How can I import AVCHD?

[Mark Suszko]

Try Converting to prores first using Compressor, or another app. I’d have said “Mpeg Streamclip” as a default answer, but Catalina OS kills it.

[Eric Santiago]

If you are getting the weird folder options you might need to break right into the file by doing a right-click > open package (I think).
Some flavors tend to create a QT file that’s actually a folder.

[Joe Marler]

[Noam Osband] “I have saved AVCHD cards on a hard drive. I completely copied the card. I am trying to copy files to my library. “

Importing them to the library should work, although people sometimes encounter problems with interrupted import which keeps referencing the card. This produces the error “referencing media on the camera”. Ben Halsall discusses that in the below video.

For AVCHD I recommend externally re-wrapping with EditReady then importing using “leave files in place”. That is very fast and reliable: https://www.divergentmedia.com/editready

Under no conditions open the AVCHD package, copy out MTS files then import those. It can cause severe I/O performance problems.

https://youtu.be/NRNoReJbVoA

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[Noam Osband]

What is the advantage of doing that with EditReady? Is that software good for other things? Can it do thing Handbrake can’t?

[Eric Santiago]

[Joe Marler] “Under no conditions open the AVCHD package, copy out MTS files then import those. It can cause severe I/O performance problems.”

Never had issues with that and at times its the only fast option to get out of that workflow.
I tend to convert to ProRes once MTS files are copied out.

[Joe Marler]

[Noam Osband] “What is the advantage of doing that with EditReady? Is that software good for other things? Can it do thing Handbrake can’t?”

EditReady can re-wrap AVCHD vs just transcoding it. This is vastly faster. It can also transcode. It is well-supported commercial software and isn’t very expensive.

[Joe Marler]

[Eric Santiago] “Never had issues with that and at times its the only fast option to get out of that workflow.”

There are severe problems if doing “leave files in place” import of bare MTS files from an AVCHD package. You may not notice it at first, but the I/O load can be incredibly high, which can bog down many operations.

Unfortunately macOS no longer permits use of command-line dtrace utilities, but this is an I/O histogram from FCPX when simply scrolling through a library that contains .MTS files imported in place. As you can see it produces a very high number of small I/Os. This is absolutely unique to bare MTS files imported in place: https://joema.smugmug.com/Computers/FCPX-Event-Browser-Perf-Data/n-M7bG7L/i-bCH2XFX/A

The same behavior still exists on FCPX 10.4.7 and Mojave. If already imported one solution is create optimized media. If not yet imported, the best practice is either import only from the AVCHD package, or else externally re-wrap using EditReady.

[Eric Santiago]

[Joe Marler] “There are severe problems if doing “leave files in place” import of bare MTS files from an AVCHD package.”

I only use “Leave files..” with RED RAW data.
I think I have run into issues in the past with .mts files thus why I got into the habit of pulling them out and converting to ProRes before it hits FCPX.
Im old school that way.

[Doug Metz]

[Eric Santiago] “I think I have run into issues in the past with .mts files thus why I got into the habit of pulling them out and converting to ProRes before it hits FCPX.”

You’d likely be better off leaving the .mts files in the AVCHD package… just drop it into EditReady for your ProRes conversion and you retain more metadata, spanned clips are properly identified and reconnected, and you save time not digging those .mts files out of the package. Wins everywhere!

Doug Metz

Dalton Agency

[Noam Osband]

So in the end, I managed to import by going to “Reimport from Cameras.” It would only import that way. What it then imported is a MPEG-4 mov file. Should I edit with that or should I bring that to Compressor or turn it into Pro Res? It works fine in FCP X so there’s no need to change it for that reason. Thoughts?

Thanks for all the help!