What editing software do I need to purchase to view, edit and burn to DVD my videos?

Thanks.
Hector

In a way it is a requirement to have Intel-based Macs to work with AVCHD.
The other option is to get VoltaicHD, it will help you convert the AVCHD format into something that your PPC Mac can handle. It wouldn’t be a great experience, but it will work.

I am using Final Cut Pro 6.x and never had FCE4. I have been working with 1920×1080 videos with Final Cut Pro 6.x. I do not know much about Final Cut Express 4 becasue I have never used it.

What is the specs on your Macs?
One other way to test the clip is to import them into iMovie ’08. See if iMovie ’08 can read the files without any problems.

Do you need the final product to be in 1920×1080?
If not, re-import the clips from the camcorder into iMovie ’08 in 540, and you’d get a nicely de-interlaced clips. After that you can add the clips into FCE4.

I am not sure why FCE4 required you to render the clips first. How familiar are you with Final Cut 4?
I am using Final Cut Pro 6.x and have not have this problems in general.

Hope this helps in finding the solutions to your problems.

Thanks for your help!

I shot some video on a Canon HD. Not enough power on this machine to play back, but with the video in separate sequences, I should be able to convert to QuickTime. Can you tell me what QT components i need to add to convert the files? No need to edit, just need to view.

Kate

I assume you have Final Cut Studio 2 with Final Cut Pro 6.0.x installed.
Make sure you have it up to date.

In the “Log and Transfer” dialogue, click on the gear and select “Add Custom Path”. Then select the mounted camcorder hard drive.

Glad that I can help. If you have anymore questions, leave me a message here. I did check on FCE4 and it can handle 1080i AVCHD clips.

I discovered that Final Cut Express supports AVCHD, but not at the full 1920 resolution or whatever, it loses some resolution. I guess Final Cut Pro supports the highest resolution. that kinda suks since I dont wanna spend $1200 for FCP but I want to get the best picture from my AVCHD camera for editing. I guess I bought the HDD camera ahead of the curve and have to wait for some catching up by the industry. If they haven’t realized the popularity of AVCHD yet, they must have by now with the great prices on Cannon, and the new Sony ones have video quality just as good as HDV demand is skyrocketing.

For certain, AVCHD is a compressed file format. Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD format utilize h.264 codec. Even if you’re working with AVCHD files directly, the final product has to be decompressed and transcoded into a different format. What you see in the playback is the uncompressd stream of the video file.

I tested Final Cut Express 4 with AVCHD clip, and it seems that FCE4 can import the 1920×1080 video in 1080i or 1080/60 format.

What you see in he quality of the video must be the horrible interlacing of the stream. Remember that HG10 is essentially a 1080i camcorder. I have Panasonic HDC-SD9 an it is a 1080p camera. Unfortunately it is not fully supported in Mac OS X yet. But the video quality is much better compared to the 1080i camcorder.

AVCHD is a compressed format. You do not go back to AVCHD. I usually export the video to h.264 format in HD resolutions.