Importing AVCHD into FCPX

hi -

I have an HMC150 that uses the SDHC cards... (AVCHD)

I also have a 2011 iMac (8g RAM, 2g VRAM, i7 (3.4) - I am going to upgrade to 16g RAM soon to see if this takes care of the playback issue I am having...

The Issue: I recently just imported clips/footage into FCPX & have some stutter/glitch issues with playback of the footage - so just wondering if any of you are working with the same set-up/equipment/technology & have run into this issue as well?

**I imported into a 2T G-drive - then did a test by importing into the internal hard drive - same issue...

Some questions...

which should be checked when importing AVCHD:
- "Optimized Media" - or - "Proxy"?
- I imported "optimized media" but a FCPX tech suggested "proxy" ?

I also just read that if you don't check either option, then it just imports the AVCHD natively (perhaps this is the way to go??) -

I am finding AVCHD to be a royal pain to work with...
I never dreamed that I'd have any issues like this with a loaded iMac...

Any help/guidance is greatly appreciated! - Thanks!

I don't have a solid answer...however, if the clips are reasonable...you can import them to imovie as a project then into FCPX...I only suggest this because I did it last night working on a project...I heard about AVCHD/FCPX issues so I imported to imovie first...then straight to FCPX...No playback problems at all.( It doesn't take long ) Also, I read your post with regard to RAM upgrade in another thread...that may not be your problem with the AVCHD files...I would wait to see what happens after you sort it out a little...Your machine is higher speced than mine and I'm not having problems...although I do have 12GB ram...( working with proxy files...but they are AIC encoded from iMovie )

hey codda -

i'm assuming you imported "large" in imovie?
what do you mean by AIC encoded?

i wound up getting the other 8g of ram (16 total now) and this seems to have helped with the stutterness/glitchyness... although i didn't really get a chance to really look at all the footage, but there does seem to be better playback -

the problem i am having now is figuring out (basically) the best way to import this footage in fcpx - because when i check "create optimized" the initial import is pretty quick - but then the background tasking on the import takes (in my opinion) way too long! - so i'm wondering if there's something up with this...

yesterday i went to import a 1 hr. clip into fcpx (checking "create optimize" & nothing else) - and after 4 hours of it still "analyzing & transcoding" i had to force quit the program because i had to go to work - and it was only at 67% complete at that point!

- which really doesn't seem right to me...
- so i'm thinking maybe proxy is the way to import this footage...?

thanks!

- Vince

AIC is Apple Intermediate Codec...which iMovie transcodes into...since your able to import the footage to FCPX ( it appears ) that point would be moot...
A 1 hour clip is definitely going to take awhile to render in FCPX...1hr.! That's alot of footage...Let it transcode overnight..? Also if you check proxy media...it will go faster...but at some point the transcoding will have to take place...Your at the mercy of the size of your content...

why then (or how then) is iMovie able to import the same footage in under an hour? thats what I don't understand -

I'm assuming iMovie isn't doing all of this transcoding? - why then is fcpx doing it?

Just guessing...32 bit vs. 64 bit and different sophistication's of the two programs with regard to architecture, features, power, and quality...

I wouldn't import into iMovie with that camera. AIC is limited to 1440x1080 - see: Final Cut Pro 7 Professional Formats and Workflows (which means your beautiful 1920x1080 will be converted to anamorphic 1440x1080) and on 720p it's limited to 29.97 fps (so 720p60 isn't an option at full framerate). Using FCP, you should be using ProRES and not AIC.

FCPX should be able to convert it to ProRES, although I don't have FCPX so how it handles log and transfer I don't know (I use FCP7 and FCP6), but there should be some settings that may help (I can't remember what they are off the top of my head, I'm not in front of my edit box) that have to do with transcoding. Also, is the stuttering happening during things like pans or just general video?

I'd also suggest seeing how your footage plays natively - download Movist (it's free) and play the mts files in the stream folder within the AVCHD structure to see how they play. You've got more then enough CPU power, and the RAM should be OK. I use FCP 7 on an early 2008 Mac Pro (8 core, but would probably score lower then your machine, 8 gig ram) with footage from an HMC40 and I also work with FCP6 on an older iMac 2GHz 2.0Gig machine (usually working with 720p footage) and I have few problems (unless there is an over-speed pan in the footage which will cause stuttering, but that's a camera operation issue, not an fcp issue)

codda said:

AIC is Apple Intermediate Codec...which iMovie transcodes into...since your able to import the footage to FCPX ( it appears ) that point would be moot...
A 1 hour clip is definitely going to take awhile to render in FCPX...1hr.! That's alot of footage...Let it transcode overnight..? Also if you check proxy media...it will go faster...but at some point the transcoding will have to take place...Your at the mercy of the size of your content...

Click to expand...

Just as an aside...I've only done the iMovie to FCPX import once...in a hurry to avoid any potential AVCHD conflicts ( based on a few posts in other forums...) on B roll footage...I also use a Canon t2i that I import natively...transcoding to Pro Res. for optimal rendering/export....

Experimenting with some small clips and different settings will ultimately determine your success...