JazzBox Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Ciao! I use my Panasonic G6 a lot and I made some shot in AVCHD but, differently from MP4 shots, it is very annoyng to preview them before importing in my NLE. Do you know if there is some converter - maybe free - so I can look at them quickly? Thank you very much! :) Laura Robinson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnymossville Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 for a nice viewer, just use http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ works great on mac. jonpais and JazzBox 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzBox Posted October 17, 2014 Author Share Posted October 17, 2014 for a nice viewer, just use http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ works great on mac. Thank you! I use VLC for watching movies, but the folder I have from G6 does not let me open the files normally: I have a strange folder I can only see as "list" but the preview etc... doesn't works. I have to open each files... and of course, when I have 300 or 400 little takes it slows down the work. I'll try to open the folder from VLC! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzBox Posted October 18, 2014 Author Share Posted October 18, 2014 Thank you very much ChrisKing! I normally import my 50p in FCPx and then I set the speed at 50%, because there is not an "interpret footage" option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quirky Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Ciao! I use my Panasonic G6 a lot and I made some shot in AVCHD but, differently from MP4 shots, it is very annoyng to preview them before importing in my NLE. Do you know if there is some converter - maybe free - so I can look at them quickly? Thank you very much! :) You don't say what OS and NLE you're using, but based on the recent comment above I assume it's OS X & FCPX. There are quite a few different video converters out there in the App Store alone, let alone out in the wild wide web. Anything from simple and cheap/free options like VidConvert to more sophisticated transcoders like ClipWrap, for example, which cost some money, but do pretty much what what they say in the tin. I used to use one of those kind of converters earlier. I think it was VoltaicHD or something like that, which is no longer available, and it worked well for my needs and workflow at the time. But the OS X support for AVCHD has improved recently, and I no longer shoot mostly AVCHD, so nowadays I settle for simpler solutions. Another, perhaps rather unorthodox approach is to use Aperture to import AVCHD clips off the camera/card. Many people have probably migrated to Lightroom or whatever for photos, but Aperture still works just fine, and for video clips, too. I know we can nowadays import AVCHD files directly into FCPX, but the point of using Aperture, IMO, is convenience. That is, in case you have the app installed already. You can still get Aperture from the App Store, though, and no doubt the new Photos or Videos (or whatever the new replacement is called) will work the same way. Aperture (and its soon to be released successor in Yosemite, possibly free) gives you a nice thumbnail view of all your AVCHD clips on the card, and after you import them, you can click and view them with one click, without having to do any conversion or folder digging first. Then you can trash or trim your clips within that viewing window. You can throw away the unnecessary heads and tails of your clips, as well as all the bad clips, and then send only the trimmed bits over to FCPX. That will save some time and probably disk space, too, when you start working on your project in FCPX. Then, after you're done editing your project in FCPX, you can choose to either delete, move or keep the unedited clips within the Aperture library. No need to keep the .mts files inside the annoying Private folder structure on the card. Unless you really want to. Just one method of many, and the annoyance level is reasonably low with this method. Even though the converted files take up a bit more disk space than the unconverted .mts files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fe4a3f5e8381673ce80017d29a8375f1 Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Thank you very much ChrisKing! I normally import my 50p in FCPx and then I set the speed at 50%, because there is not an "interpret footage" option. FCPX does have an interpret footage option. It's in the 'retime' menu (above the timeline/effects browser on the left - a grey circle with an arrow on the end). It used to be called 'conform' but now it's called 'automatic'. Just select your clip in the timeline and click 'automatic'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fe4a3f5e8381673ce80017d29a8375f1 Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 As a second camera, I am purchasing a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G6 video camera that shoots in 1080 60p, 60i and 24p, in the AVCHD codec(Of course, it supports MP4 movie recording). After recording some 1080 60p video clips, I planned to transfer the 60p video to Final Cut Pro on my iMac, but it’s a bit of trouble. Final Cut Pro seems not be able to ingest the 60p files from Panasonic DMC-G6. Well, since the FCP native format is ProRes, the best method to import Panasonic 60p AVCHD from Panasonic DMC-G6 to FCP smoothly is to convert the AVCHD 1080 60p footage to Apple ProRes for Final Cut Pro along with some help from a 3rd-party Pansonic AVCHD Converter. The freeware Handbrake is available, but it doesn't seems to bring an ideal result as I've tried. I've been exporting AVCHD from my G6, in all frame rates, into FCPX for a year now without any problems. I can edit AVCHD natively without any problem. I've experimented with converting to prores but haven't found any advantages. I do have a powerful iMac though. Having said that, although 24p AVCHD is the best quality image, I find 50p MP4 to be better than 50p AVCHD. 50p AVCHD has much more aliasing artefacts and looks overly sharpened to me. I shot this with my G6 recently, using 24p AVCHD and 50p MP4. All edited and (quite heavily) graded natively in FCPX. No transcode to prores, AVCHD imported straight into the FCPX event from the SD card: 1tkman and Hitfabryk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzBox Posted October 18, 2014 Author Share Posted October 18, 2014 FCPX does have an interpret footage option. It's in the 'retime' menu (above the timeline/effects browser on the left - a grey circle with an arrow on the end). It used to be called 'conform' but now it's called 'automatic'. Just select your clip in the timeline and click 'automatic'. Thanks! I just saw it! It is the 50% speed I used, just quicker, so a lot better! Thank you! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzBox Posted October 18, 2014 Author Share Posted October 18, 2014 As a second camera, I am purchasing a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G6 video camera that shoots in 1080 60p, 60i and 24p, in the AVCHD codec(Of course, it supports MP4 movie recording). After recording some 1080 60p video clips, I planned to transfer the 60p video to Final Cut Pro on my iMac, but it’s a bit of trouble. Final Cut Pro seems not be able to ingest the 60p files from Panasonic DMC-G6. Well, since the FCP native format is ProRes, the best method to import Panasonic 60p AVCHD from Panasonic DMC-G6 to FCP smoothly is to convert the AVCHD 1080 60p footage to Apple ProRes for Final Cut Pro along with some help from a 3rd-party Pansonic AVCHD Converter. The freeware Handbrake is available, but it doesn't seems to bring an ideal result as I've tried. I have not problems working with AVCHD in Final Cut ProX: it works smoothly and as fast as the .MOV or the .mp4 from other cameras. I have problems to preview quickly the files inside the folder I copy from the SD Card, before to import them in the software. Especially when I shot music video, the takes - apart 2 or 3 "masters" - are very short, so I like to choose the "cut in" before starting to edit and to get rid of the bad shots without importing them in FCPX. That is very slow, because I cannot use the simple "preview" from Mac OSX as I do with .mp4 or .MOV files, but I have to open them with Quicktime from a strange folder/list that not permits any preview. I'm searching something that allows me to preview AVCHD files "normally", as all other files on Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fe4a3f5e8381673ce80017d29a8375f1 Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Thanks! I just saw it! It is the 50% speed I used, just quicker, so a lot better! Thank you! :) Cool. Don't forget though that this function does not a simple as just slowing your footage by 50%. It "conforms" it to the frame rate of the timeline - so for example if you shoot something at 60p and put it on a 24fps timeline, it will "conform" it to 40% automatically. So it saves you calculating the %, as well as time. And assures you it is exactly right. i.e. 50% just happens to be the result of your particular project ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fe4a3f5e8381673ce80017d29a8375f1 Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 I have problems to preview quickly the files inside the folder I copy from the SD Card, before to import them in the software. Especially when I shot music video, the takes - apart 2 or 3 "masters" - are very short, so I like to choose the "cut in" before starting to edit and to get rid of the bad shots without importing them in FCPX. That is very slow, because I cannot use the simple "preview" from Mac OSX as I do with .mp4 or .MOV files, but I have to open them with Quicktime from a strange folder/list that not permits any preview. I'm searching something that allows me to preview AVCHD files "normally", as all other files on Mac. But you can do all of this in the FCPX import window! :) You can preview clips - and even select which portions of clips you want to import - before importing. Open the FCPX import window and choose the little grey camcorder icon under "devices" in the top left hand corner (this symbol only appears with AVCHD footage - MP4 footage is under the normal SD card icon, separately). Then all of your AVCHD clips should appear in the import window for you to preview. Let me know if you have problems with this. AVCHD is basically a ridiculous format that will hopefully become extinct soon. The folder structure is unnecessarily complex and difficult to work with. But FCPX does make it easy ... JazzBox 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluefonia Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 I can confirm everything Matt has said about previewing and importing AVCHD into FCPX. I use the exact same method and it works flawless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzBox Posted October 19, 2014 Author Share Posted October 19, 2014 Matt, huge thanks for your help! You are a goldmine of informations! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzBox Posted October 19, 2014 Author Share Posted October 19, 2014 Thank you Bluefonia! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbystanley Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I recommend Video Converter. I've tried some free converting program before. They can be used to convert AVCHD videos to MOV or MP4 which are compatible with Mac, but the conversion caused quality loss. So I would rather pay some money for much better software. It's a very easy-to-used program with clear interface. At first, plug in your panasonic camcorder and run Video Converter. Then, load AVCHD videos to the program and choose a specific format in the output format column. Finally, select an output folder and click "Convert" button. In a minute, the conversion will finish and you can check the converted videos in the folder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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