Importing AVCHD at DVinfo.net

Pete Cofrancesco · January 24th, 2012, 07:03 AM

The client filmed an event with me using his consumer video camera. He mailed me the SD cards but I don't know how to import the footage. Btw, I'm using a FCP6 on a Mac.

Edit: Nevermind figured it out "Log and Transfer"

Predrag Vasic · January 25th, 2012, 03:51 PM

Just to add, for your info. Log and Transfer transcodes (converts) original files into Apple's 422 ProRes format, which is much easier for your Mac to handle, but takes up inordinate amount of space.

If you:

1. Have a very powerful Mac;
2. Are constrained for space;
3. Feel the need to eliminate any possible generational image quality loss due to conversion (even if you can't see it),

then you may also want to look into 'Clipwrap', an application that takes the original AVCHD files and just changes the 'wrapper' (small portion of each file) to make it a plain vanila QuickTime file, which FCP can read directly. You get to work with the original video data (rather than a converted copy), but your Mac gets to do much more heavy lifting. Trial is free (re-wraps only first minute of each file); full version is $50.

January 24th, 2012, 07:03 AM	#1
Pete Cofrancesco Inner Circle Join Date: May 2004 Location: USA Posts: 3,005	Importing AVCHD The client filmed an event with me using his consumer video camera. He mailed me the SD cards but I don't know how to import the footage. Btw, I'm using a FCP6 on a Mac. Edit: Nevermind figured it out "Log and Transfer" Last edited by Pete Cofrancesco; January 24th, 2012 at 06:31 PM.

January 25th, 2012, 03:51 PM	#2
Predrag Vasic Regular Crew Join Date: May 2009 Location: Manhattan Posts: 131	Re: Importing AVCHD Just to add, for your info. Log and Transfer transcodes (converts) original files into Apple's 422 ProRes format, which is much easier for your Mac to handle, but takes up inordinate amount of space. If you: 1. Have a very powerful Mac; 2. Are constrained for space; 3. Feel the need to eliminate any possible generational image quality loss due to conversion (even if you can't see it), then you may also want to look into 'Clipwrap', an application that takes the original AVCHD files and just changes the 'wrapper' (small portion of each file) to make it a plain vanila QuickTime file, which FCP can read directly. You get to work with the original video data (rather than a converted copy), but your Mac gets to do much more heavy lifting. Trial is free (re-wraps only first minute of each file); full version is $50.