How to import raw P2 HD footage into FCP 4.5?

[Shane Ross]

[Robert Deege] “How can I get this into FCP 4.5?”

You can’t. P2 support did not arrive until FCP 5.0.4 and QT 7.1.

P2 Workflow with FCP 5

[Robert Deege] “I know there’s a way,”

Import on another machine running FCP 5.0.4 or higher. Then bring the footage to this one. But no guarantee how well it will work. I know it is DVCPRO HD and FCP 4.5 edits DVCPRO HD, but people have reported issues with doing this.

[Robert Deege] “if some sort of conversion to uncompressed quicktime is necessary. And if that’s the case, how to do?”

Hmmm…you might try RAYLIGHT and see if that works with FCP 4.5…but I don’t think it does. There is a demo you can test. http://www.dvfilm.com. You can also try to download the P2CMS application and use that to import your footage. But you need a higher version of QT than is suitable for your version of FCP.

Really, if you want to work with P2 footage, you are gonna need to upgrade your system to Final Cut Studio 2.

Shane

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[Robert Deege]

Shane,

Thanks so much for your advice – I’ll check out the links you provided. Sounds like I’m destined to upgrade.

All the best,

Rob

[Nicole Haddock]

I had to try this (for one dumb reason or another) when I was on 5.0.4 and my assistant was on 4.5. The video files had been ingested on a 5.0.4 machine and then media managed over to a second drive for certain scenes. Final Cut Pro, in it’s infinite wisdom, would only take in 2 of the audio tracks on the files. If I remember correctly, it was the on-deck audio (channels 3 and 4) which was boggling in and of itself, but then of course meant we could really do limited cutting on the 4.5 machine. It was a 48 Hour Film Project shoot, so my memories are a bit hazy, but, yes, upgrade and save yourself a headache 🙂

[Robert Deege]

Nicole, how did you get 2 tracks of audio into FCP 4.5? I’m currently in a similar situation. We shot our footage, I can’t import directly into FCP 4.5 (although I can import the vid and aud trx separately), but if I convert the files beforehand into quicktime, I can then import them. Trouble is, I’m only getting 1 track of audio instead of 4.

Is there an import setting that I can adjust this to bring in 2 or 4 audio tracks instead?

Also, do you have any good recommendations for conversion to quicktime, besides importing them into another FCP system that’s a later version?

Thanks so much,
Rob