Panasonic HDC-SD9 issues with FCP
by Mikal Vassbotn
on
Jun 30, 2009 at 11:47:56 am
Hi.
At work I went from being a PC user with Vegas Video to Mac with FCP last week. The transfer have been all but smooth.
I have not been able to import the avchd clips directly from the camera. After reading through apple support I realise that it might be easier to find the holy grail than to make FCP have native support for the Avchd (annoing when the brand new imac struggels and my old laptop 1,8 ghz 1 gb ram did support it natively through Vegas Video).
I work for a small company wich gather educational videos from different sources. We make some ourselves (therefore the Panasonic cam), some are sent by mail as everything from wmv, mp4 and avi and some are being collected from flash files online.
But, back to the Panasonic cam..I use Elgato turbo 264 HD to convert the video. I have tried different formats but I tend to choose the 720i (.264 compressor) to keep as much as the quality as possible. The video imports fine but I need to render the damn thing every single time I perform a certan task. And if I switch on unlimited RT the framerate drops like a stone and the audio is "choppy". Is it a way to make a batch run to render all the clips from one import? Is it wise to use a different format so I can avoid rendering all the time? What format is the best to work with in FCP?
I know this might be super-novice questions but I never met such issues with the PC program, and I was hoping to get through the video faster than before, but I have just been struggling the last couple of days.
Great forum by the way, thanx :)
Best regards Mikal
(Frustrated first time user of Mac and FCP)
Re: Panasonic HDC-SD9 issues with FCP by John Fishback on Jun 30, 2009 at 2:55:42 pm
I'm not familiar with AVCHD, but here are some general questions and observations. What version of FCP are you using? Are you using Log & Transfer? It helps if you completely describe your system and workflow. Clearly FCP doesn't like the file you created with Elgato. It could be a file format that isn't real time in FCP, or an incorrect sequence setting.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24" TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
Re: Panasonic HDC-SD9 issues with FCP by Mikal Vassbotn on Jun 30, 2009 at 5:57:52 pm
Hi John. Sorry that I wasn's very spesific in the last post. I am using previous version of FCP, FCP 5. I think that my workplace will buy the latest express if I am not mistaken.
Regarding the files you are abosolutely correct. Elgato is using .264 wich FCP really dosn't like. A temp. workaround is to import the files in iMovie and collect the QT files from iMovie. Slow, but it's a solution :(
Re: Panasonic HDC-SD9 issues with FCP by John Fishback on Jul 1, 2009 at 1:41:48 pm
Mikal, gave you tried to use Compressor to make your edit files? If so, you can batch process the files and perhaps run Compressor in the background as you edit in FCP (I don't remember if Compressor & FCP 5 can run simultaneously).
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24" TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
