AVCHD Workflow

[saxondale.]

hey guys

i'm working with some .mts files and using final cut pro's log and transfer to convert it into a more avid friendly file; the thing is, the file sizes are 8x bigger than the originals. how would i go about maintaining quality (well, the best possible) but keep the file sizes as small as possible?

 

[spinnerlys]

As you seem to have access to FCP and Avid MC, you should know, that editing applications don't like compressed footage, except when you edit with low resolution proxies like 10:1 or others for HD content.

AVCHD uses the H264 codec, which is only meant for content distribution, so Avid has to convert the footage to DNxHD and FCP to ProRes.

If you have an Avid on your Mac copy the following line into your Safari window to open the help file on DNxHD compression rates.
file:///Applications/Avid%20Media%20Composer/Help/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=MCHelp&file=Resolutions_Advanced.53.6.html#2501316

I don't know why you use FCP though, but I'm not that fluent in AVCHD as it is too compressed footage anyway.

Have you taken a look at Voltaic?

 

[saxondale.]

I do have VoltaicHD but for some reason i was told to use FCP's log and transfer. Avid MC 4 doesn't read .mts files right? If that's the case, what would be the best format to get the footage into MC whilst keeping file sizes pretty low?

Sorry, the computer i'm on can't access that link.

 

[spinnerlys]

I do have VoltaicHD but for some reason i was told to use FCP's log and transfer. Avid MC 4 doesn't read .mts files right? If that's the case, what would be the best format to get the footage into MC whilst keeping file sizes pretty low?

Sorry, the computer i'm on can't access that link.

I don't know about FCP's log and transfer for using it to access, but you can use the Avid MC forum for finding help.
Here is a link to one thread about it.
http://cstest.avid.com/forums/p/76300/426515.aspx

Screenshots from the help:

Why and by whom where you told to use FCP anyway? Not every Avid user has FCP with them.

 

[saxondale.]

Thanks for that. I'm interning at a production company and they haven't really worked with AVCHD footage before, so they don't know the workflow for it. One of them was told to use FCP log and transfer, so he just relayed that message onto me.

 

[bigbossbmb]

We've run into this problem on the shows I work on that are Avid based... What we ended up doing was Log&Transfer the AVC, lay off to DVCProHD tape (our main shooting format), and then digitize the tapes into the Avid.

I then told my Post-Sup to never allow our camera guys to shoot AVC again....

The only other option would be to Log&Transfer to ProRes (regular or LT) and then batch convert to DNxHD (145Mb/s version).

 

[saxondale.]

how do you get it to log & transfer into pro res? does it do it according to your sequence settings?

 

[spinnerlys]

how do you get it to log & transfer into pro res? does it do it according to your sequence settings?

Open Log & Transfer window (CMD+8) and go to the Preferences on the Action Menu icon.
There you can change the codec your footage gets transcoded to.

http://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=25&section=1&tasks=true
Beware, this official Apple help document seems to get Safari to halt a while.


Strangely the same information, or the one about the Log & Transfer window can be found in the FCP 7 help, but no content is displayed.