Working with WMV files in FCP 5 Timeline

Question

I know Flip4Mac Studio Edition allows for importing and exporting into and out of FCP 5 in WMV format. What I'm not sure of, is can you do intensive editing on the WMV files in FCP 5 without any glitches. Will FCP run smoothly?
I am asking because I work at online company that will be receiving wmv files on its servers. This is a high volume workflow with an intense turnover rate. We are receiving hour long clips and re-editing them down to 2 minutes. There is no time to go through lengthy WMV to MOV conversions. We need to receive, edit, and output all in WMV.
Can FLip4Mac with FCP 5 edit an intense environment like this? Where everything is done in WMV? Or Is Flip4Mac primarily for converting WMV into MOV so that editing in FCP is done with MOV files, and then at the end exporting as WMV again.
Is FLip4Mac the only solution. Are there others? After recommending and praising Macs, I may be on thin ice if FLip4Mac isn't a sufficient workaround!!
Thanks Curtis

Answer 1

Saving a WMV as MOV in QuicktimePro is simply putting a MOV wrapper on the WMV so FCP will better handle it. It's a Save As not an export so there's no additional compression.
Ultimately you will have to render though, most likely because it's not one of the video formats natively handled by FCP (DV, DVCPro50, etc). It's not just the physical settings, the "video" codec itself must be supported. BTW if you were to edit in HDV you'd have to render too for output (to create new GOP structure in that case though).
Hi Craig,
Thanks for the advice, a few things though....
"Flip4Mac Player Pro allows you to edit WMV in FCP."
The problem is that I need to render when I import
WMV files into FCP, even though I have matched all of
the parameters in the sequence settings (ie. pixel
aspect ratio, frame rate, frame size, etc.)
I don't know for sure, but my understanding is I have
to render because there is no WM9 option under the
"compressor" parameter in the Sequence Settings.
Because of this it is impossible to import WMV files
without rendering even with FLip4Mac, because I have
it installed and can still export as a WMV file.
Have you discovered a way to import WMV files into
FCP without needing rendering? This is critical for
me because the environment I'm in doesn't allow for
long render times, as it will slow down the workflow
of the whole newsroom.
"I can also open WMV in QuicktimePro (with Flip4Mac)
and save the file as MOV. I find it works smoother
that way."
But doesn't it degrade the quality when you convert
to .MOV? And for me, going from WMV to MOV back to
WMV will result in degradations at each step won't
it?
Curtis