[Wile E. Wizard]

We're using Canon HF200s that record AVCHD on SDHC media cards. Final Cut Express 4 is very picky about importing the clips, especially when the files have been copied to the desktop or a flash drive. What is in the file path of Canon/Private/AVCHD/BDMV/Stream that FCE4 has to see to import the .MTS clips? I cannot import just the .MTS clips or copy them into FCE4.

[X-Ti]

From what i have read, AVCHD files are kind of like RAW files that have secondary files that store info about the MTS file. If you copy these files by drag and dropping them they usually loose the link to the files. In FCE you need to do a log and transfer (which will convert the MTS file into a Apple Intermediate HD file. mov format I think.
If you want to make a copy of the AVCHD files you need to use some sort of a disk backup/copy program. Something that will duplicate the file structure.
Here is a discussion about it:
Apple - Support - Discussions - AVCHD Back-up Discs ...

[mduell]

Agree, disk images is the way to go.

Originally Posted by X-Ti 

From what i have read, AVCHD files are kind of like RAW files

They're nothing like raw, they're lossy compressed with MPEG-4 Part 10.