Nowadays more and more cameras and camcorders enable true 1080p60 (Full HD 1920*1080 @60fps) video recording. Like the Panasonic HDC-TM700 introduced in early 2010 and its successor HDC-TM900 are both able to shoot 1080p 60fps AVCHD MTS files. Sony’s A77, NEX-5N, NEX-7, A57 and A65 also offers the same fantastic video performance, particularly with their widely-praised 1080/60p mode. It is good to tell that we can shoot full HD videos, but the bad news is currently the 1080p 60fps AVCHD format is nearly impossible to be edited. Even with the latest update of Final Cut Pro X(version 10.0.4), we have not seen the expected support for 60p AVCHD MTS.

Why can’t we import/edit recorded 1080p60 AVCHD MTS footages in Final Cut Pro (X)

As you see, it does show up in Log and Transfer and will properly transfer all of the videos captured on your camera- except for anything recorded on the highest setting the camera has to offer. The reason that you can’t successfully import those recorded AVCHD footages on 1080p60 format to Final Cut Pro is limited by the FCP itself. Currently 1080p60 is a very non-standard format and it’s unsupported in Final Cut Pro 6 or 7, and even the new FCP X. If you want to edit AVCHD 60p MTS files in FCP flawlessly, you will have to use third party options, for instance, Pavtube’s MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac to transcode them to Apple ProRes 422, which is only lightly compressed and plays back beautifully even when effects and extra tracks are added. It’s also far better for colour correction.

How to Make Final Cut Pro (X) fully support 60fps/1080p AVCHD MTS shooting for import

I now own Final Cut pro X and am sad to say that it does NOT support the 1080p/60 settings from the Panasonic HDC-TM700. It did recognize the 29.97 footage, but when I had both kinds up, it only recognized the 29.97. Hopefully this will be part of the updates soon. In order to help those who have problems for importing 1080p60 AVCHD MTS, below, I will throw a quick tutorial up on how to transcode AVCHD 1080p 60p MTS to ProRes 422 MOV format for Final Cut 6/7 or FCP X editing smoothly with Mac OS X like Mountain Lion, Lion, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard.

1. Free download and install the Mac AVCHD MTS/M2TS Converter to your computer. It’s a professional 50/60p MTS to FCP Converter. Import your recorded AVCHD 60p files to the software.

2. Click the format bar, and move mouse cursor to Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov) as output format.

3. Start transcoding 1080 60p AVCHD MTS to Apple ProRes for Final Cut Pro under Mac OS X.

Some more helpful features of the app:

1. Settings- click to set video resolution(1920×1080/1440×1080/1280×720/720×480), bitrate(from 1Mbps to 20Mbps), frame rate (24p/30p)

2. Editor (next to “Add” icon)- click to set deinterlace, denoise, mute, volume up, trim, crop, etc.

After a shot conversion, you will be able to import 1080 60p AVCHD videos into Final Cut Pro X, Final Cut Pro 7 or Final Cut Pro 6 for editing without rendering.

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