New to HD in FCP

[Garrett Evans]

If your raw footage in inside an AVCHD folder from your camera, that whole folder has to come into the L&T window for it to work…sorry if this isn’t helpful, but I’ve had people give me a .MTS file, which is worthless in L&T.

MacPro OSX 10.6.6 2×2.26 QCIX 10GB 1066MHz DDR3 FCP7.0.3/FCS3
FCSvr1.5 Xsan2.2 DotHill 24TB QlogicSANbox 8GB ATTO 8GB

[Shane Ross]

YOu are doing things wrong. WAY wrong. Did you watch my tutorial on tapeless? You need to backup the ENTIRE CARD first. Everything, not just some folder inside the SD card…the ENTIRE card. You copy that to a separate, external hard drive. That is your archive.

THEN you use Log and Transfer and point to those backup files. If you didn’t back up the full card, L&T won’t work. And File>IMPORT won’t work either, as FCP doesn’t work with these files natively.

If you don’t have the full file structure, you might need to look into separate software to do this, like Clipwrap2. There is a demo of that available.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Rafael Amador]

[Angela Zumbrum] “Dragged the files from external drive to my internal hard drive.
“
That slows everything down.
You must keep your media in an external HD if you don’t want FC slugish, and you need an storage with a certain speed to work comfortable. An eSATA RAID would be great to edit your Prores stuff on your MBP.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Angela Zumbrum]

Yes, I did watch your tutorial. And, I understand it completely. The problem is, that someone else transfered the footage from the card to the drive that I am now using. I am trying to figure out if this person copied everything. I am assuming that this is the problem.

Thank you for your help.

One more thing…. Is it normal that these files are .mov? Even if she didn’t copy everything…what should the file type be from this camera?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/625605-REG/Panasonic_AG_HMC40PJU_AG_HMC40_AVCCAM_HD_Camcorder.html

Thanks again.

[Chris Tompkins]

ya, mov files are to be imported.
Can you do that?

If not, open up the file in QT and grab a pic of the specs for us.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Shane Ross]

You should have a folder that has the following file structure:

If you have a MOV file, they might have already converted for you. GET INFO on that file (select the file, then FILE>GET INFO) and tell us what the codec is…under MORE INFO

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Angela Zumbrum]

Dimensions 1920×1080

Codecs MPEG-4 Video, AAC

This is what the mov file is.

Thank you Shane..

[Shane Ross]

AH…that’s not an editing codec. They must have imported the footage, then converted to something small enough to…well, be small. And gave you that. You have to convert it to ProRes. Compressor does this in the ADVANCED FORMAT CONVERSIONS area. Now, quality will not be as good as it could Far from it. AVCHD converted to something, then compressed to something else, then something else….that;s a lot of smooshing.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Angela Zumbrum]

Shane…

You have certainly been helpful. I cannot thank you enough.

I spoke with my “videographer” and she still has the files on her computer that came from the camera card. They are .mts files. I am considering trying to get all of the FILES that she has and then trying Log and Transfer again. However, the card has been ERASED! Hopefully she has everything that I need.

If not – I will try the conversion that you mentioned.

Is it good news that she has the .mts file???? Everything just seems to be so separated. The tutorial that I watched earlier seemed to really stress keeping everything “as is” from the card to the drive.

Last question – I am editing weddings. Do you think that a BRIDE, who has no video knowledge whatsoever would recognize all of the compression? Or do you think that it will still appear to be HD to the “naked” eye” if I must compress once again.

THANK YOU SHANE!!!!!!!

[Shane Ross]

Email the tutorial link to the “videographer,” so they can see how to properly do things.

[Angela Zumbrum] “Is it good news that she has the .mts file???? Everything just seems to be so separated.”

If this is all you have, then you need to get third party software to convert it…ClipWrap2 is the best option.

[Angela Zumbrum] “Do you think that a BRIDE, who has no video knowledge whatsoever would recognize all of the compression?”

Well, test it and see if you notice it. If you do, she might. If you don’t, she won’t.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def