Continue reading »]]> No matter you are using Final Cut Pro 7 or Final Cut Pro X, you may more or less face some problems when trying to import and edit AVCHD files in the Apple professional editing software. Some may be related to the importing clips, editing like effects and transitions, and rendering, etc. Here we focus on importing AVCHD to FCP 7, and rendering.

Question: My new Sony CX190 can’t connect to Final Cut Pro 7 HD.

Answer: Sony CX190 shots videos in AVCHD folder, you say you can’t view it, I guess you are using Mac OS X 10.8, as on this new mountain lion system, AVCHD is showed as a file not a folder, so you may can’t view the file via FCP 7. There are two ways, first just rename the AVCHD fodler to AVCHD.mts, then rename the BDMV folder to BDMV.mts, it will let you see the mts files under it forever. Second, you can use a AVCHD converter to help you convert Sony CX190 AVCHD to FCP 7 preferred ProRes MOV, then you will have no problem to import it into FCP 7. The converter I am using is a converter for Pavtube, you can google Pavtube Sony AVCHD Converter for Mac, then you will find the free trail. In addition, the Converter supports batch conversion, so you are allowed to add multiple files to convert at a time.

Here I will share my experience: How to convert Sony CX190 AVCHD to ProRes MOV for importing to Final Cut Pro 7 on Mac(include Mac OS X Leopard 10.5, Snow Leopard 10.6, Lion 10.7, Mountain Lion 10.8).

Step 1. Connect your Sony HDR-CX190 to your Apple with USB2.0. Install and launch the best Sony AVCHD Converter for FCP 7. When its main interface comes up, click “Add video”/ “Add from folder” to input AVCHD source files captured by your Sony CX190 camera. You can tick the box in front of the file you want to convert. If you are Mac 10.8 users, you can load directly from your camera or from a file folder that contains your source files that stored on your Mac computer.

Tips: 

• 1. If you have multiple 1080/60p MTS/M2TS files, you can select the “Merge into one” box to merge the files into one single file for FCP 7 so that you can play these files without interruption.
• 2. If you intend to split long video for uploading to website, such as YouTube, please select the Split.

Step 2. Go to “Format” menu and choose an output format depending on the editing application you are using. For FCP 7 users, I recommend “Format > Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov) or Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) (.*mov)” as output if you mainly forcus on the HQ quality. But you should know that the AVCHD file is a highly compressed and the AVCHD to ProRes conversion will make the imported files bigger than the originals. If you want a smaller ingested file, ProRes 422(Proxy) and ProRes 422(LT) are the right options for 480i,p and 576i,p shootings. Then you can set the output folder by clicking “Browse” icon as you need.

Step 3. Click the “Settings” icon and you will go into a new interface named “Profile Settings”. You’d better set the video frame rate as 30fps, video size as 1920*1080 to keep the best video quality for editing Sony HDR-CX190 recording file in Final Cut Pro.

Tips:

• 1. If you want a HD converted video in a relatively smaller size but keep the good quality, you can set the video size as 1440*1080 or 1280*720.
• 2. If the original files are shot in 60p, please choose 30 fps as frame rate while 25 fps for 50p files.

Step 4. Click “Edit” and you will go to the “Video Editor”. Then click “Effect” and select “deinterlacing”, then you can Deinterlace the Sony HDR-CX190 shootage on Mac.

Step 5. Click the “Convert” button under preview window to export Apple ProRes MOV files for Final Cut Pro 7. You can find the process in the “Conversion” interface.

Tips:

• 1. If you converted AVCHD  to ProRes for FCP X and got files with sounds only, but no video, you may try to download Apple ProRes codec and convert the videos again.
• 2. If you are using FCP 5 or below on Mac, you can convert AVCHD files to MOV with Apple InterMediate Codec for high quality editing with AVCHD Video Converter.

Once the conversion finished, click “Open” button to get the generated Apple ProRes 422 MOV files.

How to import the converted Canon C100 AVCHD clips to Final Cut Pro (X) for further editing?

Launch Final Cut Pro 7, choose “File > Import > Files…”, and browse to where you save the converted AVCHD clips to. Choose the videos that you’d like to add.

• Read More: How to Import the converted AVCHD to Final Cut Pro 7?

Here is a problem from CreativeCow.net:

“I want to be able to burn all my projects from FCP 7 on a DVD”

If you have a similar problem, don’t worry. I will share some easy steps, pls refer to my old article, as follows:

• How to Free Burn projects from Final Cut Pro 7 to DVD on Mac

Hope my experience helps you.

Continue reading »]]> Summary: Get the best AVCHD to Final Cut Converter for Mac to encode/recode Sony NEX-FS100 1080 50p/60p AVCHD files to Final Cut Pro 7 or FCP X compatible codec for importing FS100 AVCHD clips to Final Cut Pro 7 without log and transfer on Mac.

Here is a problem from vimeo:

“I bought Sony FS100 in half a month ago and recorded some family videos in my FS100. Now, i am importing some mts files i shoot, but when I go to the log and transfer window some files are not recognized but Final Cut Pro 7. I think they were shot in 1920 (60 fps) Any option how to see them in FCP 7? Thanks”

Sony NEX-FS100 camcorder records AVCHD format video, and it uses MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 codec, this codec is not good for editing in FCP 7, so you will encounter importing and codec problems when you try to import FS100 1080/60p MTS to FCP 7/X or iMovie.

In fact, FCP 7 is not a omnipotent Video Editor, 1080p/50p or 1080p/60p is unsupported in FCP 7 and even the new FCP X, because it is a very non-standard format. Plus, AVCHD is not a good edit format for Final Cut Pro, its best compatible video format is Apple ProRes 422 Codec(*.mov). It means you have to convert Sony FS100 1080/60p AVCHD to ProRes codec no matter for FCP 7 or FCP X first. Use Pavtube Mac MTS/M2TS Converter for best lossless .mts to .mov conversion…(as far as I know) and select destination .mov ProRes 422 for importing Sony FS100 AVCHD footage to FCP without Log and Transfer. That works great for me. Here, I will share my way about how to transcode FS100 recordings to ProRes 422 for FCP 7 or FCP X on your Mac OS X.

Important Notice:

1. If you shoot 30p (or 24p), you won’t have a problem with Log and Transfer.

2. If you are also a FCP X user, before you try to do the conversion, don’t forget to make sure that you have installed the Apple ProRes Codec manually since the FCP X asks users to install it by themselves.

Step 1. Go to download and install Pavtube Sony FS100 AVCHD to FCP Converter for Mac to make the transcoding task without quality loss, which offers you particular Apple ProRes profiles for Final Cut Pro. Then launch the software to import your FS100 AVCHD clips to the professional AVCHD to FCP 7 Converter for Mac.

Step 2. Click on the “Format” box to select “Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422(*.mov)” as the output format. If you want to get the best video quality for editing in FCP 7 or FCP X, you can choose “Final Cut Pro > ProRes 422 (HQ) (*.mov)”.

Step 3. You can click the “Settings” icon to do some audio/video settings before transcoding Sony FS100 1080 50p/60p AVCHD to Apple ProRes MOV. We recommend 1920*1080 as video size and 30fps as video bitrate for easier editing in Final Cut Pro. If you are in PAL(50p) area, you are recommended 25fps as video bitrate.

Step 4. You can edit the MTS video before you convert Sony FS100 AVCHD MTS to ProRes MOV. By clicking “” button, you can trim, crop the video, or add watermark and adjust effect to the videos which you will convert.

De-interlace

By default the HD Video Converter will apply de-interlacing facility to all the MTS clips that are interlaced. If you’re using an older version, just click “Edit” to enter the video editor, switch to “Effect” tab, and check the “Deinterlacing” box. If you’d like to apply de-interlacing effect to all the loaded MTS files, click “Apply to All” before hitting “OK” to confirm.

Trim

Basically, video hosting sites restrict video clips to be in certain file size and length. For instance, YouTube stated that “videos can be up to 2GB in size and 10 minutes long”. You can trim the video to desired length with the Pavtube HD Video Converter. Simply click “Edit” menu > “Trim” tab and set start and end time point.

Merge

To join multiple MTS together, just select them in file list, and tick off the checkbox “Merge into one file” on the main interface.

Step 5. Click the small folder icon next to Output bar to specify a location for saving the converted Sony FS100 MTS files.

Step 6. Click on “Convert” button to start encoding FS100 1080 50p/60p MTS to ProRes 422 mov or ProRes 422 (HQ) mov. The converter supports batch conversion and will convert all the selected files in file list once you click “Convert”. You could select “Shut down computer after conversion” when the progress panel pops up.

After the conversion,  click the “Open” button to locate converted files, then load ProRes .MOV files in FCP 7 or FCP X. Now you can successfully and easily import Sony NEX-FS100 1080 60p/50p MTS footage to FCP 7 or FCP X for editing with best quality.

The steps are finished. Is it easy? Once you have installed the Sony AVCHD to FCP X Converter, you can easily convert Sony FS100 files to FCP 7/X for editing, this software runs fast, so you can convert your FS100 footages to FCP in less time, video and audio synchronization are perfectly guaranteed, and you can use accurate trim function when you edit Sony AVCHD video in the software before conversion.

When the conversion process shows in 100% with the top AVCHD to ProRes Converter Mac, you can edit the converted Sony NEX-FS100 AVCHD videos in FCP 7/FCP X without any problems.

Tips:

1. If you want to import Sony FS100 AVCHD to iMovie or FCE for editing on Mac, only need to change the Step 2: click “Format > iMovie and Final Cut Express > Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) (*.mov)” as the output format for encoding FS100 AVCHD MTS to AIC MOV for iMovie/FCE editing on Mac, you can view “Convert AVCHD MTS to AIC on Mac“.

2. If you want to  import Sony FS100 AVCHD to Avid Media Composer, only need to change the Step 2: click “Format > Avid Media Composer > Avid DNxHD (*.mov)” as the compatible format for Avid MC, then you can recode Sony NEX-FS100 AVCHD to AIC MOV for editing in Avid Media Composer. In addition, you can also view “Avid Media Composer category“.

3. Learn more at MTS Column.