Imovie does not support AVCHD

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Level 1

9 points

Imovie does not support AVCHD

I just spent many hours talking to Apple support and eventually got to a iMovie specialist who tried everything to import a AVCHD file from my Canon Video Camera. I am using High Sierra 10.13.1 and iMovie 10.1.8. His final answer was that iMovie no longer can convert AVCHD files from a Canon camera and I should use another program to convert the files and than import it into iMovie. It is not a particularly satisfying answer to me. I was able to use "Free AVCHD to Mov" to import the files and than convert them and put them into iMovie, but this adds another step and time. It seems to me that there are probably a lot of cameras out there that use AVCHD format. I would like to know if Apple is planning to correct this flaw in iMovie or are all cameras using AVCHD obsolete in Apples opinion?

Bruce

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015), macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)

Posted on Dec 2, 2017 2:00 PM

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Answer 1

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steelbar Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 27, 2017 9:19 PM in response to steelbar

I have finally got IMovie to work properly. After many hours(16 hours) with the wonderful people at apple support (they where patient and tried everything) I took it into the Apple Store and they got it to work by making a second admin account. I was not completely satisfied with that so I went back to Apple support and did a clean instal and than a fresh instal of the programs and now Imovie works perfectly. I had something hidden in the system that had been migrated from my old computer to the new computer. I wish I could say that we found the answer, but we never really found what file was causing the problem. I can now say that IMovie defently works with High Sierra! I have learned a lot from the Apple staff and really appreciate the work they have done

thanks

Bruce

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,356 points

Dec 2, 2017 2:07 PM in response to steelbar

1. No one here knows what Apple's plans may be about anything. We're just users like yourself.

2. AVCHD is problematic because there is no standardised form of it. Every manufacturer uses a different variant, and sometimes a different variant with different models od their cameras.

So, it's not possible to generalise with AVCHD, I'm afraid.

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Answer 3

Dec 27, 2017 4:46 PM in response to steelbar

I am having a very similar issue. Canon Vixia HF G10, worked flawlessly for years until a month or so ago. Now when it imports files the video gets glitchy or kind of pixelated in spots at random. This is very frustrating because it worked fine for years. Seemingly iMovie gets worse over time. The older versions gave more preference options.

My camera is still on the official list of supported camcorders as of today.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,935 points

Dec 28, 2017 1:27 AM in response to steelbar

I had something hidden in the system that had been migrated from my old computer to the new computer. I wish I could say that we found the answer, but we never really found what file was causing the problem.

One of the possibly incompatible older stuff could be Perian. Do you remember if you previously had Perian installed to get additional video codecs?

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Answer 5

steelbar Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 28, 2017 8:21 AM in response to léonie

Yes I did have Perian but I uninstalled it and checked the system files that it didn't leave any stray files. It is possible that there was a file that was missed but no one was able to find it. I guess Perian could have corrupted one of the other system files but we could not find it.

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

194,935 points

Dec 28, 2017 8:54 AM in response to steelbar

Afaik, Perian installs an old version of ffmpeg, and on my Mac these files are in /opt/local/bin/ffmpeg

The ffmpeg version I am using has been installed by the current macports, and is harmless.

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