iMovie import from AVCHD camera v from HDD

Question

Crows2012 Author

Level 1

14 points

iMovie import from AVCHD camera v from HDD

hi

i think this should be a quick Q & A

i have a Panasonic Camcorder using AVCHD. i transferred my footage from my camcorder to my imac HDD. (appears in finder as per below)

in doing so it listed all the various clips from my memory card as numbered clips (seen when i double clip on "AVCHD") and i was not able to transfer/import these clips as individual files (just clips).

2 questions:

firstly am i right in assuming all these clips are indeed identical to the raw footage (ie in size and format) from my camcorder in case i want to use these in FCPX later at have an end product in HD?

and is there any difference at all in importing these clips into iMovie (or FCPX) in the future direct from the camera (memory card) versus my clips that are on my HDD?

i ask this as from what i can see and read i don't think there should be any difference (but i am no expert with extensive experience or knowledge). i also am yet to delete these clips from my memory card til i know definitely what the story here is

btw i do understand that iMovie does not end up in HD regardless of original footage

any guidance is much appreciated

Peter T

iMac

Posted on Oct 20, 2013 3:50 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Karsten Schlüter

Level 7

34,098 points

Oct 20, 2013 7:37 AM in response to Crows2012

in iMovie, choose 'Import/Archive' (=your cards clone IS an 'archive')

dig thru your drives directory until you reach 'private1'

select that to open ...

btw: what sort of device creates an AVCHD.pkg plus a folder MY_MUSIC on the same SDcard??

@Q2:

yes, this is the 'raws' (highly compressed by your camera … not to compare with still raws!)

yes, you can use same backup to import later in FCPX

no, no difference btw from card/from copy

there IS a difference, how both apps handle HDef internally ...

always a good plan to create 'SDcard backups' .... 😉

Reply

Answer 2

Oct 20, 2013 7:51 PM in response to Crows2012

Hi, after all, AVCHD MTS or M2TS in 60p is not accepted by iMovie, you need to convert them to 30p videos in proper formats like h.264 mp4, to do this job, here is a good recommendation, using AVCHD to iMovie Converter, you can solve this problem with ease.

Reply

Answer 3

Crows2012 Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 21, 2013 4:48 AM in response to Jenifersimith12

Jenifersimith12 wrote:

Hi, after all, AVCHD MTS or M2TS in 60p is not accepted by iMovie, you need to convert them to 30p videos in proper formats like h.264 mp4, to do this job, here is a good recommendation, using AVCHD to iMovie Converter, you can solve this problem with ease.

hi

i'm finding that my imported (into imovie) clip is playing within imovie with no problems.

(i have not started a project but palying it from the event library)

Reply

Answer 4

Crows2012 Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 21, 2013 5:14 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Hi and many thanks for your info

@Q2:

yes, this is the 'raws' (highly compressed by your camera … not to compare with still raws!)

yes, you can use same backup to import later in FCPX

no, no difference btw from card/from copy

thanks for confirming that.

i had noticed the size of the files (package) on the SD card were the same as those imported onto my imac so i thought that might have been the case

btw: what sort of device creates an AVCHD.pkg plus a folder MY_MUSIC on the same SDcard??

i have a canon vixia hfr100

i think, but am not 100% sure, that i imported all the footage by placing theSD cards into my imac as opposed to off the camera with the SD card in there. that was 6 months ago. i can't remember even if i tried but was not able to import via the camcorder

for what it's worth, when i place the SD card into my mac the card comes up in finder as:

and when i click on "Private" all my various clips come up and are listed as "clip #.." starting from Clip #0. this is the same way they appear as when i click on my AVCHD footage that is imported on my mac as shown in my initial posting (which you highlighted was an AVCHD.pkg with the MY_MUSIC folder. btw a file named SELMUSIC.TXT is the only file in MY_MUSIC)

Should any of this be of any concern or does this highlight anything?

always a good plan to create 'SDcard backups' .... 😉

when i know that my footage on my imac is exactly the same as that on the SD card (as i could well want to play with FCPX and use that in the near future) i am planning to format my SD card and keep 2 or 3 copies of what has been imported on to my mac on various drives as backups- is that what you meant?

furthermore, i am also planning in the very very near future to trial fcpx and use that to re import clips from my SD card to see how that will import my footage onto my imac via fcpx and see if that would be in a diiferent kind of format compared to what has already occurred - any idea on that one?

cheers

peter t

Reply