[MacDV] Working with native MTS files in FCP v6

[Conlon Brett]

Hi all,

For the first time, I'm now working with the video files I've been capturing on my Panasonic HD camera and I'm being challenged, trying to work natively with the MTS in FCP v6. I've had the HD camera for a while now but I have been working on editing my old DV tape footage trying to catch up to the present...

From the HD camera, I can do a Log & Transfer from in FCP but the resulting files are HUGE compared with the original MTS files, eg. a 91MB file becomes around 850MB - OUCH! I believe FCP is converting the file to Apple ProRes (about 1GB a minute or 60GB/hr).

Panasonic kindly released a plugin (AVCCAM Importer v1.1) for QuickTime7, a month or so ago, to work natively with their MTS files on a Mac but apparently it requires at least FCP v7. I downloaded the extension and installed it anyway (just in case) and while QT7 does play the file rather cleanly, when I import the MTS files into my FCP v6 it takes a very long time to assess the files, then when I place them into a timeline it drops in 6 mono audio tracks and the video requires rendering - pointless really.

I did get excited at one stage when I found a utility called Clipwrap, which very quickly re-wraps the MTS into a QT .mov format at only a fraction of an increase (91MB to 138MB) but it imports into my FCP the same way as the raw MTS files so no benefits there.

Any of the other video converter utilities I tried in demo mode seemed to re-encode the file and essentially do the same thing as what FCP does during Log & Transfer.

So, I'm standing at an awkward place not knowing which way to go.

1) Do I have enough hard drive space to just use FCP to convert all my files to ProRes - at least I save a buck...
2) Is there a free/cheap converter utility I haven't stumbled across yet which will do the exact job I'm after???
3) Do I need to shell out to get the upgrade to FCPro X (I don't think I can upgrade to v7 anymore anyway) which I believe may work with MTS files natively but that'll cost me AUD$320 just for FCP - DOUBLE OUCH! Can anyone confirm if it does??? Surely I'd also need to also upgrade my Compressor app (another AU$50), right?

Many thanks!!!

Cojcolds

ps. Did Apple do away with the Studio package? When I try do search for FCP Studio there's NOTHING, just individual softwares for FCP vX and components on offer.