• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  importing .wmv files to final cut pro

  Posted by Tammy Tam on January 17, 2011 at 8:33 pm

  Hi there,
  I’m a newbie using final cut pro and have a .wmv file that I would like to add chapters to and wanted to know what the best way to do it is. I’m assuming I’d have to convert the .wmv file to a .mov or .avi file in order to work with it in final cut pro but I’m not sure what the best way is to convert the file in a format that’ll work. I have the FCP studio version and am not sure if compressor can help with that? Any help would be greatly appreciated….

  Thanks,
  T

  Paul Jay replied 15 years, 3 months ago 5 Members · 6 Replies
• 6 Replies

• 

  Michael Sacci

  January 17, 2011 at 8:53 pm

  you use compressor, never use avi for editing on a mac. .mov is just a QT wrapper you need to make sure you use the correct codec to go along with that, ProRes is normally the best choice.
• 

  Tammy Tam

  January 17, 2011 at 9:49 pm

  Thanks Michael,

  So how do I go about converting it properly in compressor?

  T
• 

  Gergo Szabo

  January 17, 2011 at 10:13 pm

  Dear Michael,

  I have to disagree with you. We used a SONY PMW-EX1R XDCAM EX camcorder. It records .avi files in SD mode. We didn’t recompress it and It worked well (if you didn’t wanted to send it to Color). But for news It was great.

  Gary
• 

  Michael Sacci

  January 18, 2011 at 12:20 am

  But I would never CONVERT anything to AVI. If you are starting out as AVI that is different.
• 

  Zane Barker

  January 18, 2011 at 12:46 am

  [Michael Sacci] “But I would never CONVERT anything to AVI. If you are starting out as AVI that is different.”

  AMEN

  FCP is quick time based and AVI files are anything but quicktime. Always convert to a proper FCP editing codec first.

  **Hindsight is always 1080p**
• 

  Paul Jay

  January 18, 2011 at 8:40 pm

  You need flip4mac. After that you can convert WMV to anything FCP likes.

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