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.mts (AVCHD) pains me
I have read enough on here in regards to AVCHD files in FCPX.
I have a client with major issues and the clips are average 10 min in length.
Beach balling constantly on both nMac and 5K iMac.
I manage to (took way too long) to convert them all to Optimize/Proxy.
I haven’t sat down and looked at it yet but what are most doing with their workflow when they receive this format?
I’m 99% RED eco in my facility.
Never ever ran into anything so slow in my life.
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21 Replies
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They are a pain for me too. Iv’e had less issues when I have FCP X rewrap them using the import window. It’s only spanned files that aren’t Red that I do this for. Otherwise I just drag and drop.
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What camera are the AVCHD files from?
I edit AVCHD from my Sony camera without any problems on my Mid 2012 MacBook Pro, 2.3Ghz Intel Core i7, 16GB Memory, GeForce GT 350M, all the time. My source libraries are usually on an external USB 3.0 drive and I never create optimized media or proxies. I just edit the native AVCHD files as smooth as butter.
I always create Camera Archives from my camera cards and import from the archives. Never had any problems.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
[John Rofrano] “I edit AVCHD from my Sony camera without any problems “
John I believe you cause I have other colleagues that dont run into this issue.
However it equals others that have so its never an exact science.
I dont know the specs other than it was shot in HD.
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[John Rofrano] “I always create Camera Archives from my camera cards and import from the archives. Never had any problems.”
This is the best way to go if you have the camera cards and aren’t handed a drive with copied card media. (Forgot to say this)
It’s the best of both worlds, native card structure is preserved in case, and the rewrapped QT files work great in FCP X.
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I think it would be fair to say that FCPX is at its best with ProRes so the best workflow is always going to be to get your source files to ProRes asap. If I choose not to do that for whatever reason, I generally rewrap the AVCHD files using Editready before I bring them into FCPX.
Can’t say that Editready does anything different to FCPX in the rewrapping process but I personally feel like the footage plays better out of It.
(For some reason I can\’t edit my own posts so apologies in advance for the stupid mistakes and bad English that I can\’t go back and fix)
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Melbourne, Australia | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
I just finished a project and had the exact same experience. I’d love to see if someone can offer any tips.
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[Jeff Kirkland] “Can’t say that Editready does anything different to FCPX in the rewrapping process but I personally feel like the footage plays better out of It.”
Hi Jeff,
Since the last pro video formats update the FCP X rewrapped MXF files have been working great. Before that the Sony and Canon files were crazymaking. Relinking was a major pain, now it’s as fast as ProRes.
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I suggest NEVER dragging the files directly off the card. Always (if you can) import directly from the camera or card. This allows FCPX to rewrap the files as .mov in the process, whereafter you can move the files around in whatever way you wish. (I even recommend using FCPX for import to an external library if you’re using Premiere or Avid, as then you’ll have standalone files, as opposed to the half-(_|_)’d way Prelude does it.
If your client hands you a drive with the files copied off the SD/CF card, then you just have to live with the pain (or ask for the original card…or get someone at their facility to do the DIT before they hand over the drive…or find a program that does the transcoding faster–I’m thinking of MPEG Streamclip, but that’s defunct now).
Christopher New
Dallas Center, IA -
[Doug Suiter] “I just finished a project and had the exact same experience. I’d love to see if someone can offer any tips.
“A no brainer for me but since I inherited this project I didnt do the basic steps of just taking the whole media folder and converting to ProRes 422 in Adobe Media Encoder.
Now the client is happy she can edit in FCPX with no beach balls 🙂
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[Eric Santiago] “…AVCHD files in FCPX…clips are average 10 min in length…Beach balling constantly on both nMac and 5K iMac….
I manage to (took way too long) to convert them all to Optimize/Proxy….I haven’t sat down and looked at it yet but what are most doing with their workflow when they receive this format?”Is this 1080p or 4k? I’ve edited lots of 1080p AVCHD content on a 2013 and 2015 top-spec iMac 27 with no problem, not even using proxy mode. These were from a variety of consumer camcorders such as the Canon HF-G30.
If it is 4k or for some reason the codec is more difficult, using proxy is the best approach. Generating optimized media may not be necessary. It consumes more time and space to generate — using only proxy is often sufficient. Of course you must remember to set the viewer to proxy, then set it back to optimized/original before the final export.
I sometimes use EditReady to re-wrap the AVCHD content before importing, but I don’t think it’s necessary except to make browsing easier at the Finder level. Since FCPX is so fast I usually just import everything — usually with “leave files in place”, vs browsing at the file level. It is usually fast enough to skim and make the initial selects, then if it’s multicam or more speed is required, I generate proxy media only for those selected clips.
For whatever reason if you still have problems even after trying proxy ONLY, I’d suggest EditReady — it is very fast and works well.
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