AVCHD on iMAC

H

hughesyboy

Member
Hi everyone,

I'm considering purchasing an HMC150 but was wondering what type of computer system would be the minimum requirements. I've got an IMac dual core intel 2.8ghz extreme with 4gb ram, leopard and latest final cut suite 2 updates. Would this be able to hande editing AVCHD? or is a mac pro required?

Cheers,
Dave
 
the thing about AVCHD footage and using final cut is that the footage gets transcoded to proress, which is very easy to edit with. it just may take longer to transcode with a slower machine. but editing wise, you're good.
 
ProRes edits nicely even on an old 2.16 GHZ Core Duo iMac...

As mentioned, in the transcoding, you're trading editing ease for storage space. Make sure you have a nice big fast external drive or two!
 
this is most likely a silly question...

would i be able to edit native avc-hd on an imac? do you lose quality when you transcode? thats something i haven't understood.
 
I have an imac 2.16 ghz intel core duo, with 1.5gig of ram.
I have FCE and when i try and log and transfer the clips I get an exclamation mark next to them and they dont transcode. I think.
I can see the clips in the log and transfer area but can't edit them or even drag them into a bin or the timeline.

Anyone have any ideas... very frustrated. day 3 trying to edit and I can't get the footage off my camera or my card.
 
fcp does not support native avchd editing as of yet. premiere pro cs4 does, but users have been complaining that its reeeeaal slow and choppy and won't play back at realtime.

and there should not be any quality loss when transcoding clips, although some users are complaining otherwise, but this might be a fcp error in not being able to properly support the higher bit rate of the hmc150.

never used fce, so i'm not sure of its workings. does it support avchd? what version of fce are you using?

and fcp 6.0.5 was just released, so that may clear up some issues.
 
AVCHD on iMac with FCP 6.0.5

AVCHD on iMac with FCP 6.0.5

Ok, so now that 6.0.5 is out, is anyone editing AVCHD natively on any of the iMac setups on FCP 6.0.5? Experiences? It's Black Friday - considering making a purchase, but need to know if an iMac is enough or if Mac Pro is needed.
 
My HMC150 just arrived to day and I installed FCE 4 yesterday...I am running it on a new imac dual core intel 2.8ghz with 4gb ram ( leopard)...I havn't even taken the new cam out of the box yet! :) I am hoping that I won't have any issues editing, as FCE 4 states that it nativly handles AVCHD...I sure would appreciate any thoughts on this? Thanks
 
No FCE and FCS2 both transcode to edit the AVCHD. The Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 update just improves the transcoding. Nothing on the Mac edits AVCHD natively very well. That is what we are all hoping for with FCS3. As reported elsewhere CS4 does edit without transcoding but it is not very robust.
 
Thanks shrigg...

So you have any thoughts on what would be my best workflow solution considering I'm using the above mentioned NLE and iMac? hope this isn't a silly question...I'm a newbie...thanks
 
You didn't mention capture drives, but you definitely need to buy one. My best advice is to buy a big (1 Tb) FW800 hard drive! FCE will transcode your HMC footage into much larger files on the capture drive. I don't use FCE but I believe it transcodes using AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) which makes smaller files than ProRes. If it allows you to select ProRes then do that for maximum quality, but otherwise AIC is fine too.

Don't make the fatal mistake of trying to capture/transcode footage onto your iMac's boot drive. This will yield bad performance and will slow hurt the Mac's overall performance big time. You always should use a separate drive for video, just like back in the miniDV days.
 
Shrigg,

Right, yes...I do have a 500GB external drive (I found my other macbook got very full, very fast even with miniDV)...Please forgive me, but you are saying that I can edit the AVCHD files with FCE 4 (log and transfer), however they must be transcoded first, correct?
So I can make the hmc150 and FCE 4 play nice together( just not as fast as one would hope)?
Thanks for you advice...much appreciated!
 
Since iMovie, FCE and FCS all transcode to ProRes, which is something like 60gigs an hour vs. the miniscule sized originals, how do most Mac folks archive the original avchd footage? Is a program that helps to catalog the original files?
 
One big factor that many have pointed out is never capture to or use your boot drive as a media drive.

You do not want that HDD running OS, application, and also accessing media files.
 
vavavideo said:
Since iMovie, FCE and FCS all transcode to ProRes, which is something like 60gigs an hour vs. the miniscule sized originals, how do most Mac folks archive the original avchd footage? Is a program that helps to catalog the original files?
Click to expand...

I was thinking about that too. Something iPhoto-style. A database application to manage your AVCHD archive. Would be an awesome application.
 
Just a quick question on transcoding from someone who still uses tape how do you transcode the footage to Prores in FCP does it do it automatically or do you do it while you log and capture?
 
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