop?

L&T has a great feature - "Archive to Disk Image". If you right click on the disk image once you have it mounted via USB. Then, you can move this DMG anywhere you want, copy it, etc.. Then when you want to import into FC, double click the DMG to open it, then open L&T, wait a little while, and it will show up.

It's pretty simple. Mount the image either from USB or the DMG, wait for it to show up in FC, import.

bigbossbmb · Jul 20, 2009

RunOverProducti said:
Thank you for replying guys, someone told me that it takes half the time of what you recorded to render, if you have 1 hour recorded, than it would take 30 minutes to render, is that somewhat true?

completely depends on your computer... I would say a 20-30 minutes of transcoding per hour of footage is a best case scenario.

TheStrudel · Jul 20, 2009

Two thoughts:

To the guy who got Toast to convert with - I suggest looking into MPEG Streamclip instead. It's free, easy to use, and very quick for file conversions when you need them.

Secondly, H.264 in and of itself is not a bad format for editing. It's a codec! What you're thinking of is AVCHD, its consumer implementation. (AVC is an industry acronym for Advanced Video Coding, what they like to call H.264) Lots of the pro video folks are excited about the AVC-Intraframe compression scheme, which should be much better for editing than formats you may be used to.

Just thought I'd clear that up. So, yes, AVCHD is not a great format from the pro editing standpoint. H.264, however, has a lot of potential in its professional applications.

bigbossbmb · Jul 20, 2009

TheStrudel said:
Secondly, H.264 in and of itself is not a bad format for editing. It's a codec! What you're thinking of is AVCHD, its consumer implementation. (AVC is an industry acronym for Advanced Video Coding, what they like to call H.264) Lots of the pro video folks are excited about the AVC-Intraframe compression scheme, which should be much better for editing than formats you may be used to.

Just thought I'd clear that up. So, yes, AVCHD is not a great format from the pro editing standpoint. H.264, however, has a lot of potential in its professional applications.

AVC-intra is a great shooting codec, but it still isn't widely used for editing... a QT movie using h.264 is not meant for editing and should be converted to something with RT capable editing in FCP.

PhixionFilms · Jul 20, 2009

Wait, your buying an HMC150 and you dont know what settings you should use? Thats a whole lot of camera. Seems like you have allllloooott of learning to do.

RunOverProducti · Jul 21, 2009

PhixionFilms said:
Wait, your buying an HMC150 and you dont know what settings you should use? Thats a whole lot of camera. Seems like you have allllloooott of learning to do.

I'm ready

Courtaj · Jul 22, 2009

bki122689 said:
so how when I take the whole directory structure the AVCHD folder and copy to the desktop and then use L and T it still tells me it cannot recognize it. Am I doing something wrong?

Yes. FC is looking for a mounted drive. Use Disk Utility to make a disk image of the card. When the image is mounted, FC will behave as if your camcorder is mounted. Huzzah.

bki122689 · Jul 22, 2009

bigbossbmb said:
completely depends on your computer... I would say a 20-30 minutes of transcoding per hour of footage is a best case scenario.

TheStrudel said:
Two thoughts:

To the guy who got Toast to convert with - I suggest looking into MPEG Streamclip instead. It's free, easy to use, and very quick for file conversions when you need them.

Secondly, H.264 in and of itself is not a bad format for editing. It's a codec! What you're thinking of is AVCHD, its consumer implementation. (AVC is an industry acronym for Advanced Video Coding, what they like to call H.264) Lots of the pro video folks are excited about the AVC-Intraframe compression scheme, which should be much better for editing than formats you may be used to.

Just thought I'd clear that up. So, yes, AVCHD is not a great format from the pro editing standpoint. H.264, however, has a lot of potential in its professional applications.

Courtaj said:
Yes. FC is looking for a mounted drive. Use Disk Utility to make a disk image of the card. When the image is mounted, FC will behave as if your camcorder is mounted. Huzzah.

Thanks for the info. So when I plug the camera in and open L & T nothing happens. How long do I have to wait until it shows up? 20-30 minutes?

Courtaj · Jul 23, 2009

bki122689 said:
So when I plug the camera in and open L & T nothing happens. How long do I have to wait until it shows up? 20-30 minutes?

Should be pretty much instantaneous - it is in my experience. However, I never bother connecting the camcorder itself (a Panasonic SD9 in my case) - too many cables. Much easier is to eject the memory card and use a USB card reader.

bearcatrp · Jul 23, 2009

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