APOCALYPSE NOW: Converting .mov into FCP files.

I'm in a pinch and on a short deadline - doing a volunteer project to help out a friend, and the video is critical to him.

I have an older version of Final Cut - Final Cut Studio Pro 5.1.4

I generally log and capture footage (ctrl F8) from miniDV. I don't have the newer version of FCP, which I have heard can convert files as they are imported. I have to log and capture.

A cameraman has given me 3 hours of footage in .mov (he also has the footage in .mts) but he gave me the .mov files as he thought I might be able to use them more easily. I can import the .mov into my version of FCP, but without the log and capture step - they are unrendered -- and you can imagine trying to render 3 hours of footage only to have it unrender ever time I edit it and move my b-roll around.

I'm hoping someone here has dealt with this issue before - albeit probably a long time ago. I'd appreciate any advice you might provide.

I know that in FCP 6, when you drop a clip into a new sequence, it will ask you if you want to match the timelines settings with the clip when it's the first one dropped into the timeline and the settings don't already match. If your version doesn't do that, I would recommend downloading the free MPEG Streamclip and use that to batch convert your original media to whatever the codec of your timeline inside of FCP is.

Posted from iPad, please excuse typos!

Tony Brittan
Island Shore Productions

I think you need to check the codec on your media, FCP is not very compatible with h.264 so you will need to convert those clips with MPEG stream clip,.
Good luck