Final Cut Pro X vs. iMovie

Hello, I just got my first Mac. I have been working on PCs for ages. I am not able to open any of my movie files from my HD Sony Video Camera. They are .MTS files. I have about 1400 files and still creating more weekly. My brand new Mac Mini came with iMovie. Therefore I installed it. However, if I am understanding the discussions on this site correctly, I should be using Final Cut Pro X. Therefore, my two questions are:
1. Will FCPX be able to easily work with my .MTS files without me having to convert them or manipulate them in any way?
2. Should I keep iMovie on my Mac or just go with Final Cut Pro?
Thank you for any advice. I am liking this Mac just the same

iMovie 10 (the Mavericks version) does import 'bare' .mts files if they are 720 or 1080p and up to 60 fps (not sure about interlaced formats ). FCP does as well.
FCP 10.1 is quite similar to iMovie 10 in appearance but has much higher capabilities. You can download a free fully functional trial version from the App store that runs for a month. I did that and then bought it as a Christmas present to myself. It is very easy to transfer projects from iMovie 10 to FCP 10.1 so you can try out both with the same projects and decide whether the extra capabilities are worth $299 to you.
Geoff.

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MBP with retina display always crash when using Final cut pro x and iMovie. Plz l need help

HI, My MBP with retina display always crash when l am using Final cut pro x and iMovie and come up with gray screen. Plz l need help

Take it back and get a refund. What are you waiting for, your new Mac does not work correctly.

How do you import final cut pro projects into imovie? (like you create a pr

How do you import final cut pro projects into imovie?
(like you create a project in final cut but i want to save it, and import it into imovie..

Hi -
Mr. Ross is right, there is no direct way to export your project with all it's elements into iMovie.
If, on the other hand, you have a completed sequence in FCP that you want to export as a finished element, then import into iMovie for you to re-edit or apply titles, music, etc. you would:
In FCP:
Click on the Sequence Icon you want to export in your browser.
Go to the menu File > Export > Quicktime Movie. Give your movie a name a navigate to where you want it stored. Make sure you choose Settings: Current Settings and have the Make Movie Self Contained checked. Click Save.
Close FCP and open iMovie.
In iMovie:
Go to the menu File > Import > Movies and navigate to the movie you just exported from FCP. Choose if you want your movie imported in it's original size, etc.
Click Import. Your movie will be imported into iMovie.
Note that using this method only gives you only the elements that made up your FCP sequence, so this may not give you the flexibility you need.
Hope this helps.
MtD

Need help: Can't import old video into Final Cut Pro X or iMovie

I am trying to import some footage from my old camcorder into my iMac.
I have a Sony DVMC-DA1 connected via firewire. The setup works great in iChat. We were able to video chat to my wife's computer and she could see and hear the camcorder footage. iMovie does not recognize the device at all. Final Cut Pro recognizes it. It appears in the Camera Import window, but when I try to import some footage, nothing gets recorded. Oddly, there are two time counters in the import window. The one on the left increments as the footage 'imports' but the one on the right stays at zero.
My iMac is the newest 2011 model and I am using the latest versions of iMovie and FCPX.
How do I get either iMovie or FCPX to import my footage from the DVMC-DA1?

This guy did a tutorial for 2 free ways of importing video over FW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVqkSlaTr-k
They both should accept any video over FW. The link for Vidi is old, here's where to find it: http://www.mitzpettel.com/
Good luck.

Quality between final cut pro X and iMovie

Is there any one know that the final cut pro X has a better resolution/color quality than imovie? I have import my 1080p digital video to imovie, after processing, and found that the qualtity of color seems down grade to an unacceptable quality as special as some under exposure area. The color seems painting. No graduation change.

That is exactly why I went to FCPX (along with wanting more editing flexibility). The resolution and color quality are far better in FCPX than I was able to achieve with iMovie.

Final cut pro x importing imovie project

I have iMovie '11 and am trying out Final Cut Pro X's trial version. Final Cut Pro X will not successfully "import iMovie Project." Two things happen: 1) It starts the import of the iMovie Project but only reaches the point where it shows video outline in dark grey with no acual video imagery and 2) shuts down Final Cut Pro X with a follow on option to "Report, Ignore" to Apple. I've reported it, but would like to know if anyone is having the same issue and if there is a fix. I have just the Trial Version to see if I wish to buy, but if functions are not working properly I won't buy it.

I have the full version and I can't get iMovie '11 projects to import into FCPX. I have tried everything I can think of. The import progress bar starts, then it crashes. Anyone with instructions on getting in it please help. I am migrating stuff to my new MBP and the iMovie stuff is recognized by the iMovie on the new MBP. The iMovie events did import into FCPX fine however.

Can't open Sony PXW-X70 (.mxf) video files for Final Cut Pro X or iMovie, please help!

Hi there--
Just got the Sony PXW-X70 and I can't seem to open the .mxf or even successfully transcode the video files into something that can be read on the mac. (Running 10.9.5)
I downloaded Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac and the Ackrock Video Converters and neither of them work. They just are able to import the audio but not the video portion.
Very frustrated here, any advice? Thanks!

The clips from the X70 are not XAVC-S, but XAVC (sometimes called XAVC-L) and the plugin from Sony linked above is not compatible with them. I also don't recommend those sketchy third party conversion options. Still, as of mid-December, the best options for getting Sony X70 XAVC clips into FCPX are:
1. Use the free Sony Catalyst Browse to convert them (one at a time, although you can queue up multiple files without waiting for the previous one to finish)
2. Use the $200 Sony Catalyst Prepare software
3. Shoot AVCHD until there is a solution from Sony - supposedly Sony is at work on a plugin for FCPX to allow native ingest/editing of these clips. I've read that it should arrive very soon, but we'll see.
I'm using option 1 - $200 is ridiculous, and I didn't buy a camera with 10-bit 4:2:2 and a strong codec to shoot in AVCHD
If it's any consolation, Avid and even Sony Vegas will not import them either.

Image quality using iMovie 08 vs Final Cut Pro

I read in November's Macworld that if I use a tapeless camcorder, "you won't get the best image quality if you use iMovie '08 because the software converts each movie clip to smaller, more manageable size. To get the highest quality you'll need to be running Final Cut Pro on a Mac Pro with at least 2GB of RAM." Do you all agree with this? And if so, please consider the following. I used a mini DV camcorder to transfer all my tapes to my computer and to an external hard drive. Have I already lost that image quality in doing so using iMovie? If so, can Final Cut Pro import from iMovie and improve that quality by decompressing or will I need to retransfer the tapes using Final Cut Pro or will the difference be too negligible to be noticed and not to bother. Thanks, SWestD

I read in November's Macworld that if I use a tapeless camcorder, "you won't get the best image quality if you use iMovie '08 because the software converts each movie clip to smaller, more manageable size. To get the highest quality you'll need to be running Final Cut Pro on a Mac Pro with at least 2GB of RAM." Do you all agree with this?
It depends on the format. In general, the consumer tapeless cameras shoot some highly compressed variant of the mpeg2 or mpeg4 format (delivery formats). These formats are not designed to be edited but rather to be displayed directly from the camera to the TV. In order to edit the material, you must first convert the files from their delivery format to something editiable. This conversion usually results in LARGER not smaller files. There is the potential for some minimal alteration of the image in the transcoding process. This is the trade-off for shooting with such a compressed format.
And if so, please consider the following. I used a mini DV camcorder to transfer all my tapes to my computer and to an external hard drive. Have I already lost that image quality in doing so using iMovie?
No, capturing DV material from tapes using iMovie is a direct digital transfer. DV/NTSC or DV/PAL video as captured from tape is the muxed (mixed audio and video) DV stream. It is an exact replica of what is on the tape.
If so, can Final Cut Pro import from iMovie and improve that quality by decompressing or will I need to retransfer the tapes using Final Cut Pro or will the difference be too negligible to be noticed and not to bother.
FCE and FCP capture material from tapes slightly differently than iMovie. While iMovie brings the material from the tape unaltered, FCE/FCP uses Quicktime during capture to pull the audio and video into separate streams with in the resulting file. By having the audio demuxed, the programs are able to edit multiple video streams simultaneously while iMovie is limited on one at a time. The video quality is not altered in this demuxing process.
If you choose to shoot with a tapeless camera and edit the material in FCE or FCP, FCP has a wider range of formats that can be handled by the program, but in no way will it deal with them all. Many still need to be converted into an edit friendly format before you bring them into the program.
x

Migrate the whole iMovie 10.0.3 library to Final Cut Pro 10.1.1

Is there any way to migrate the whole iMovie 10.0.3 library to Final Cut Pro 10.1.1?
I know we can use "Send project to Final Cut Pro" function from iMovie but it works for a selected project only, not the whole event library with structure.

Thanks for your confirmation! It seems to me this is the situation after tons of research.....
I really don't understand Apple's logic/philosophy now.... in the new iMovie... it takes out the keywords which is extremely important to anyone with many clips. I don't mind to pay for the expensive FCPX but I am told that FCPX cannot migrate the iMovie library..... sigh....... what **** they are thinking....
BTW, it seems the "Send project to Final Cut Pro" function doesn't support sending even the "Event". It supports only sending project with the clips associated with the project. There is no way to send the clip without associated to project. Anyone can confirm it?

MPG to Final Cut Pro , convert mpg files to FCP freely

Why need to convert/import MPG files to Final Cut Pro?
Final Cut Pro is the premium choice for any Mac video editing, and it is widely used by Mac users now. These MPEG standard files can be these different codes and cause failure in importing to Final Cut Pro. If anyone comes across the situation, the best solution is to get aids from MPEG/MPG to FCP converter for Mac, which can help you to convert MPEG group files to FCP compatible video format and then files can be easily imported for editing job.
As we know that Final Cut Pro don't natively support MPG, MPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 files, it can import MPEG-4 files (but need to be rendered once you place them on your timeline) and MOV files (without rendering). Therefore, to import MPG to Final Cut Pro directly, the best way is to convert MPG to Final Cut Pro supported Apple ProRes MOV files.
How to convert MPG to Final Cut Pro(fcp)
Step 1: Import MPG files
Download the latest version of MPG to Final Cut Pro Converter, install and run. And then, click Add Files to import MPG files to FCP, or you can also drag MPG files directly to MPG to Final Cut Pro directly.
Step 2: Choose output format and directory
You can click the drop-down list of Convert Toto select output format as "Final Cut Pro"-> "Apple ProRes MOV ". After that, click "…" of Save Toto designate a directory to save your converted files.
Step 3: Convert MPG to Final Cut Pro (X)
Click Convert to transcode MPG to MOV for editing in Final Cut Pro.
MPG to Final Cut Pro Converter is a practical tool for you to convert MPG, MPEG files to Final Cut Pro supported MOV files in order to free import MPG to Final Cut Pro (X) , FCE, iMovie on Mac OS X Mountain Lion . Besides, it is also able to convert MPG to other video files AVI, WMV, MP4, MKV FLV, DV, 3GP, ASF, RM etc.
Related Article:
MOV to FCP: How to convert MOV to FCP
How to convert mp4 files to fcp freely

Import unsupported MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 to Final Cut Pro 7/X, Final Cut Express
Summary:If you are looking for the best way to transcode MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 videos to ProRes MOV for FCP 7/X and FCE, you can follow this post, it has offered best solutions for editing MPEG videos on Mac in Final Cut Pro 7/X, Final Cut Express.
Cases:
The following are two problems when some users import MPEG-1/MPEG-2 to Final Cut:
"I am trying to import MPEG-2 files into Final Cut Pro X. I have the raw files from a Sony Handicam HDR-SR5 as well as raw files from an Sony Handicam MDR-CX560. These files were recorded as MPEG-2 files and copied from the camera hard drives (entire folders were copied containind the MPEG-2 fies) to a local hard drive on my computer. Final Cut Pro X does not recognize the files and will not import them. I have tried to use Compressor to conver the fies. I am using the very latest version that touts being able to export to Final Cut X format. I don't see that option anywhere in the settings."
Question:
Is there a way to get MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 files into Final Cut Pro X without having to convert them?
Answer:
Don't try to work with (highly compressed) MPEG 2 in FCP X. Use software to convert to ProRes 422 first, it's best codec for final cut pro or final cut express. Life will be much easier for you if you do. ProRes 422 is roughly between 5 and 8 times bigger than native camera footage - sometimes as much as 10 times, I believe, but it's well worth it for editing, effects and playback quality. The time required depends largely on your processor power but 30 mins sounds realistic.
Software you need:
Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac
This software can convert MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 to Apple ProRes 422 codec for Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro 7, Final Cut Pro X or Final Cut Expr editing without rendering.
Step by step guide:
1. Download and install the best MPEG1/MPEG2 to ProRes Converter and launch it to add your videos to it.
2. Choose output format. Click on the “Format”> Final Cut Pro, Apple PreRes 422(HQ), Apple PreRes 422, Apple ProRes 422(LT), etc are all the proper choice for you.
3. Click "Settings" to adjust the parameters as you want, like Video Codec, bit rate, frame rate, Audio codec, sample rate, bit rate, channels. Set the video frame rate as 30fps, video size as 1920*1080 will be better.
4. Click Convert button to start MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 to Final Cut friendly Apple ProRes 422 for native editing on Mac OS X.
5. When the conversion ends, you can run the Final Cut Pro and click File --> Import --> Files to import the resulted MOV files and edit them in FCP easily, you can follow this import video to fcp guide.
From the steps above, I think you got the point to convert and import MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 files to Apple ProRes 422 for Final Cut editing, please have a try, this software will solve you MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 importing and editing problems, and then you can import and use your MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 in Final Cut Pro 7, Final Cut Pro X or Final Cut Express on Mac without any problems.
Now you can get DVD Creator which can help you easily burn video to DVD disc/ISO files.
Buy One Get Another Free?! Yes, just join Pavtube's Special Offers to get the promotion.
PS. If you have any problem, pls contact with [email protected] to get more information. You also can leave a message on Pavtube Community or Pavtube Facebook, we will answer your questions as soon as possilble.
Learn more Cameras/Camcorders related tutorial, pls view our FCP Column, etc. on http://www.pavtube.com/hot-topics/

Changing MOD filest to Final Cut Pro friendly files!

I am doing a a video of my school's graduation and and the camcoder I used recorded the movie in MOD files. What's the best way to convert these files to a format that Final Cut Pro or even iMovie HD can utilize? <Edited by Host> I am starting to get a little nervous because the principal wants this done by Wednesday to give out to the parents, please help! Thanks in advance...

<Edited by Host>
Note that you may need to purchase and install the Quicktime MPEG2 component:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2

How do I import from Canon XM2 Final Cut Pro X on a MacBook Pro?

How do I import from a Canon XM2 to MacBook Air using Final Cut Pro X or iMovie 11 please?

This is a miniDV camcorder. For this camcorder you must use Firewire.
If your MBP has Firewire 800, you need a 4 pin to 9 pin firewire cable.
The camera must be plugged into wall power, not batteries only.
Set the camera to Play, and iMovie should recognize the camera and an import screen should appear.

Can I move video files from Final Cut Pro to iMovie?

I've used iMovie forever, and I just bought Final Cut Pro. I uploaded video for a new movie into FCP, but I have an urgent need to get this movie done and don't have time to learn Final Cut Pro to do it. Can I move my video files from FCP over to iMovie 10.0.6? Or do I need to reload the raw video to iMovie?

No you will have to import your clips again into iMovie 10. Projects can only be transferred from iMovie 10 to FCPX and not the other way.
Geoff.

Importing imovie project into Final Cut Pro

Hello I need help getting my HD imovie project into final cut pro. I recored the project in 24p and it's already imported into imovie. What is the best way to get it into Final Cut Pro so that I can edit it further without sacrificing the quality.
Another problem is that I have heard that imovie compresses the video and totally ruins the quality. Is this true? And is this reversible in any way? I have already recorded over all the clips for this project on my camcorder. How screwed am I?
-Michael

First thing to do is find your original clips that you captured in IMovie. I don't have much experience in IMovie, but see if you can select a clip and control click and choose reveal in finder. If that works, open one of these clips in quicktime player and hit command-i and let us know the format of the clip.
Kind of doubt you'll be able to actually import your project into fcp, but you should be able to recreate it in fcp without too much difficulty.
Let us know what camera you shot and captured from. That may be of some help.
Hopefully someone with more experience in IMovie will speak up, but hopefully this will get us started.
Message was edited by: Michael Grenadier

Can I use Motion 5 without Final Cut Pro but maybe for iMovie?

Hi guys, if I buy Motion 5 can I use it to create a project without Final Cut Pro or X or what ever?! And can I create transitions for iMovie?
Thanks

Stelo08, yes, Motion will export in a handful of formats.
h264 is the most popular, but did not support transparency, which you would likely want if you wanted to do lower thirds (titles).
Motion will export in prores 444 which which supports transparency, but I do not know if it works in imovie.
(I tried it in Camtasia 2.3 and it did not there, but it seemed to work in ScreenFlow 4.03)
Additionally, you can import video footage into Motion, so worst case scenario, you could pull a shorter scene into motion, do your overlays, export that scene and then add it back into imovie.

Final Cut Pro X vs. iMovie

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