Step by step
 

Mike,

Although I've been editing for a while on the PC based NLE's - I'm new to the Mac & FCP and could use some help. I've roughed a couple of shows in FCP and have edited files on the PC with the MRC1 files - but not together at this point.

Could you help me with a step by step procedure of tranfering footage from my Z5/MRC1 to my Mac for edit in FCP 5. ? What do I need in addition to Clipwrap to get these files imported / transcoded to QT and ready for FCP ? What should be my best settings for FCP edit ?

If it's already here - just point me in the right direction.

As always guys - thanks for your help !

Darin

Darin,

There are a lot of permutations of possible workflows. With FCP5, you'll have spotty HDV support at best - so I'd recommend transcoding the footage to apple's AIC codec for better editing support. You shouldn't need any additional software besides FCP and ClipWrap to get going. Just drag the m2t files into ClipWrap, select AIC from the dropdown list at the bottom and hit the convert button. When all is said and done, you can archive or delete the m2t files and edit form the new .mov files.

Mike
--
Mike Woodworth
mike@divergentmedia.com

FCP / m2t
 

Mike,

I should have the discs on the way to upgrade my FCP to 6. Does this change your recommendations for AIC ?

Also - is the Sony utility plug-in for FCP 6 the only way to get the large divided clips to import as one seamless clip so they can then be re-wrapped ?

Thanks for your help !

Darin

Darin,

With FCP 6.0 you can do a rewrap and feel secure any original camera format will be supported. As for the sony clip spanning, check out an earlier thread -

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/divergen...-segments.html

-Mike

CW with FCP5
 

Mike,

I'm using CW to rewrap m2t files from my MRC1. You had recommended changing to the AIC instead of just wrapping to mov. The AIC wrap seems to move much slower. I've tried just wrapping to mov and don't appear to be having issues in my tests so far.

What should I be looking for in the way of problems ? Am I missing something ?

Thanks,
Darin

Glitch
 

I'm using FCP 5 with Clipwrap. I convert M2t files from my mrc1k to .mov without altering original samples.

The resulting .mov files readily edit on FCP5 and play perfectly in the timeline - that's where the problem starts. If I export a self-contained Qt movie using current settings, I get "phantom" frames in the file. Randomly inserted frames that render the file useless.

My solution was to export the QT self-contained file in the Apple Intermediate codec. Worked perfectly !! Flawless QT was the result.

If I had taken Mike's advice and wrapped them in AIC originally - I might not have had that issue - but the extra time to wrap in AIC from each raw file seemed to be a inconvenience at the time.

Just an FYI.

Bump for Mike.......
 

Mike,

You have any input on my last post ???

Darin,

Do I think you should have taken my advice? Yes ;)

Seriously though, I suspect the "phantom" frames you're experiencing are due to FCP5s inability to properly parse the GOP structure of AVCHD. We've only tested with the newer FCS versions, so I can't say much more than that. We haven't seen this problem though with those newer versions of FCP.

mike

I think our producer actually has the latest FCP in route. When I wrap to QT for newer than 5 , I shouldn't have issues - correct ?

Thanks for the help !