converting hd (mts) file to final cut express 4

[ang03207]

I bought a Canon Vixia HF M30 and I shot on it all summer making a documentary for the camp I worked at. This meant that I transferred the files onto my hard drive since I have a lot of footage and they are currently in .mts files. I have no idea how to make this compatible with final cut express 4 or what I need to do. Do I need to get a converter? Any help would be much appreciated!

[edDV]

I bought a Canon Vixia HF M30 and I shot on it all summer making a documentary for the camp I worked at. This meant that I transferred the files onto my hard drive since I have a lot of footage and they are currently in .mts files. I have no idea how to make this compatible with final cut express 4 or what I need to do. Do I need to get a converter? Any help would be much appreciated!

Apple FCE only has one way in for AVCHD and that is conversion to the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). That is unless you use iLife to convert to 960x540p/29.97 (quarter res and half motion sampled).

[ang03207]

I bought a Canon Vixia HF M30 and I shot on it all summer making a documentary for the camp I worked at. This meant that I transferred the files onto my hard drive since I have a lot of footage and they are currently in .mts files. I have no idea how to make this compatible with final cut express 4 or what I need to do. Do I need to get a converter? Any help would be much appreciated!

Apple FCE only has one way in for AVCHD and that is conversion to the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). That is unless you use iLife to convert to 960x540p/29.97 (quarter res and half motion sampled).

thank you for your quick reply. I'm fairly new with all of this so do you know how I can go about doing that? Thanks again.

[Techpav]

Final Cut Express doesn't actually edit AVCHD, it imports it and converts it to Apple Intermediate Codec, which is a much more editing friendly HD supporting codec. AIC takes a lot more space then AVCHD.
Final Cut will only handle AVCHD files when it finds them in their original file structure (either by connecting the camcorder or using a memory card reader), not isolated .mts files.

In Final Cut you would open your log and transfer window and import the footage as AIC.