Problems with converted .MTS files in Final Cut Express 4

I have a hard drive full of video shot and a consumer grade HD camera in the .MTS format.
After struggling with finding an acceptable converter, I finally bought iSkysoft's Video Converter.
I've been using the converter's output preset of "MP4 Format for Final Cut X" and "High definition MP4 format" settings and they both yield the same results.
Now I am having problems simply editing the footage in FCE4.
I can take the footage and set i/o points in them but when I drag clips into the timeline, it often hangs up, locks up, FCE is unresponsive and it's even crashed.
This is on a 2 x 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Mac running 10.6.8.

In order to use .mts video in Final Cut Express, you need to convert the video to QuickTime/Apple Intermediate Codec before importing into FCE. .mts video files are typically H.264 video, highly compressed and is not something that FCE can edit. Ditto for "MP4 format for FCPX or HighDef MP4 format". If iSkysoft cannot convert to QT/AIC then I suggest Clipwrap
Note: for the future, if your camcorder is an AVCHD camcorder you can directly ingest the video from the camcorder into FCE.

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Need help with editing AVCHD files in Final Cut Express 4

The AVCHD files were recorded on a Canon HG10 before I bought a Mac Pro OS X 15.1.
I transfered them to a file on my desktop, like the instructions tell me to do, but when I get to the part of "mount the media files in the log and transfer", I get stuck.
The file is named AVCHD and when I try to upload it into the Log and Transfer window through the little plus sign on the left hand top corner, I get the following message:
"AVCHD" contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media."
It does not allow me to import the files individually. I tried dragging the files to where it says "Drag media here" and nothing happens. If I try to drag the file to the area in the top left corner of log and transfer, I get the same message as above.
What do I need to do?

I have a different camcorder, but my experience might be of help to you.
I have a Sony HDR-UX1 AVCHD camcorder that records to 8cm DVDs.
I tried using Apple Final Cut Express 4's FILE > LOG AND TRANSFER command to capture directly from the 8cm DVD, which resided in an external Sony DVD drive... and I was not successful.
Then, I remembered my experience on Windows XP where I used Corel's Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus.
With Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus, I found I had to drag the contents of removable media discs and disks to my Windows desktop, which then allowed me to use the software video capture tools successfully.
So I tried the same thing with Apple Final Cut Express 4.
I dragged the BDMV FOLDER on my 8cm AVCHD disc to my Mac's desktop.
I then used the FILE > LOG AND TRANSFER command and simply browsed to the folder on the desktop and -- Voila! -- the contents of the folder appeared as video thumbnails in the LOG AND TRANSFER WINDOW and everything worked.
Hope this helps,
Private Idaho

Trouble understanding and converting .avi files in Final Cut Express

I recently just purchased my first Mac with Final Cut Express and am very excited to start editing again, both photos and video. The camera I use (Nikon D90) saves the video format as .avi But Final Cut Express can't read .avi clips when they get transferred. Now i know there are programs out there that fix this situation (I just downloaded the trial for VoltaicHD, its very easy to use and gets the job done) but its a limited download and will expire soon. Before I spend $, is there a free way of doing this (i.e. a free download) or is this something you normally need to purchase when coming across this situation? and Is Apples $30 dollar converter download any different from VoltaicHD's $30 dollar converter download. Thank you anyone who reads this and helps me out.

Hi there, and welcome to the Mac, and the Apple Discussion Forums.
I'd recommend you have a read through previous posts about AVI's - there's one not too far back, and others I'm sure.
I also don't think I'd be alone in recommending MPEG Streamclip as your converter:
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
Regards,

HELP! Convert .mts files for Final Cut Pro 6

Please help!
I am a broadcast/video production teacher in California and we are struggling.
I just bought some Canon R10s to go with our F200s. We edit on FInal Cut Pro and we have 20 G5, PowerPC Macs.
How do we convert the video so we can edit in Final Cut?
I bought an MST converter. Log and transfer doesn't work (we don't have Intel computers), I have tried to change the sequence presets. Some things work, but converting takes forever, we have to render everything, Final Cut crashes, and the video will skip right before the frame starts.
When using the MTS converter, we convert using the settings: h.264, 30fps, 1500 bit rate.
What should we change? What can we do?
We put together a weekly 20 minute show, and if this continues, I will start to lose the kids.
Thanks for the help,
Ben
[email protected]

Welcome to the forum,
Okay, as a starting point, if you're running G5s, you DO NOT want to transcode to h.264 for editing with. It IS NOT a working codec, it is a delivery codec, and/or an acquisition codec for many cameras. H.264 has a complex algorithm and is built on the mpeg4 format.
Without meaning to sound like a grumpy old man, the amount of times we see people on a daily basis coming to this forum with problems caused by editing in h.264, is just ridiculous.
I reiterate; Do not edit in h.264. You will grind your computers to a halt, and be rendering forever.
If you have the hard-drive space, you should transcode to ProRes and use that in FCP.

Problems with still frames blurring in Final Cut Express....

I have had problems with still frames blurring. I've discovered it's related to the green line above the time line on the sequence bar. I can't find the name of the bar but it's red if you need rendering. There are green lines and when the scrubber hits the line the frame goes blurry.
I'm guessing it's related to another previous attempt at adding motion to the still. My question, I think, is how to eliminate the green lines to the regular blue?
jb

If there are any colored bars above your video other than the normal grey/light blue then you need to render the sequence out by hitting Option-R.

Can I import MTS files into Final Cut Express?

It seems like FCE only reads MOV and MP4 files, and sometimes it doesn't even read those for me. Is there no easy way to import and edit MTS video files?

If the source files are HD, then use Clipwrap:
http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap
and convert the source files to Apple Intermediate Codec.
MtD

TS2179 import files from final cut express to idvd

Import files from final cut express to idvd. When we are making a dvd in iDVD importing the files (widescreen mov files ) from final cut express they automatically change to 4x3. They look correct when played in the quicktime player. Has anyone had this problem.

Generally, I just drag the DV file from the finder to the iDVD menu window. Make sure you don't drag it to any Drop Zones, I think that might be your problem with the DV file showing up as the background. If you have default settings in iDVD, this drag and drop should then create submenus based on your chapter markers.
I'm not sure if you have any issues with the Chapters not showing up in QT. If you're expecting them to show up, then make sure that when you do the Export to QT that the option to include Chapter Markers is set. Upon conversion, you should see the Chapters within QT as well as when imported into iDVD.
Hope this helps!

Can I export Final Cut Pro files to Final Cut Express?

Can I export Final Cut Pro files to Final Cut Express?

FCE only works with DV for standard definition and the Apple Intermediate Codec for HD. Most FCP projects cannot be opened in FCE.

Can't move a soundtrack file into Final Cut Express

I most likely doing something wrong. Who can give me directions for importing a Soundtrack file into Final Cut Express.

What I do Les is go to Share in Sound Track then ...Share to iTunes. Then I go to iTunes and drag it to the desk top then import via FC. There maybe is an easier way but I don't know it.

Converting FCP .mov files for Final Cut Express

Working in FCP 6, I've transferred P2 footage (720p30) into an edit, via the Prores 422 (HQ) codec. No problems, edit done. But now my client would like the source clips to manipulate in her copy of Final Cut Express (version 4).
FCE doesn't recognize Prores, it seems, so I've tried converting a sample clip via "Apple Intermediate Codec," which does produce a recognizable file, but requires a render. From what I can see of FCE, the AIC codec is the way to go, but obviously I'm missing some setting, because whenI asked her to render, export as .mov, then re-import, and that new clip shows without having to render.
That tells me it's probably some specific codec consideration, but I'm not really familiar enough with FCE to troubleshoot it.
Any ideas about the proper export settings for getting 720p30 HD footage into FCE?
Thanks in advance!

The problem is a little more complicated with DVCPRO HD media because it uses its own anamorphic frame size for 720p media. Open the file you need to convert into the QT player and give the exact specifications from the movie inspector.

Need to find a way to convert mts files to aFinal Cut compatible format --

I hired someone to shoot something for me recently and he used AVCHD. However, he only copied the mts files and did not save the entire folder structure, which unfortunately is what Final Cut requires (at least that's my understanding of it). Basically I need to find a way to convert mts files into a Final Cut compatible file format.
Any ideas out there? Thanks in advance.

Forum search is your friend. The usual answer you'll find is ClipWrap, transcodes .mts to whatever flavor of ProRes you want.

Convert AVID files to Final Cut Pro X for editing

Convert AVID Bin to Final Cut Pro with Media
What is the way to convert AVID to FCPX so I can continue editing on FCPX?

Can you be more specific FCP can create optimized footage in app after import for editing if that is what you need. If you need to literally covert it than running it through compressor should do the trick. Or you could download the avid codecs for your mac and maintain your original footage. http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Download/en392959?popup=true

Problems with the new MacBookPro and Final Cut???

Got this from a friend of mine, and wondered if y'all could provide any insights.
Thanks in advance.
Hal
Begin forwarded message:
" ...the water walkers are
discussing the "Steve Givith - Steve Taketh" concerning the new powerbooks.
Along with the hardware downsides: no Firewire 800; only one USB port; the Superdrive has reduced features from the existing one in the IBM processor version; and no internal modem.
On the software side - and the reason for this note, the new "Mac Book" cannot run software that is keyed to the CPU of earlier Mac models. That means that where Apple or the vendor keyed the ability of an application
to run to the G3 or G4 or ALTIVEC engine, that program will no longer
operate in the new Mac Book. (This true?)
Bringing that closer to home:
The current version of Final Cut Studio is not supported on Intel-based
Mac computers with Rosetta. A Universal version of Final Cut Studio,
which will run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Mac computers,
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Final Cut Express is Not supported on Intel-based Mac computers with
Rosetta.
==> notice that the "universal version" sentence is not found on the
Apple website under Final Cut Express.
Any clues or contacts who can sort this out?"

From the keynote:
Universal Binary versions of the Pro software (Final Cut Pro, etc) will be available by the end of March 2006. It will cost $49 for current owners of the most-recent version of Final Cut Studio to get this Universal version.
Look at this page as well:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/topquestions.html
"Does Final Cut Studio run on the new Intel-based Mac computers?
The current version of Final Cut Studio is not supported on Intel-based Mac computers with Rosetta. A Universal version of Final Cut Studio, which will run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Mac computers, will be available before the end of March 2006.
If I buy Final Cut Studio today, can I get the Universal version when it’s available?
Yes. All owners of Final Cut Studio can purchase the Universal version for $49."
Re: Final Cut Express... this page confirms what you said about it not being supported on the Intel Macs using Rosetta:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/specs.html

Sony DCR SR42 files and Final Cut Express

Hi - I am the owner of a new MacBook which I bought specifically to edit movies from my Sony hard disk Camcorder. I have since found that this model is not on the list of supported camcorders for iMovie and in fact iMovie does not recognise the mpeg files saved by the camcorder.
Can anyone tell me whether Final Cut Express would work with this camera? If not I will probably have to exchange my mac for a PC laptop.

Hi there,
I'm having the same problem with the same camera. I'm replacing it with a mini DV (picture quality is much better and so is compatibility with iMovie '06 and FCE).
But I've still got a ton of footage from the Sony that I need to convert.
When you converted your footage, what file format did you use? Were you happy with the new quality? And was the resulting footage easy to work with? Anything else you can share?
Thanks for your help.
Bryan

Protected Files and Final Cut Express

I have bought music on Itunes. For some reason out of the blue i can not burn the music to disc, I cant even import the songs to Final Cut Express. Why is this? I have imported music from Itunes into Final Cut with out any problems before many times. I guess the music is protected, (the music's icon has a little lock on the upper left corner, this is new).
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Delfire,
FIles purchased from the iTunes Music Store are protected with Apple's Fairplay DRM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairPlay
The ideas is that you can create music CDs with your purchases, but you cannot directly convert them to MP3 or other formats.
All to help curb music piracy.
Matt

Problems with converted .MTS files in Final Cut Express 4

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