Final Cut Express and AVCHD lite

So I was having trouble getting FInal Cut Express to read the files form my GF1 camera. It would seem that its not a native format for Final Cut Express howevere iMovie can read the stuff no probs.

So the solution is to copy the codecs from iMovie to FCE.

This is an extract from a thread on creativecow and the actual post is by Mirco Tripoczky

I did some research and testing.. and also came accross this thread and I got a (I think) cool solution to import AVCHD Lite directly into Final Cut Express without going through iMovie.

Since Final Cut Express doesn’t like AVCHD Lite, you have to tell Final Cut Express to like it.

1. Open the Final Cut Express.app package by right clicking the icon and choose show content. At Contents/Plugins you find a folder called: “AVCHD.RADPlug”. Make a backup of that folder.

2. Now Open the iMovie.app package by right clicking the icon and choose show content. At Contents/RADPlugins you find a folder called: “AVCHD.RADPlug”. Copy that folder to where you found the folder with the same name inside the Final Cut Express.app package.

Start Final Cut Express, use Log and Transfer and easily import AVCHD Lite clips to Final Cut Express.

That’s maybe a workaround.. and you do this on your own risk, for me it worked perfectly with the AVCHD Lite clips of my Panasonic TZ7.