Hi folks. So, I have a client who has shot almost 2 hours of footage on a consumer Sony HD hard disk recording camera.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the camera would not work at all with either iMovie or Final Cut, even though on paper, it should. We got the files off the hard drive using the Finder. And now that we've re-formatted the Sony camera's HDD, any NEW footage we record is found quickly and easily by FCP or iMovie - it works as expected.

The problem is that the old footage, the 2h of video we need to work with, is all in the camera-native MPEG2 format, .MTS.

Yes, I've already found the Voltaic/Perian combo to convert it to HD for Final Cut. The problem with this solution is that it is EXCRUCIATINGLY SLOW. I mean, like 5 hours to convert 8 minutes of video - and I'm on a Quad core Mac Pro with gazillions of RAM.

So, my question to the FCP heads here is: Is there a way to trick Log and Transfer into recognizing and coverting the .MTS files we have copied off the camera, without having the correct directory structure? As is, FCP, Quicktime and Compressor all want nothing at all to do with the .MTS files - FCP's Log and Transfer windows REQUIRES that there be some kind of mystery directory structure in place in order to accept the .MTS files - I assume it is looking for an index file...

So, is there a way to transcode stand-alone .MTS files into ProRes or whatever will work in FCP, without going through a third-party solution?

Help?

You don't mention what model Sony camcorder you're using, but if it's shooting HDV then the files should be M2V. If it's one of the newer AVCHD files (which create MTS files) then FCP 6.0.2 will see it natively.

I have no idea why the original 2 hours of footage isn't being seen properly, my guess is that there might have been a special in-camera setup function enabled that FCP does not recognize, such as a frame-rate converter.

Some of the AVCHD cams like the Canon's shoot a new version of CineFrame where the camera simulates 24p, but just like with the HDV cameras it's a *simulation* and not really progressive. Those functions caused a lot of compatibility issues with NLE's for a few years in the HDV world, could be the same thing with the new AVCHD codec.

If you have the latest versions of both Quicktime and Final Cut and neither app can see the footage then you'll have to use the software converter.

Hey, it's Sony AVCHD - the native format is .MTS. I think it's the SR7 or somesuch - I don't have the camera here right now.

Yeah, the camera moved the old files to a ''backup" directory and will not play the video from the camera any more. So, all we're left with are these .MTS files and it seems like Voltaic is the only thing that will convert them. It does so at about 2fps. Which is really, really slow...

david.

Google for MPEG Stream clip. It will read .m2t and export to Quicktime.

Google for MPEG Stream clip. It will read .m2t and export to Quicktime.

Gints: M2T is a file type associated with HDV, not AVCHD which uses a different file type which is MTS (for Sony at least), which is what David is having issues with.

David,

I know that the Panasonic AVCHD cameras import into FCP 6.0.2 with no issues; it could be that Sony is using a different GOP structure just as they do with HDV, but I don't know.

It also sounds like the camera is either not setup properly or it's internal firmware may be defective; I see no reason why the camera would move files off into sub-directories. You might try the other forums where AVCHD discussions are and see if anyone is having the same issues with the camera.

Lastly, you don't mention what version of FCP you have; if you don't have 6.0.2 then you don't have full AVCHD compatibility.

The lastest version of FCP 7 and iMovie 9 now support MTS files importing and editing on Mac.

If you do not want to pay more bucks with your software update, you can use other software to make your MTS recordings editable in FCP.

So far, the following two programs will achieve this task.

1.Clipwarp can rewrap MTS files from camcorder to Prores but my prores video files come with interlacing.
2. video converting software produced by Aunsoft can help you to encode AVCHD recordings to ProRes.

You can have a try

Download the demo of Clipwrap & see if that will allow you to convert the .mts files into ProRes.