avchd for imovie

Question

Level 1

9 points

avchd for imovie

I'm thinking of buying a Canon Vixia HR F20 camcorder because of its external mic socket. it appears to produce AVCHD video files. Are these instantly recogniseable by a Mac and iMovie in particular?

I'm using a new iMac 21.5 inch with 4Gb RAM and 1 Tb hard disk. Am I going to have difficulties viewing these files? Will I need to convert each file to a mac readable format?

Recently my Samsung R10 HD camcorder broke. It produced Mpeg-4 files that the mac read straight away.

Please help. Thank you.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 7, 2012 7:09 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

theimovieguy

Level 2

330 points

Jun 7, 2012 7:11 AM in response to RobbieToop

Hey,

You will need to convert the files to a .mov format. Unfortunately iMovie still doesn't support AVCHD (.mts) files.

The iMovie Guy

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Answer 2

RobbieToop Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 7, 2012 7:50 AM in response to theimovieguy

Thanks. Do I need to use any special software for converting these files? Also can I view the AVCHD files with QuickTime on my mac straight off the card?

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Answer 3

Jun 7, 2012 11:04 AM in response to RobbieToop

iMovie will support your camera if you import directly from the camera, or if you import directly from the SDHC card through a card reader. I use AVCHD all the time.

What iMovie cannot do is if you use the finder to remove the .mts files from your camera, iMovie cannot read them because they are out of context. iMovie needs to see the file structure of your camera to be able to import.

On the Import Screen, you will have the option to create a Camera Archive. I recommend that you do this so you will always have a copy of your original files.

The only AVCHD that iMovie cannot handle without some tweaking is 60P. As long as your camera has a 30P or 60i setting, you will be fine.

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Answer 4

Jun 7, 2012 12:12 PM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks AppleMan for explaining that. That makes it a lot easier than converting the files first which I was thinking he was wanting to do.

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Answer 5

RobbieToop Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 7, 2012 1:19 PM in response to theimovieguy

Thank you theimovieguy and AppleMan your responses have been a great help. I really don't want to spend time converting all the video files just so that I can view them at some later stage. I think the best thing to do is to import the clips straight into iMovie and create .mov files so that I can can view them later while keeping archive copies of all the original clips in an Archive folder. Thanks for yor help.

Now to try and but the camcorder in question. Robbie

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