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.mts conversion jittery video issue for FCPX

N

New2012MacForMe

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 26, 2012
57
0
Just picked up the new iMac i7, 16gb, 2gb video card and Final Cut Pro X. It flys! The issue I'm having is the age-old jittery .mts or .m2ts files from my Sony camcorder. I know I need to convert them in order to have FCP able to import, but what do I convert to? I've tried every format I can think of and the only one that results in a file that is not jittery is .mpg. I'm afraid the quality of the file suffers though and then the final post-edited output wont be that great. I am using Pavvtube, which converts superfast to just about any format. I thought I could simply convert the files to Prores 422, but the resulting file imported into FCP is choppy and it doesn't fix itself after exporting the final edited file.

I purchased this setup (my first Mac) just so I could have no issues editing this kind of stuff, but so far, nothing but problems. I know it's likely something I am doing wrong, but so far, I am at a loss!

Can anyone steer me in the right direction? Thanks.
 
You have added an unnecessary step which is your problem. Connect the camcorder to your iMac via Firewire (since your Sony has it and does not have Thunderbolt) and let FCPX import whatever files you want. There will be no issues. FCPX will recognize the files and import them.
 
Ok, I'll try that, but I don't think my new iMac has a Firewire connection any longer. I assume there is some kind of adapter (maybe to thunderbolt?). I'll look into it and post back the results. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
 
Ok, tried it and it works great! My original question still stands though as I have a bunch of old video that had been previously pulled off the camera onto an external hard drive in anticipation of doing some editing that I never got around to until now. As per my original post, how can I get this into FCPX without losing any quality and without having a jittery video? As mentioned, the only way I have been successful is to convert it to .mpg = no jitters, but lower quality file. Any other ideas? Thanks.
 
If teh video is in the original files (even if they have been copied onto an external harddrive), FCPX will read them and import them perfectly. There are some FCPX 'experts' who write books about the subject and state that before importing files from a AVCHD camera, that one transfer all of the files, the entire disk, onto a drive. In my experienec this has not been necessary or even worthwhile because my 2009 Mac Pro recognizes the files on the card and imports them.
 
When I try to access the .mts or .m2ts files on the external hard drive within FCPX, the files are greyed out. It won't let me select them. Everything I have read so far indicates that I have to convert these to a format the FCPX will recognize to import.
 
New2012MacForMe said:
When I try to access the .mts or .m2ts files on the external hard drive within FCPX, the files are greyed out. It won't let me select them. Everything I have read so far indicates that I have to convert these to a format the FCPX will recognize to import.
Click to expand...

That is correct, but with the application I linked to with the second link, no transcoding is involved, though even the guide I linked to has the first steps only showing you how to rewrap the MTS to an acceptable format for FCP X.
 
I spoke too soon... I tried running through this and it really didn't get me anywhere. The best solution I can come up with is to convert the original HD files to .mp4. They import fine and are quite good quality. Now I have a new problem though. When I import it into FCPX and start editing it, the playback is not smooth - in fact I can't really do a proper edit since it's too choppy to see how I did during playback. It starts playing back fine and then a couple of seconds in, it starts to go choppy. If I stop playback and move forward to a new part of the video and playback again, it will once again playback fine for a few seconds and then go choppy. How can I solve this so once it's imported it plays back smooth. Does it need to get rendered before editing - if so how? Or do I need to do something with Compressor - once again, if so how? Thanks again for anyone taking the time to respond. It's very frustrating as I have about 6 hours of video that I really need to rescue and get started editing a final product. Thanks.
 
New2012MacForMe said:
I spoke too soon... I tried running through this and it really didn't get me anywhere. The best solution I can come up with is to convert the original HD files to .mp4. They import fine and are quite good quality. Now I have a new problem though. When I import it into FCPX and start editing it, the playback is not smooth - in fact I can't really do a proper edit since it's too choppy to see how I did during playback. It starts playing back fine and then a couple of seconds in, it starts to go choppy. If I stop playback and move forward to a new part of the video and playback again, it will once again playback fine for a few seconds and then go choppy. How can I solve this so once it's imported it plays back smooth. Does it need to get rendered before editing - if so how? Or do I need to do something with Compressor - once again, if so how? Thanks again for anyone taking the time to respond. It's very frustrating as I have about 6 hours of video that I really need to rescue and get started editing a final product. Thanks.
Click to expand...

What did you try? The guide (1st link) or the ContainerSwitcher application by floh (second link)?

When importing the MP4, did you select to optimize the video (meaning it is transcoded into a proper editing format)?


Video Compression
Why It Matters & How To Make The Most Of It
 
I followed the second link. The first one seemed a little complex (I'm fairly new to this). When I imported the mp4 video I did not select anything about optimizing. How do I do that? I assume you mean within the FCPX application itself. Is there something I can select to do that?
 
New2012MacForMe said:
I followed the second link. The first one seemed a little complex (I'm fairly new to this). When I imported the mp4 video I did not select anything about optimizing. How do I do that? I assume you mean within the FCPX application itself. Is there something I can select to do that?
Click to expand...

29z7qcp.png
 
Ok, I'll try importing my .mp4's converted from high def .m2ts as optimized tonight and see if I can edit without jitters. Thanks again. Helpful youtube video by the way.
 
Ok, that did the trick. I thought it was something simple. Looks like I have lots to learn about this new app. Thanks so much!
 
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