Transfering HDV footage from PC capture to MAC
 

I have to capture some HDV footage from my Sony HDR-FX1 and send it to someone using Final Cut 5.1.4.

I can capture as *.m2t files quite easily. Would FC 5.1.4 use these well enough? When the Mac user initially tried to capture, he couldn't get native HDV capture to work and ended up using the Apple Intermediate Codec.

If not *.m2t, is there something better?

-Steve

What are you using to capture the media to a PC? Final Cut Pro can't deal with a transport stream (m2t) file, that's for sure, it would have to be converted to a QuickTime file using the HDV or Apple Intermediate Codec. Ideally you want to avoid conversion of the HDV stream, so if whatever you're using to capture has other options, possible one of them might be readable by Final Cut Pro.

MPEG Streamclip is an application that can convert the m2t files into QuickTime files using a variety of codecs that Final Cut Pro can deal with.

The Cineform codec works on both Windows and Mac now, so that can be used to transfer avi files back and forth. You can download the latest beta of the Cineform Mac codec from Cineform's website.

However, if you have used DV Rack/OnLocation or similar to capture m2t files on a Windows machine and you intend to complete the edit in Final Cut Pro, then I agree with David that you should simply move all of those files to the mac (via USB drive, network or DVD-R) and use MpegStreamclip to convert them to Quicktime as ProRes422 (FCP6 only) or Apple Intermediate Codec.

Actually, I'll be using Cineform's HDLink to capture and scene-split the files. I don't really want to convert them all to the Cineform codec, since they'll be significantly bigger. Ideally I'd just save them all as *.m2t and send them to the guy with Mac to convert if there was an application that could do it. At least then I'm not responsible for the generational hit he takes.

But seriously, are you saying a Mac can't do anything with *.m2t files? *.m2t is the raw HDV transport stream... i.e., it is the HDV codec.

-Steve

I'm not sure about Final Cut Pro 6.x, but as far as 5.1.x goes, Final Cut can't import *.m2t files. As far as I know, Final Cut requires the media files it imports to be in a QuickTime wrapper.

Maybe you didn't read David and my posts closely enough. We both recommended MPEGStreamclip for the mac which is designed to work with m2t files and can convert to any codec you would like.
If you want to edit in native HDV on Final Cut Pro then you must capture with Final Cut Pro. You can't just drag m2t to FCP because those files need to be encapsulated in Quicktime, even though the video data remains untouched.

Cineform is considered a very good "visually lossless" codec, so you should really try one or two files first and see how the workflow works for the editor before worrying about possible generation loss.

You would certainly save alot of time by just capturing directly into Final Cut Pro and editing natively in HDV - especially considering FCP6's new real-time engine.

Capturing on a Second Comp
 

I'm looking into the Cineform approach. I'm also concerned about quality and file size. I'm converting from PC to Mac, and bought a nice Quad. I want to use it for editing only and capture on another comp. I still have my PC, but decided to buy a Macbook on which to capture. I discovered that I cannot have two versions of FCP open, so I'm back to the start.

Is there another app I should look into for the Mac, or should I use Cineform on my PC to capture for the Mac?