As a Final Cut Pro editor the on thing that has always been a pain has been my media transfers. I purchased Aunsoft Final Mate for $50 and it has done an outstanding job creating ProRes media files for me and allowing me to share media with other editing platforms at our TV station. Plus I can write to almost any other codec I can imagine. When it comes to taking AVCHD 1080/60p files to any other scale and frame rate it has also done me well. Here is Aunsoft's URL Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac (http://www.aunsoft.com/final-mate-mac/)

But speed is what I crave. So my search continued. I tried ClipWrap and it worked OK but ClipWrap is a $50 program and Aunsoft Final Mate allowed me to customize so many more transfer parameters. Here is clip wraps URL ClipWrap (http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap) ClipWrap with its rewrap feature did beat Aunsoft Final Mate on transfers (at least I've never found a rewrap feature in Aunsoft) but another program finally won my heart.

Free has always been something I like but as we all know it doesn't always give us what we need. For me I was looking for a program I could share with multiple FCP editors so I could "dump" my AVCHD files on them without doing the transcode myself. The new simultaneous record function in the HXR-NX70U allows me to just give them my SDXC Memory Card and they can now just do a drag and drop into Media Converter and I can get into my next task. Here is the URL Media Converter - Home (http://media-converter.sourceforge.net/)
Your also going to need the preset for Re-wrap AVCHD for Quicktime - uncompressed Audio at this URL Media Converter - Presets (http://media-converter.sourceforge.net/presets.html)

Number one what I like about it, its free!
The down side is our editors have to render the portions of the media they want on the timeline. Our (AJA Kona cards don't play them natively) but we've saved a ton of drive space because the original rewrapped media-files haven't grown in size and they suffer no quality change. Those of you who are converting all your AVCHD media to ProRes know what I'm talking about. For me at home they play fine on my timeline.

Has anyone found any better workflows?

For an open source project, the media converter is absolutely a godsend for zero transcoding editing. However, making bigger projects with FCP will cause instability with the H.264 codec.

My recommendation for AVCHD to ProRes should be the LT variant of the codec. Standard and HQ is overkill for intermediate files.

Thanks Jack,

We haven't pushed large projects through using the H.264 codec but your suggestions about using the LT ProRes seems sound. Our projects are typically spots and the system demands are lighter than long form editing where instability would more likely be an issue.

We are considering some Sony Cine Production Cameras now and the whole AVCHD transcoding issue has been looming large. I'm trying to get a sense of how others may be tackling their FCP workflows at their facilities and solicit commentary if anyone has any better ideas than myself for handling tight turnarounds/deadlines.

The projects where I can just let my files cook overnight are far and few between.