I own one of those 1080p 60fps camcorders from Panasonic. They also include 5.1 Dolby Digital capture. If the 60fps and the DD5.1 is important to preserve in the final (output) file, you pretty much want to use a workflow that uses FCP X instead of iMovie. iMovie is just not up to (that) task.
Here's the best workflow that seems to work for me:
- As described earlier in this thread copy all of the files on the camcorder hard drive into a folder on your Mac. This can be an external drive. The important part is preserving all of the files (not just the video files themselves). I use Chronosync for this task as it will simply synch what has changed since the last link between camcorder and computer. I'll also mention that HD video files are huge so anyone planning to get good use out of their camcorder should be thinking about external (BIG) storage and a backup.
- Buy Clipwrap. Use the option to rewrap to ProRes 422. This is the best way to import >30fps camcorder video into FCP X in a reliable way. Note: don't be tempted into the Clipwrap option of joining video files as I've found that this will make the audio stream be out of sync. If you want to merge multiple video files into a single group, do that in FCP X.
- If you have Perian installed, switch the audio output option to "Multi-Channel Output" or Clipwrap will yield only stereo audio in those ProRes files. This is a vital step if you want to preserve DD5.1 in the final output.
- You'll need big storage space for ProRes. A general rule of thumb is that it will take about 10X the amount of space shown via "Get Info" of the raw AVCHD video files. Of course, it may work out that you only need to preserve the ProRes version until you render the final file (and check it). Once you are happy with the end result, you can go back and delete the ProRes files if you won't need to work on that project anymore (but, of course, keep the original AVCHD files in case you may someday need to come back to the masters).
- Avoid USB connections for this "scratch disc" unless you don't mind longer waits for read/writes and (spinning beach ball) editing in FCP X. Curiously, firewire 800 raid seems pretty fast and doesn't cost as much as Thunderbolt solutions.
- Import the clipwrapped ProRes files into FCP X and edit them to taste
- Render them out of FCP X as a ProRes Quicktime file. It will be a LARGE file.
- Now here's where you can branch from an all-Apple workflow. If Chapter markers are important, you can either add chapter markers in Compressor or use various other methods to add Chapters to the FCP X ProRes render (my favorite is a program called QTMarker but there are others).
- I use Handbrake to process that ProRes render (with Chapter markers) down to a compressed (.m4v) H.264 with DD5.1. Since my target is TV3, I just use the high profile preset in Handbrake and this works very well.
- If you want to stick with an all-Apple process, you can go from FCP-X to various software but the typical flow is to Compressor. Compressor has a lot of features but it seems very slow relative to Handbrake renders (we're talking tens of hours vs. hours or hours vs. minutes differences).
The only issue with my own workflow is that sometimes Handbrake appears to choke on the conversion. This happens in maybe 1 out of every 20 files. I end up with a video file as if everything is OK but when I open the file in Quicktime only some of the video (but all of the audio) is there. When it gets to the video cutoff point, the sound continues but no picture. So the added step is to check the file after the Handbrake render. A simple check is to open it in Quicktime 7, Window (menu), "Show Movie Properties". If the video track duration is the same as the sound track all is good. For the problematic renders, the video track will be meaningfully less than the sound track durations. For these latter problem files, I run them through Compressor (and just wait out their render that way).
Compressor does a good job on it's output (too) but I just prefer Handbrake for the much greater speed at converting from the FCP X output to an
TV file.
Lastly, if you want to preserve the 60fps, a render for
TV3 won't do that. So what I've been doing is choosing "high profile" (preset) for the initial master render (preserving the 60fps) and then a second render by changing the fps rate to 29.97 for the "high profile" render for
TV. Yes, I end up with 2 copies of the movie but I hope that someday we'll get an
TV that can handle frame rates other than 30fps. If you don't care about preserving a 60fps master, you can save the time by only rendering the 29.97 frame rate. Note (for maximum picture quality) both of these renders are from the ProRes file, not rendering the 60fps and then feeding that render back into Handbrake for the 29.97fps version (you never want to compress, decompress, compress again if at all possible).