Importing AVCHD Lite into FCE

[Tom Wolsky]

Thank you.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Tom Wolsky]

Not sure that’ll happen. AVCHD Lite seems to be a pretty niche market at the moment and not a widely adopted format.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Bob Rzadzki]

Hugh,

I was just grappling with this issue myself and stumbled upon a solution. For me, it was as simple as going into the Log and Transfer settings dialog and changing the VIDEO format to Apple Intermediate. I also have the audio set to plain stereo, so it could be just the right combination.

Couldn’t find this advice anywhere else; I heard a lot of “Set the audio to plain stereo” and didn’t have any luck. Now I’m logging and transferring like there’s no tomorrow! Thought I’d share for anyone else having problems.

[Robert Stewart]

I am still having problems importing AVCHD lite video shot on my Lumix TS1 into FCE… I tried to follow your settings, but I still end up with video/audio synch problems. The imported video is exactly half as long as it should be, by the way.

scrippsjschool.org

[Torstein Lindstad]

I have the same problem using Panasonic DMC-ZS3 and a MacBookPro 2009 model, FCE 4.1.

iMovie09, however, can import motion pictures..but not FCE..which I find kind of strange.

I do not think this is a niche problem as these cameras currently are highly popular.

[Robert Stewart]

no progress on this front in the last few months?

scrippsjschool.org

[Luis Lucien]

I am alos interested in AVCHD LIte,
Currently I use Pinnacle 14 on PC that works OK.
I would like to change to mac when this is supported.
Does anyone have news ???

Regards
Dominique

[Mirco Tripoczky]

I did some research and testing.. and also came accross this thread and I got a (I think) cool solution to import AVCHD Lite directly into Final Cut Express without going through iMovie.

Since Final Cut Express doesn’t like AVCHD Lite, you have to tell Final Cut Express to like it.

1. Open the Final Cut Express.app package by right clicking the icon and choose show content. At Contents/Plugins you find a folder called: “AVCHD.RADPlug”. Make a backup of that folder.

2. Now Open the iMovie.app package by right clicking the icon and choose show content. At Contents/RADPlugins you find a folder called: “AVCHD.RADPlug”. Copy that folder to where you found the folder with the same name inside the Final Cut Express.app package.

Start Final Cut Express, use Log and Transfer and easily import AVCHD Lite clips to Final Cut Express.

That’s maybe a workaround.. and you do this on your own risk, for me it worked perfectly with the AVCHD Lite clips of my Panasonic TZ7.

[Mark Kreuzer]

I Copied the AVCHD.RADPlug directory and all the content within from iMovie 09 8.0.3 or greater and it worked for me as well.
I have a Panasonic ZS3 and recorded in the AVCHD lite format. Days of trying every format setting and every other manipulation and nothing worked until this.
I used a friends mac that had iMovie 09 and copied the contents. Having spent 11 years a tech support person I’m pretty confident with this fix.

[Andrew Reinstein]

Mirco,

Thanks for the FCE workaround for AVCHD. 2 days ago, there was an update
to FCE 4.0.1, which I installed. Then motivated by my new Panny TZ7, I read a lot of the forums comparing the editing programs, and decided on using FCE for
uploading by AVCHD.
I read your post on the plug-ins, and followed your instructions on moving the
AVCHD.RADPlug from iMovie 09 v 8.0.6 to FCE 4.0.1.
But when I went to Log and Transfer, the clip showed on the screen of my Intel iMac (OSX 10.6.3) but I when it went to ‘add to queue’ it moved but then showed
a red exclamation, nor could I move it directly into the timeline.
What am I doing wrong, or does the new update change things as it looks like the same plug in.
I read your post over a number of times, as I’m still a Mac guy after all these years, and I need to be careful.
Thanks in advance for any help