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  • 4K mpg4 footage not able to edit without importing into library?

    Posted by Alan Langdon on January 8, 2018 at 1:08 pm

    I am running FCP 10.3.4 within Sierra 10.12.6 on a MacMini i7 2ghz 16gb ram

    (UPDATE: FIXED! Read final entry below)

    I am somewhat new to FCPX (1 year), and have been under the understanding that it can edit mp4 footage without having to re-wrap (copy to library). I am shooting 4k footage with my Lumix G85, using the MP4 setting (not AVCHD) so the resulting files are .mp4 format.
    But when I start a new Library and try to import the footage, it does not allow me to do so without copying to Library, generating a huge duplicate of my footage.

    When I open the footage in MPEG Streamclip to get info, this is what I get, confirming it is not AVCHD footage:

    Stream: P1020146.MP4
    Path: /Volumes/HD trabalho 2/Gravina_BRUTOS A/dia 1 m2/Gravinia_CAM_Alan_m2/DCIM/102_PANA/P1020146.MP4
    Duration: 0:01:49
    Data Size: 1.19 GB
    Bit Rate: 93.96 Mbps
    Video Tracks:
    H.264, 3840 × 2160, 23.976 fps, 93.84 Mbps
    Audio Tracks:
    MPEG-4 Audio stereo, 48 kHz, 125 kbps
    Stream Files:
    P1020146.MP4 (1.19 GB)

    Any ideas? It would be MUCH better to not have to duplicate everything, as I already had things duplicated to 2 hard drives when logging on set.

    UPDATE: I just found out what was happening. I had copied the entire folder structure of the camera, which contains other folders and confused FCPX into thinking the footage was AVCHD that needed to be rewrapped. I took all the mp4 footage and placed it into a single folder without the “DCM” naming system and FCP understood the footage as ready for editing!

    Jeremy Garchow replied 8 years, 8 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • Jeremy Garchow

    January 8, 2018 at 4:46 pm

    You found the way.

    Something to look for is that the mp4 files don’t have a timecode track, and if you don’t import and rewrap, you will lose any tc, and every file will start at 00:00:00:00.

    Sometimes that might be OK for you, sometimes not.

    AVCHD can be a very frustrating format.

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