AVCHD and Apple (The Truth)
A little background. I was a PC user happily editing DV videos of friends and family for years, my PC notebook was stolen so I thought what an opportunity to get a Macbook (because everyone says video editing is faster/better/easier w/ a 2.4ghz intel 4gb of RAM it was!). Editing DV video with imovie HD, great! Now the camera starts bugging out, so it seemed logical to upgrade to an HD cam, the HF100! Now the frustration begins.
I would like to be able to make an HD movie, and either export it to a DVD via AVCHD or back to an SD card for playback on the camera. Seems you need to edit AVCHD natively to do either, which apparently Apple does not support?
To make a long story short, you can't do either! The included Pixela imagemaker software states it can import, edit and export AVCHD to either DVD or a camera, guess what? Windows only.
I thought, no problem, I'll use it via VMware Fusion and my XP pro Virtual Machine can do it. Wrong! Won't even recognize the camera.
How about calling Apple, their suggestion? Import and edit with imovie, than use the macbooks DVI output to use an HDTV as a monitor. Ok at least there is an option, but oh wait a minute the AIC files iMovie creates are HUGE. Try over 7gb for just 2 minutes of video. You can't even fit a reasonable sized project on 1 DVD, let alone a 10-30 minute one. Is it me or is this unacceptable?
Am I expecting to much from Canon, one of the best camera companies to offer something in the box to work with Apple? Is it unreasonable to expect Apple to fully support a format that has been out for almost 3 years? I thought Mac "Just Worked"?
Feel free to chime in and educate or correct me I missed something or if you know something I don't. I would be interested in knowing if any other HD cameras work or if there is some magic software for Mac I don't know about.
I would like nothing more than to be able to do these simple tasks, but it seems like either the goal of HD home movies or being a Mac user is not possible, how disappointing.
I would like to be able to make an HD movie, and either export it to a DVD via AVCHD or back to an SD card for playback on the camera. Seems you need to edit AVCHD natively to do either, which apparently Apple does not support?
To make a long story short, you can't do either! The included Pixela imagemaker software states it can import, edit and export AVCHD to either DVD or a camera, guess what? Windows only.
I thought, no problem, I'll use it via VMware Fusion and my XP pro Virtual Machine can do it. Wrong! Won't even recognize the camera.
How about calling Apple, their suggestion? Import and edit with imovie, than use the macbooks DVI output to use an HDTV as a monitor. Ok at least there is an option, but oh wait a minute the AIC files iMovie creates are HUGE. Try over 7gb for just 2 minutes of video. You can't even fit a reasonable sized project on 1 DVD, let alone a 10-30 minute one. Is it me or is this unacceptable?
Am I expecting to much from Canon, one of the best camera companies to offer something in the box to work with Apple? Is it unreasonable to expect Apple to fully support a format that has been out for almost 3 years? I thought Mac "Just Worked"?
Feel free to chime in and educate or correct me I missed something or if you know something I don't. I would be interested in knowing if any other HD cameras work or if there is some magic software for Mac I don't know about.
I would like nothing more than to be able to do these simple tasks, but it seems like either the goal of HD home movies or being a Mac user is not possible, how disappointing.
Macbook 2.4ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.5), 4gb of RAM
