convert .MTS video files into mac .MOV

Question

convert .MTS video files into mac .MOV

I have problem with converting video files .MTS from my Sony video camera into imovies required format (ie .mov, mpeg, etc). I did it once from my camera using USB cable "Import - Movies - etc" and it was all successful (in imovies the files were with .mov extention). Now I am trying to do the same but all the video files in my camera are inaccessible with extention .MTS. Online I found that I needed to purchase a special software video converter like iSkySoft, Replay Converter, iSquint software etc. I tried a free version of one of them and besides the fact it takes a lot of time to convert files into .mov format, the video quality had suffered significantly. My questions are: i) How is it possible that first time I didn't need any additional software and now I need one? ii) what can you recommend me to do to open .MTS video files and import them into mac imovies? Many thanks in adcance. Your help is very much appreciated.

MacBookPro5,5 Mac Os X 10.6.2, Mac OS X (10.6.2), 2.53 GHz

Posted on May 30, 2010 5:35 AM

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Answer 1

May 30, 2010 6:04 AM in response to MacOsX 10.6.2

Have you recorded any footage in Standard Definition (MPEG-2)? My Sony records in both SD and HD (AVCHD). The SD clips must be deleted from the camera before iMovie will recognise the High Definition content (AVCHD .mts clips).

See this Apple article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1793

Welcome to the forum!

John

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Answer 2

May 30, 2010 12:33 PM in response to John Cogdell

Many thanks for your answer. Not sure if I have SD clips MPEG-2 in my camera. I find the following in my camera AVCHD / BDMV:
- Clipinf with CPI.files
- Playlist with .MPL files
- Stream with .MTS files
do I have to delete CPI files?
Many thanks again.
Anastasia

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Answer 3

May 30, 2010 2:58 PM in response to MacOsX 10.6.2

Mpeg2 files wouldn't be in your AVCHD folder, however, do you not have an index or movieobj file in there too.

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Answer 4

May 31, 2010 12:57 AM in response to MacOsX 10.6.2

Hi Anastasia,

What Winston is saying is correct. The MPEG-2 clips should be in a separate folder - that's if you have taken any of course. I've never shot SD with my Sony, so I can't be sure what the folder will be named.

In my camera archive (on an external hard drive), as mentioned by Winston, I also have 2 extra folders inside the AVCHD>BDMV folder - these are: INDEX.BDM and MOVIEOBJ.BDM - do you also have these?

Do not delete the CPI files. They will be required by iMovie when importing AVCHD clips. iMovie requires the full directory structure to be able to import from the camera or from a camera archive. An import of the .MTS files from the STREAM folder will not work - you must have the full directory intact.

John

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Answer 5

May 31, 2010 1:02 AM in response to John Cogdell

Anastasia - another thing to try is to delete (trash) iMovie's preference file, which can become corrupted at times. See my post in this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2445161&tstart=15

John

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Answer 6

May 31, 2010 5:37 AM in response to John Cogdell

Hi John, Winston,

Thanks a lot for your help. No, I've never shoot SD either, but, Yes indeed I have 2 folders inside AVCHD with INDEX.BDM and MOVIEOBJ.BDM. Do I have to delete those to solve the problem?
Thanks again for your extensive support. Very much appreciated.
Anastasia

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Answer 7

May 31, 2010 5:43 AM in response to MacOsX 10.6.2

No, don't delete them. They are part of the directory structure I was referring to that iMovie needs to import AVCHD. It's very strange why things aren't working for you, considering you have all the files in place and haven't shot any SD footage.

I'll give it some more thought. Winston may have some other ideas.

John

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Answer 8

May 31, 2010 5:54 AM in response to John Cogdell

John,

Thanks so much again. I'm really stuck here. Can it be somehow related that once the camera was connected to Windows PC? However, all the files/setting were untouched in the camera itself. so not sure if this can be related. Thanks again.
Anastasia

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Answer 9

May 31, 2010 6:00 AM in response to MacOsX 10.6.2

No further ideas here, I realised my Sony cam was going to be a source of trouble very quickly and did two things. Adopted the routine of reformatting its HDD every few months and investing in Voltaic for those corrupt clips that the sony occasionally throws up.

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Answer 10

May 31, 2010 6:20 AM in response to MacOsX 10.6.2

Hi Anastasia (love that name) 🙂

Did you try deleting the preference file that I mentioned earlier?

Something else comes to mind which I will have to get back to you on. I recall reading about copying the camera contents to a folder on your Mac, then importing to iMovie from that folder.

Another thing I recall was to create a Disk Image of your camera contents, then import from that. AppleMan1958 has discussed this on occasions, if I recall correctly. It's similar to doing a Camera Archive.

Both of these suggestions assume, of course, that the camera can be accessed by your Mac (not necessarily by iMovie).

I will try to do a search on these suggestions - might take a while to find though and it's getting late here! I doubt that connecting to a PC caused any untoward issues - but who knows!

John

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Answer 11

May 31, 2010 6:43 AM in response to John Cogdell

Anastasia - I've been re-reading your original post to see if I've missed anything.

I'm not clear on how you are attempting to import your AVCHD clips into iMovie. You've discussed converting the clips before importing. You don't need to do that - iMovie will do it for you (providing it sees your clips).

Connect the camera via USB and follow the camera manual's instructions on setting it up for transferring clips to a computer. My Sony automatically goes to the correct screen (on the LCD). I then touch the hard disk icon. In iMovie you go to File>Import from Camera and wait while iMovie has a think. It should then start the process, finishing up with thumbnails for each clip. You can either "import all" or import selected clips.

On import, iMovie converts the .MTS files to AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec), a full frame format enabling editing down to the individual frame level.

Are you doing something like this? If not, please describe your full workflow. This may give us some pointers as to where things may be going wrong (if at all).

Thank you.

John

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Answer 12

May 31, 2010 1:05 PM in response to John Cogdell

Hi John,

Thanks so much for your time and willingness to help. I do hope that I do smth wrong in importing my movies (that would be easy) but it seems not the case. The workflow looks as following:
i) I connect sony camera to mac via USB;
ii) on LCD I touch hard disk and camera is connected to mac;
iii) in mac finder I find AVCHD folder with BDMV that contains sub-folders CLIPINF, INDEX.BDM, MOVIEOBJ.BDM, PLAYLIST, STREAM.
Please NOTE: if i open STREAM folder (as all my movies are there) I see them in .MTS and if I try to open them by clicking to any of them, they automatically are opened in iphoto's, ie in "kind" it automatically shows "iphoto document"; also they cannot be opened in quicktime). Automatic connection to imovies never happens, I have to open the program myself. The only automatic openning is done in iphoto. But than of course iphoto cannot open movies and says "unreadable file" showing the path /Volumes/NO NAME/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM/00002.MTS
iv) I open imovies program. Go to File > Import > but then neither 'Movies...' nor 'imovies HD projects...' works (and of course not 'Movie Archive...'). All these files are in gray and unclickable. I also tried to import the clickable AVCHD folder but than imovies of course rejected saying "You selected a directory to import, but no importable movies were found inside. Please select another directory or file". Imovies cannot recognize my .MTS files. Please NOTE: I cannot assess > "Import from Camera" as you recommend: it automatically shows ONLY "Built-in iSight" camera and NOT external sony camera (there are simply no other options whatsoever).
Any ideas what's possibly wrong can be here. THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN!
Anastasia

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Answer 13

May 31, 2010 1:50 PM in response to MacOsX 10.6.2

Anastasia

From John's post

.....In iMovie you go to File>Import from Camera..........

From your post

..... I open imovies program. Go to File > Import...........

Although I think you have likely realised this. My guess is either you have standard definition content on your camera or the structure is corrupt.

SD files are kept in a folder called MP_ROOT, my guess is that there aren't any as they would then show up in imovies import window instead of your HD content.

Message was edited by: Winston Churchill

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Answer 14

Jun 1, 2010 1:21 AM in response to MacOsX 10.6.2

Thanks for providing the extra information Anastasia.

There is a possibility that one (or more) of the clips on your Sony camera is corrupted. Winston has mentioned a possible corrupt AVCHD file structure, but it may be a problem with just a single clip - see this post by mannyme here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2027751

The post by mannyme refers to a SDHC card, but the same principal would apply to a hard drive camera.

By the way Anastasia, what model is your Sony? Could you let us know please.

Given that things have worked for you previously, like Winston, I'm thinking that the problem will be with the camera files. So, as mentioned, look at all clips on the camera to identify if any do not play. Look for any black clips with a question mark (as discussed by mannyme). If you find any problem clips, delete them - then try the import process again. Connect the camera, _with iMovie open_, and once identified (hopefully) use the option File>Import from Camera.

Hope this helps Anastasia! If not, there are other things we may be able to try, so don't give up yet!

John

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Answer 15

Jun 1, 2010 4:48 AM in response to John Cogdell

Hi John,

Thanks again for looking into my problem and your great help. Unfortunately no progress yet 😟 I checked one by one all the 175 clips in the camera. No black clips there, although some clips I couldn't open in the camera. So I copied all clips to external driver; removed ⚠ the ones I could not play in the camera; selected only good ones. Connected to mac and open imovies. But nothing has changed 😟 Files have not been recognized and cannot be imported into imovies. imovies says +"You selected a directory to import, but no importable movies were found inside. Please select another directory or file"+. Also as I mentioned I canNOT import from "import from camera" but only "import..." as mac does NOT recognize sony camera in that function BUT only "Built-in iSight". I am not sure whether it is related to my camera. It's Sony full HD 1080, 1920x1080i HD recording, 60GB, 10.2 mega pix. I just don't understand how it is possible that first time I could import all movies without any problems and now all of a sudden neither any of my files are importable by mac nor recognized by imovies (only iphoto). It's so frustrating 😟
many thanks again for trying to help me.

Anastasia

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