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Does iMovie 11 support native AVCHD (.mts) files?

Native AVCHD file support is the first thing I expected for the new iMovie. Does iMovie 11 support native AVCHD (.mts) files? Or it has the same painful way of importing and converting AVCHD files to the other format like iMovie 09?

Is there any improvements for AVCHD file supports in iMovie 11?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 20, 2010 2:12 PM

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107 replies

Jan 30, 2017 3:03 PM in response to muchbetterbig

The discontinue-note of http://www.shedworx.com/voltiachd-discontinued says this, too

"The release of OS X 10.9 Mavericks in October 2013 finally brought full support of AVCHD importing and editing to OS X.

For the first time, you can import and edit any AVCHD video file in iMovie and Final Cut Pro."


But what does that actually mean?


Will it read/import these file types and you can edit/cut them OR will iMovie and FCP still convert it internally to aic (or ProRes422 in FCP's case)?

Oct 20, 2010 3:11 PM in response to juneinny

The product isn't 'in our hands' yet - and we aren't supposed to speculate - but ...

I saw nothing in the web broadcast or the iMovie '11 product description that suggests it supports AVCHD in other that the current way.

We will have to wait until the product is in users hands (I ordered mine right after the broadcast) to see what the actual situation is.

Oct 20, 2010 3:14 PM in response to Isaac Bardin

I am fairly sure that this would have been announced as a feature if it were included.

The lack of native AVCHD editing is why I do my video editing exclusively on a PC, where there are a range of very good options that allow this.

That said, I would move back to iMovie in a heart beat for its greater ease of use if it had this feature.

I guess we should keep our fingers crossed for iMovie 12.

Oct 20, 2010 3:18 PM in response to juneinny

I don't think it does. I picked up a copy this afternoon after the keynote (I like the way that Apple stores have them in stock right away - and at $49 it wasn't really a painful experiment) hoping this would be the case, but it does not appear to be so.

After installing, I tried to import some loose .mts files, but they are greyed out. Some brief exploring turned up nothing to help.

This is really too bad. It would be so nice to be able to save the individual .mts file on my hard drive, and access them when necessary. I'm fine with the intermediate encoding iMovie does before editing, but forcing me to use the silly file structure of my camera's hard drive, or an iMovie archive (basically the same thing) is frustrating.

Allowing the import of naked .mts files would be a huge step forward.

Assuming I'm not wrong about this, what is the best way to work around this? What is the best way to bring loose .mts files into iMovie? (And I hope I'm not hijacking the thread by asking this.)

Oct 20, 2010 4:51 PM in response to boombass

Hi bombass,

Here is is my 2 cents worth:

I have recently been trialling the following:
- Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum
- Pinnacle Studio 14
- Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
- Premiere Elements 9

I liked the ease of use of Pinnacle Studio the most. However, when I exported to H.264 with MPEG -2TS, I had a play back issue. When I viewed the footage on my computer and dragged the slider bar forward or backwards to fast forward or rewind the footage would remain pixelated for about 10 seconds before it corrected itself. No other programs caused this.

So I would have to say my favorite is Cyberlink PowerDirector 8 - although I believe a new version will be released soon. Perhaps you could download the trial version.

My next favorite was Premiere Elements 9. However, I found the interface a bit slow and clunky.

Unfortunately, my computer had issues handling the demands of Sony Vegas because of the way it previews the video.

Oct 20, 2010 6:43 PM in response to Casho3

Thanks for the response, Casho3. I've used Pinnacle, but I'm not sure what version. It was kind of awkward to import the .mts files. That's all I want! The basic editing features of all of these programs are just fine for me. It's the method of getting the AVCHD files imported that bugs me. I'll give PowerDirector a try.

Sorry to hijack the thread. I just really dislike the way iMovie imports the AVCHD video files. I have no problem with the fact that it can't natively edit AVCHD - using the Apple Intermediate codec is fine by me. But forcing me to keep around hard drive archives is really clunky. If I could simply import the .mts file, I could keep only the scenes which matter. Keeping the entire camcorder hard drive structure seems bizarre.

That's the end of my rant. Sorry everyone!

Does iMovie 11 support native AVCHD (.mts) files?

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