iPhoto does not import HD video/MTS files for Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5.

Hello, everyone. I'm using iPhoto '11 on an iMac i7. I recently bought the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5, which records HD video (AVCHD Lite). When I insert the memory card into my iMac, it recognizes and imports all photos. However, the videos are left on the memory card, and I cannot even view them in iPhoto. When looking directly in the memory card, I can see the videos (they are MTS files), but nothing will play them. Is there other software I must install to be able to view/edit these video files. I'd like to see them in iPhoto, and then edit them in iMovie like I was able to with my standard definition camera. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

iMac 27" i7, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 28, 2010 10:45 AM

20 replies

Jun 4, 2011 1:57 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks Terence. That's really helpful, but excuse my being a bit "thick" here. I thought that the "delivery" format such as MJPEG or MOV (if this is what you are talking about) use much more "disk space" which is why I thought I should shoot in AVCHD. Someone said earlier in a reply: "MTS uses only 1/8th of the memory that MOV uses. 1MB MTS=8MB MOV."

However you seem to imply the contrary, that MOV is a more compressed format?! I have 2 questions:

1. Is it just when you convert AVCHD to MOV that it becomes a large file and otherwise MOV or MJPEG are actullay more compressed files so if I shot in MJEPG (allowed by the Lumix LX-5), I would use less disk space?

2. I thought that they created to format AVCHD to enable shooting in HD format and MJPEG is not HD, but I don't know much about these things so your help is much appreciated!

Regards,

Jipéh

Level 1

0 points

Jul 5, 2011 2:34 PM in response to nadimfromlondon

Hello nad...

on my opinion, MplayerX is the best player to view AVCHD files, much better than VLC (uggly stripes and micro-freezes)

enjoy

cnavarro

Level 1

0 points

Apr 17, 2012 8:23 PM in response to devzin98

Convert the videos to MP4 using Handbrake, and then you can import them to iPhoto. It converted me a 61MB mts file into a 28MB mp4 movie

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,864 points

Apr 17, 2012 10:40 PM in response to cnavarro

But why shoot AVCHD is you're just going to compress it to mp4?

pman3003

Level 1

0 points

Jun 13, 2012 12:07 PM in response to devzin98

FINALLY! Apple has updated iphoto to 9.3 and now it supports AVCHD from my panasonic camera. Not a moment to early!

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iPhoto does not import HD video/MTS files for Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5.