imovie and final cut pros files.

Hi All,Having just bought my first mac for doing my video editing at home i have run into a few problems.

The first being on transfer from dv tape to iMovie via the dv in/out on the camcorder to firewire on the mac .I am disappointed with the quality compared to a slight improvement on transfer to the free trial version of final cut pro x.Would it be any better if i used another lead that would go into the usb on the camcorder to firewire on the mac.

I also have a panasonic tm9oo avchd so i used the trial version of pavtube converter and converted the files to apple intermediate codec which works well in iMovie and on fcprox.I also tried to use prores 422 on fcpro x but for some reason all i get is audio and no movie.Can you use prores on fcprox.

Hope you can give me some help before i make any purchases i was wondering if i may be better to make a second hand purchase of the old fcpro and is it legal to do so.

Thanks in advance Lee

really could do with your help guys....

You can't go from USB to firewire, or USB capture from tape on a Mac. What exactly are the quality problems you're referring to? Are you sure there isn't a quality issue with the master footage?

In terms of AVCHD, you should always leave the stream files in place in the AVCHD structure, connect the camera (or SDHC card) to the Mac and import the footage directly using FCP's import feature or iMovies import feature.

AIC is used in iMovie as well as FCP. It is a lower quality codec compared to ProRES.

ProRES is supported by FCP but not by iMovie. Unless there is a good reason to, you should let FCP (if that's the tool of choice) import the footage itself for editing work rather then using a third party tool (sometimes that's not possible, many people take the mts files out of the structure (which you should never do when editing on a Mac) or there are a few devices out there that don't record to the standard structure that causes issues - transcoding with a third party program should be a last resort option for ingesting footage into iMovie or FCP (unless one of the above discussed issues comes into play, or the footage you are working with is somehow not "compatible")

Hi Nethfel thanks for your reply.

I am using a lead that goes from my dv in/out to firewire for getting my tape mini dv stuff on the mac in final cut pro x trial version.Personally i think the footage is poor quality compared to viewing on my tv or on my friends pc who uses adobe premier cs4.I don't understand why the quality is not good.

concerning my avchd files final cut pro x will not recognise them or convert them for me so i have to use a 3rd party software.I am currently using the pavtube trial version which to be honest i will prob get toast instead,However when i convert to a prores 422 or similar final cut pro x only plays the audio and theres no video which leads me to believe final cut pro x docent support proves(Is that right).So instead i have been converting to a aic file but loose some quality.

Last thing concerning the avchd files when i used to convert them on my pc and save them to my external hard drive for archiving all the files would get copied however when i plug my camera in the mac it only shows me the mts files which i am copying(looking at your post this isn't the correct thing to do.)What happens if i don't have all of the structure.
Thanks for your help
Lee

just having a look at things again when i used to save on my pc via the panasonic software it stored as a .m2ts file along with a .cont .pmpd and a .tmb file(what ever these are) when i try to save direct from the camera to my hard drive all i have are .mts files........Help lol