Importing AVCHD footage into FCP 6

[Adam Chesbrough]

My original problem stemmed from the AVCHD footage not being in its original file structure. I was attempting to log/transfer the single video .mts files; FCP does not recognize these. I had to use toast to transcode them to .mov’s.

[Gary Phillips]

similar problem myself originally, what i found is that i had used the software originally given to me with my sony camera to get some files off a 8gb memory stick pro duo card,it was onto a windows computer mind, then i recorded some more footage onto the card and went to final cut to log and transfer it off and i got the same invalid file structure rubbish, so i saved what was on the card onto the computer, then i formatted the card recorded under the same conditions and went back to final cut log and transfer and my new footage showed up.

Im guessing whatever software you originally use with your card/flash memory will change the file structure to its own end, and final cut doesnt seem to like this, so if your experiencing any problems save the material, format the card and try a test, it worked for me, hope this is useful.

[Shane Ross]

Clipwrap is starting to be very good with footage from the NX5u camera. I am beta testing it and now it can read the camera generated timecode, and it works on long clips (log and transfer takes hours on anything over 15min). New formats cause issues.

Shane

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[Roberto Battista]

So far I always successfully imported AVHD footage shot on various Panasonic cameras from SD cards into FCP 6 on Mac (both a Macbook Pro laptop and a dualcore desktop Mac).
We have just bought two new Panasonic AG HMC 154 cameras, which should record in the same format as all other semi-pro Panasonics.
The footage appears in the log and transfer window, it plays back properly (image and sound), the clips go through the usual processing but at the end the import into FCP fails and there is no indication as to what went wrong, only a red exclamation mark appearing in the status column.
I have tried importing directly from the card and from the files copied on a drive and it did the same.
Has anyone had a similar problem?
Thanks
Roberto

[Roberto Battista]

Little update:
The problem only seem to affect long files.
Out of 4 clips, filmed with the same settings, on the same SD card 2 short ones (a few minutes each) went through the log and transfer correctly, the other 2 (respectively 24 and 33 minutes) failed and displayed the red exclamation mark.

ROBERTO’s:
MULTIMEDIA https://www.robat.scl.net
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/robertobattista
PHOTO https://www.flickr.com/photos/robateye/sets/
MUSIC https://www.myspace.com/robertobattista
MORE MUSIC https://www.robat.scl.net/content/musicpages/music.html

[Kidd Jahmann]

I sometimes have some problems.
I plug the SDHC card on the mac, and FCP (with L & T) doesn’t recognize the file structure (even when i didn’t modify it…).

I erase totally the SDHC card, put it in the cam (HF S10) and copy the files again, and when i plug the card back to the mac, i can find them in Log & Transfer…

Hope this works for you,

KIdd

[Duane Dell’amico]

I am no computer expert, but if it’s file size that’s your problem, I had a similar problem once: it may be that your hard drive is formatted using the MS-DOS FAT format, which only allows maximum 4GB sized files. You can buy a drive formatted that way (in my case, a Western Digital) and use it on a Mac out of the box — don’t be fooled by the ‘MS-DOS’ moniker. I erased and reformatted the drive using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and that fixed the problem.

[Roberto Battista]

My drives are all formatted as Mac OS Extended Journaled and when I use other applications to convert the AVCHD I don’t have that problem.
I have actually discovered that some files that failed the long and transfer in Final Cut Pro succeeded when I tried the same in Final Cut Express.
It seems to be specific to FCP and I haven’t discovered yet if there is any change in the settings that may solve the problem.

ROBERTO’s:
MULTIMEDIA https://www.robat.scl.net
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/robertobattista
PHOTO https://www.flickr.com/photos/robateye/sets/
MUSIC https://www.myspace.com/robertobattista
MORE MUSIC https://www.robat.scl.net/content/musicpages/music.html

[Tone Andersen]

I am dealing with the same problem. It’s been a while since this thread was up, but I was wondering if you ever figured out a way around importing long AVCHD files into FCP6?
I am filming with Panasonic AF101 and every clip longer than 5-6 minutes fail to import through log and transfer.

[Roberto Battista]

I import the long files in chunks setting the time/frames in the preview window. It’s not ideal but it works, I leave a little overlap of a few frames to be on the safe side and then re-join the portions on the timeline, they are numbered sequentially, so it’s not difficult or too time consuming.

ROBERTO’s:
MULTIMEDIA https://www.robat.scl.net
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/robertobattista
PHOTO https://www.flickr.com/photos/robateye/sets/
MUSIC https://www.myspace.com/robertobattista
MORE MUSIC https://www.robat.scl.net/content/musicpages/music.html