Native Editing Of AVCCAM/AVCHD Files In Final Cut Pro Announced by Panasonic

David Saraceno

David Saraceno

Moderator
Staff member
Just received this press release, which is good news for Final Cut Pro and AF-100 users who wish to edit AVCHD footage natively in Final Cut Pro without conversion.


PANASONIC ANNOUNCES AVCCAM IMPORTER SOFTWARE ACCELERATING AND STREAMLINING IMPORT OF AVCHD FILES INTO FINAL CUT PRO

SECAUCUS, NJ (February 22, 2011) -- Panasonic Solutions Company has introduced AVCCAM Importer software, a QuickTime plug-in that eliminates the need to convert AVCHD files to ProRES422 files before editing in Final Cut Pro.

AVCCAM Importer is a software for Apple Final Cut Pro to enable direct editing of an AVCHD “.mts” file without conversion. Since AVCCAM Importer is a plug-in component for Apple QuickTime, QuickTime Player can play an “.mts” file directly after installation of AVCCAM Importer on a MAC.

The AVCCAM importer will be available this Summer as a free download from the Panasonic web site.
 
Apparently, this can be used not only with the AF100, but any AVCCAM product, or any AVCHD product (which would include the GH1/GH2, and probably the Sony NXCAM lineup). And it may not be just FCP that works with it, but since it's a Quicktime component, you can probably use Quicktime player as a file viewer and use the files in any software that works with Quicktime.
 
That's great news, a real time and storage saver. Wonder if, since it's a QT component, it will work on FCP 6 as well as 7.
 
Editing native h264/mp4 requires a very big new powerful (probably dual or quad processor) Apple. I tried editing native 7D clips in FCP. Yes you can import and dump on the timeline but going forward and back on the timeline is a pita. This is on a 17" MacBookPro. I'm not complaining, I feel fine with converting to ProRes first.
 
Yes, h.264 is a computational intensive codec. But computers are moving in that direction, and Panasonic should be commended for this effort.
 
H.264 acceleration is readily available in many graphics cards. If Apple taps into the graphics card for acceleration, h.264 can be extremely easy to edit. If they don't... well, then they don't.
 
But even if Apple supports speedy h.264 hardware acceleration, you'd still limited to an 8-bit 4:2:0 sequence w/ AVCHD, which isn't really what you want if you plan on doing a lot of heavy color correction within FCP.
 
However, this is a Panasonic plug in, not an Apple plug in.

Let's see how this shakes out with the rumored updates to FCS.
 
A lot of it, I suspect, depends on how well engineered this plug in turns out to be and how powerful your Mac is.

A late model Mac, a well designed, efficient plug in coupled with the unsubstantiated but rumored update to FCS could coalesce into a good editing experience.
 
Last edited:
Would this also apply to AVCHD Lite? F.ex., I have the Pana DMC-LX5 which uses AVCHD Lite, and I'm curious to know if this would work here.
 
In my view, the number one question is whether Panasonic's AVC plugin will enable FCP to edit multiple AVCHD source files natively without need for rendering back to disk until the final output render? This is the huge advantage that Adobe CS5 brings to the table and it is the key workflow issue that determines whether transcoding to an intermediate file format is necessary.
 
I know very little about it, but here's how I understand it --

FCP already has h.264 support. Which is why you can drag Canon DSLR h.264 mov's onto the timeline.

What FCP doesn't have is .MTS file support.

Panasonic's plug-in lets Quicktime recognize and use .MTS files.

However, the actual uncompressing and working with h.264 is going to be the same as what FCP uses for all h.264 footage. So any performance increases are going to be incumbent upon Apple to provide.
 
Sounds good to me Barry.

And makes sense.

However, I just sense there is something more to what Panasonic has in mind for the plug in than to just singularly facilitate MTS native import.

Although there is precedent for the way it provide AVCIntra native support.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top