![\"AVCHD\"](\"http:\/\/37prime.files.wordpress.com\/2008\/03\/avchd_logo.png\"){kind=logo}
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![\"iMovie](\"http:\/\/37prime.files.wordpress.com\/2008\/03\/imovie08_icon.png\"){kind=icon}
![\"Final](\"http:\/\/37prime.files.wordpress.com\/2008\/03\/finalcutpro_icon.png\"){kind=icon}
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On TWiT 128<\/a> (10 minutes and 40 seconds into the show), Patrick Norton asked if AVCHD is natively supported in Final Cut Pro. Alex Lindsay didn’t think so, but Leo Laporte said there is. Leo then pointed out that Final Cut Express and iMovie ’08 support AVCHD.<\/p>\n Now, let’s see where things really are right now for Mac users. Final Cut Pro 6<\/a>, Final Cut Express 4<\/a>, and iMovie ’08<\/a> do support AVCHD format, but not quite natively. It takes roughly 3 minutes to import a 58-second clip in iMovie ’08 on a 2.0GHz MacBook Pro Core Duo with 2GB RAM and 7200 RPM hard-drive (via USB 2.0). On the same MacBook Pro Final Cut Pro 6 consistently crashes in the middle of importing the same AVCHD video clip.<\/span> UPDATE: There is an apparent conflict<\/a> caused by Perian Quicktime Component<\/a> (http:\/\/docs.info.apple.com\/article.html?artnum=306922<\/a>). As for Final Cut Express 4, I don’t know because I don’t have it yet.<\/p>\n I installed Sony’s Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum Edition<\/a> on a Windows XP PC that my friend<\/a> and I put together. It has Intel\u00ae<\/sup> Core\u2122 2 Duo E6550, 4GB of RAM, and Intel\u00ae<\/sup> Desktop Board DP35DP. Sony Vegas took a short amount of time to import the same AVCHD video clip. As a matter of fact, Sony Vegas recognize the “.mts” file format. This is no surprise because AVCHD was developed jointly by Sony and Panasonic<\/a>.<\/p>\n The advantage of using a disk-based camcorder is the ability to transfer the video clip faster than tape-based camcorders. Videos from tapes are transferred in real time to the computer, because of the limitation of the tape medium. Unfortunately for Mac users, AVCHD is a little bit inconvenient; because it takes almost forever to import those video files. AVCHD requires a lot of processing power, but if the system\/program natively supports AVCHD, it’d be easier to copy the actual streams to another hard drive and import them later.<\/p>\n Maybe the next updates to iMovie and Final Cut will address this issue. Until then, Mac users has to be patient when dealing with AVCHD camcorders.<\/p>\n I own a Panasonic HDC-SD5<\/a>, and also use my friend’s Canon HG10<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On TWiT 128 (10 minutes and 40 seconds into the show), Patrick Norton asked if AVCHD is natively supported in Final Cut Pro. Alex Lindsay didn’t think so, but Leo Laporte said there is. Leo then pointed out that Final Cut Express and iMovie ’08 support AVCHD. Now, let’s see where things really are right … <\/p>\n