FCE4 - Does it import 1920x1080?

[Courtaj]

My searches have turned up inconclusive information on this. Does anyone know for sure (or can point me to a support website with the answer) whether Final Cut Express now supports 1920x1080 import?

Thanks,
Andrew.

 

[Cousin Dirk]

From Apple's Final Cut Express pages:

Final Cut Express supports both standard-definition DV and high-definition 1080i and 720p HDV.

I'm still a bit flaky on the whole 1080i vs 1080p thing, but I think that FCE will certainly import full resolution HD.

 

[Courtaj]

Thanks. I should have mentioned I'd read what Apple had to say on the subject themselves: and note that saying "supports 1080i" is not quite the same as saying "supports 1920x1080."

I was under the impression that when FCE4 was released last year with all the attendant AVCHD support fanfare, there were not only compatibility issues with (some) AVCHD cameras prior to the QT 7.5 update this July (which was fair enough since it's hardly Apple's fault that AVCHD implementations seem to differ slightly from one camera to the next), but that where Apple said "supports 1920x1080" what they meant was "transcodes to 1440x1080". Moreover there have also been complaints about the log and transfer tool, with FCE crashing when attempting to preview clips during AVCHD -> AIC transfer.

The bottom line is that there still appears to be some debate about whether FCE4 actually imports 1920x1080 without downrezing. That's the main issue for me. I don't want to import with iMovie in order to get full rez AVCHD -> AIC conversion (and whether even iMovie does true 1920x1080 still seems to be a moot point).

Can anyone say definitively whether FCE4 will deliver?

 

[LethalWolfe]

AFAIK AIC is 1440x1080 when importing 1080 material and 1280x720 when importing 720p material. While full raster all the way around would be better, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Considering all of the other short comings of a consumer camera recording in AVCHD the conversion to AIC won't be the biggest kick in the nuts to image quality.


Lethal

 

[Courtaj]

You're right, the old adage "poo in, poo out" applies here as everywhere, but it'd still be nice to put a lid on the stink.

EDIT
And indeed this (from http://www.mac404.net/?p=369) suggests that a lid is available:

Apple updates Final Cut Express, ships Quicktime ProRes update
By homerj on Aug 29, 2008

Apple today updated its nonlinear video editing software Final Cut Express to version 4.0.1. The update addressed an issue with permissions in Leopard, which caused FCE to occasionally fail to open projects that contained clips the user did not have proper permission for. The update now opens the projects correctly.

They also added a number of Easy Setup’s to make ingesting AVCHD video easier. These include

AVCHD-Apple Intermediate Codec 1440×1080i60
AVCHD-Apple Intermediate Codec 1440×1080i50
AVCHD-Apple Intermediate Codec 1920×1080i60
AVCHD-Apple Intermediate Codec 1920×1080i50
The additional Easy Setup’s mean you no longer have to use the HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec to ingest AVCHD content

 

[NRose8989]

I don't have any hard data about this but I do know that...

My HF10 outputs 1920x1080i (regardless if it shoots in 60i,30p,24p)

and my sequence settings in FCE 4 is "AVCHD-Apple intermediate codec-1920x1080i60"

So I'm not sure what really happens during log and transfer but I'm going to assuming that it does use full 1920 x 1080 because when I export, then open the video in QT, then look at the video properties, it say "1920x1080"

EDIT: looks like you beat me to it....

 

[ChrisA]

My searches have turned up inconclusive information on this. Does anyone know for sure (or can point me to a support website with the answer) whether Final Cut Express now supports 1920x1080 import?

Thanks,
Andrew.

The entire FCE User Manual is available on-line in PDF format. Look on Apple's support web site.

 

[Courtaj]

Thanks. I've looked through it but it doesn't provide a definite answer as far as I can see.

 

[foshizzle]

yes it does!

I shoot with a canon HF-10 and below is the screen shot of my import and the timeline settings using FCE4 (after the latest update that makes it 100 times better to edit this footage).
(footage was from a Biden rally here last week. My dad was invited to do the invocation, hence the clip titles).