log and transfer – AVCHD Sony HDR-SR12 in/out issue

[Tom Wolsky]

You connect via USB and use the Log and Transfer function.

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 3.5 HD Editing Workshop”

[John Dehn]

Thank you. I’ll give it a try.

[Hamad Al sabah]

hi tom,

ahhh,thank god i have found this place ,i have an avchd sony sr12e camera and the new macbook pro 2.5 ghz and i am new to fcp but when i am adding anything to my clip in the timeline it does need to render and when i do, it renders so slow,i did not add any external storage system for my macbook but i want to do so but i don’t know which one will be better and faster to use on my mac,my camera is hooked through the usb cause we use the log and transfer,so the firewire extension is free to hook anything on it and about the log and transfer is there a way that we can use the capture option or that it works for the dv cameras only,i would like to know which is the best thing to do to make fcp works fast on my macbook pro,thanks a lot in advance and have a nice day.

best wishes,
hamad

[Chris Jackson]

okay, so I read all of you all’s posts and I am still completely unable to even bring the SR12 into the log and capture window. I have finalcut pro 5.0. Do I just need to upgrade to 6.0? or am I just missing something?

[Jim Sill]

Yes, you need to upgrade to FCP6 to be able to use the Log and Transfer option.

[Rance Adams]

I’m using FCP 6.04 and I still can’t video into my system. I’m using the desktop Mac. Whenever I try to drag video into the Log and Transfer file, I get an error message saying the video is unsupported. I’ve set it up to go through Apple Intermediate Codec and I think i’ve done everything else you guys have suggested within this thread. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Paul Richard]

Equipped with a new Sony HDR-SR12 Handycam and a MacBook Pro 17″ Intel Core 2 Duo machine I attempted to transfer the MPEG2 footage via USB. Why Sony did not include FireWire support for this $1,300.00 camcorder is probably due to the Sony engineer’s complacency and the bean counters’ unchecked power.

Running Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 there is no way to do it. I had to resort to pulling the two MPEG files from the camera’s hard drive to the Mac’s desktop. Two files because the hard disc recorder has a limit of 1.99 gigabytes per file of course. Using MPEG Streamclip I converted the video files to DV for easy importing into Final Cut Pro.
Even if I had Final Cut 6, I believe I would have had to do the same thing, for you see the geniuses at Apple and Sony will only allow for the transfer of high definition footage from camera to computer, not standard definition. Whatever they can do to inconvenience the consumer they will spend a good portion of R&D on assuring just such an accomplishment. I thought I had figured out a suitable work-around but MPEG Streamclip chopped a second or so off of the end of each clip. Why? Becuase it is free. The footage played perfectly through the camera, however. I had to recover the second or two of footage that I lost so it was back to figuring out how to capture. Tried Final Cut 4 Express. No go. The footage is not HD. Tried iLife ’08 and iMovie 7. Not a chance for the same reason. Where was that time tested and superior FireWire interface when I needed it? There it was on my new Sony GV-D200 Digital 8 recorder. Could have also used my $3,000.00 Sony DSR-25 or my $400.00 Formac DV Studio converter. Plugged the $1,300.00 camera into the $600.00 record deck then FireWire into the $2,400.00 computer with $1,500.00 dollars worth of video editing software in it. Changed the capture setting to a non-controllable device and made sure there was no other applications running that could affect the computer’s hard drive performance. I concluded that this was real money but real money well spent. It surely was a wise investment, it had to be you see, because I got it to actually work. Even the audio quality is better through FireWire; levels are more properly represented as well. Don’t know why.

So to recap:

Latest and greatest Sony Handycam: $1,300.00
MacBook Pro 17″ Intel Core 2 computer: $2,400.00
antiquated video recording device just to get FireWire $600.00
video editing software that won’t do what I need it to do: $1,500.00
All the hassle I had to go through to do something so simple: Pricey

[Dean Whitbread]

I just returned from a two week trip on which I took the Sony SR12 as a “looks like consumer, but I can use it for pro” camera. All well and good except that I am still rendering out the files ten days later.

Final Cut Express should hook up via USB, and simply doesn’t. In addition to the FC PRO/HD version I already have, I bought this version to use on the road with my MacBook Pro because the SR12 was listed as compatible. Don’t believe it – it’s useless for that purpose.

iMovie 08 did *once* hook up to the camera and retrieve video; but that was video shot in SD. Since I shot everything at max quality, which is 16MB ps @ 1920 x 1080, iMovie doesn’t want to know. It no longer even finds the device, no matter what I do.

So, I drag and drop files via USB and unpack into AIC Codec using Voltaic. Fine, except… Voltaic…. takes…. forever…. even… on… a Mac Pro… and… crashes!! after reaching 100% of any file over 1.3GB. Which lots of my files are, being 15 or 20 minutes long. Worse, inconsistently, Voltaic loses sync by around 21 frames out of 25 (PAL). Which is a drag, especially after you have been waiting hours to get hold of useable material.

BTW: I couldn’t get MPEG Streamclip to work at all.

I will now try the genius route of daisy-chaining the camera into a device with Firewire out – thanks for that tip, it might just save me another week!

Sum up: SR12 is a great camera. No tape, 120GB HD, great. BUT it has absolutely lousy, terrible, mind-numbingly tedious software support. I’m used to finding my way around bottlenecks in workflow, but not this time.

Unless by some miracle new software appears to make this otherwise very nice camera compatible with Mac / FC express OR FC Pro OR iMovie (even)it’s destined for Ebay and someone with a PC, which, I understand, may just work.

[Adam Newton]

Finally broke down and got Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 upgraded from FCP 5 My Sony SR12’s drive is recognized during the Log and Transfer process. The problems continue. All of the thumbnails have a grayish/brown band going right through the middle of each one. I am able to play the clip in the Log and Transfer window but as soon as I attempt to drag the clip to the media box, FCP 6 crashes. I had this same problem with iMovie 7 and found that updating to the latest version solved the problem. In this case however, FCP 6.0.5 is the latest version. What can I try next?

MacBook Pro 17″ 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Mac OS X 10.4.11
Final Cut Pro 6.0.5

[Adam Newton]

Got the answer. I trashed the Perian component along with QuickTime preferences. It did the trick. I believe it was the old version of Perian causing the conflict with Final Cut Pro’s Log and Transfer option, not the Quick Time preferences but why take chances. When I installed the newest version of Perian which is 1.1.3, there didn’t seem to be any conflict and the HD clips from my Sony SR12 imported fine with no further crashes.

MacBook Pro 17″ 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Mac OS X 10.4.11
Final Cut Pro 6.0.5