Questions - avchd / mp4 and iMovie / FCPX

Open FPX. There is an option to import from a iMovie data base.

By default the iMovie data base is stored in you user movie folder, named iMovie Library

I just use FCP to import from my cannon's SD card. Dunno what formats are used

 

If you don't give your import a name, iMovie defaults to the date of import as the File name.

Can you not navigate through the camera's card to the files?

 

AVCHD files appear within Finder as a single package. There are individual files inside that package but it's best to not remove them. For details see this video "Codecs and Containers": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpBjGUlBTHU

MP4 is about the same quality but the files may be easier to deal with at the Finder level. At certain bit rates the space consumption may be a little higher.

FCP X handles AVCHD very well and you can import directly from either the camera card or the file package if you copied that to your hard drive.

In general I'd recommend using MP4 as the files are easier to deal with at the Finder level.

After importing from the camera you should back up either those video files or ideally your entire system. With MP4 the files are discretely viewable so it's easier to verify any file copies with Finder or a 3rd party tool like Beyond Compare.

 

when you say "can it be compared to 1080p?" you're confusing codec with resolution. 1080p only stands for 1920x1080 progressive. it is not a "format" per se.

 

That is expected behavior. The entire AVCHD folder tree should be kept together, so OS X is trying to protect you by showing it as a monolithic package. As a stopgap concession, Quicktime was upgraded to show the clips within the AVCHD package, but it's slow and clunky.

On Windows you can see the individual .MTS files within the AVCHD folder but this leads people to drag them out which is not a good idea.

There's nothing wrong with that, in fact it's a good idea. However you have to drag/drop the entire AVCHD folder. Since it only has one name -- AVCHD -- if you have multiples you must put them in separate sub-folders. Yet another pain.

Either from the AVCHD folder on the camera card or after you drag that to your Mac, individual clips can be imported to FCP X. The FCP X import dialog understands the AVCHD package and lets you pick one or all clips.

If you don't select "create optimize media", I don't recollect whether AVCHD is transcoded on import or not. In general recent versions of FCP X on a recent iMac can edit camera native files with decent performance so transcoding to optimized media is not usually necessary.

Yes after importing they are stored in the FCP X library. You don't have the option to "leave in place" with AVCHD -- yet another headache.

This varies from camera to camera. For yours there are almost no advantages. AVCHD is slightly more space efficient and the camera has a "baby mode" only available in AVCHD, but I don't think that does much.

It's much better to just set the camera for MP4 and use that. It will record 1080p using MP4. If you have any concerns, shoot a test clip with AVCHD and MP4, download to your Mac and examine for any visual differences on playback.

Existing AVCHD files can be "re-wrapped" to MOV via the $50 utility ClipWrap: http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap I think there are some free utilities that may also do this, but I use ClipWrap on the rare occasions I need it.

 

RewrapAVCHD is free:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39800/rewrapavchd