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editing AVCHD and iSight clips from iMAC
Hi,
I’m starting a project where the video’s I record will be used for the following:
1) Online Courses that will have pictures and slides as part of the video that will need to be inserted.
2) You Tube Web links from myspace and other websites
3) To be archived into a library for future viewing of students.I started recording with a Canon HG10 HD, wich records in AVCHD. I have been told that this will cause me problems downline because of a need for “massive hardware” and many apps do not support it. I have an iMAC with iMovie 08 which appears to easily upload the videos however I had one error that told me that one of the files had a problem and that I had to view the video to find it. (no thanks).
I understand that I can import/transfer video from iMovie to FCP. (Great!)The iMac also came with an iSight built in camera. I like using this camera for some shots and would like to use this video as well in the above named purposes.
Question: Am I creating future problems in editing by capturing my video with these two camera’s?
What kind of “massive hardware” is this person talking about that I will need to use this video?
Is iMovie sufficient editing software to do these kinds of basic applications?
When does an editor move fro iMovie to FCP? Would I be better off just getting better footage with a better camera and editing with FCP, or is it too much of a tool for my simple purpose?
Thanks for your support,
Arturo CelleriDo you have any recommendations, knowing that I have an iMac to create all of this with FCP on it.
Arturo Celleri
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2 Replies
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Arturo,
At the moment, AVCHD is a hard nut to crack. Some people like it, others steer clear. I’m currently waiting for some AVCHD footage for a lecture series I’m editing, and have heard that Sony’s cumbersome proprietary ways are gonna make my ingest hell. On FCP’s supported device list, I didn’t see your HG10 there, which usually indicates trouble. I put in a call to my friend in Pro Apps at Apple as to AVCHD ins and outs of FCP, I’ll post when I hear from him. As for your future problems, I’m not sure to say. I would elect to use a pro or prosumer HDV camera with a tapeless recording solution, such as a firestore FS-3 or Edirol F-1.As for the iSight usage, that’s definitely cool. You can use Photo Booth to capture the footage, and that will be easy to work with in FCP.
For going from iMovie to FCP, I’ll say that you’ll need some time to encode clips properly for FCP to take them. If you’re comfortable with using FCP, I’d say start in FCP. If not, iMovie 08 is great – when you feel you need advanced features like color correction and need to make little tweaks, then move to FCP. But for your purpose, iMovie should work just fine – it may also be easier to work with the HG10.
That’s my two cents.
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Ross Neugeboren
GetTheShot -
Ok, got some info on AVCHD from my friend at Apple –
“We support AVC-HD in FCP but only via a ProRes transcode. Not sure, buy you may not have to download a plugin from Panasonic. I know we have to for AVC-Intra.
When you open Log and Transfer, the top right “action” menu on the left half of the window let’s you select the trancode. I think AVC-HD even let’s you choose the “lighter” Apple Intermediate Codec.”
Thanks to Joe Torelli!This seems like transcoding to ProRes is your option. It may be a bit heavy with your iMac, depending on your processor speed and such – possibly sticking to iMovie would be a good option.
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Ross Neugeboren
GetTheShot
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