Avchd video on the iMac

Can anyone tell me whether Panny AVCHD lite files from LX5 can be played and/or edited on iMac and if so will I need dedicated software?

Thanks

Dubious

I do it all the time with iMovie! It does a great job and comes free with the iMac. If you get Final Cut you can do a LOT more effects and editing. It just depends on how complex you want to get. iMovie has to convert the AVCHD on import, but it does not effect quality. I have an external Blu-Ray burner and Toast Software to burn the Blu-Ray disks of my movies, and WOW! The Quality is unreal. This is a great setup. Make sure you have 8gig of RAM if you can get it. It will make a difference. Go to MacSales.com to buy more Ram and the Blu-Ray burner. Hope this helps!

Kevin

kevin, what settings do you use in imovie, toast?

thanks

Nothing special in iMovie. Just do the import of the files, edit the video, then Finalize the project. I then Export the HD movie from iMovie to a Hard drive. I then use Toast and create a Blu-Ray Project (you need to purchase a separate plug-in for this from Toast). I make a Blu-Ray theme, and drag the iMovie Exports to the Toast Project, and then Burn the Blu-ray. It is not very hard to do, but it REALLY makes for some fine video!

Kevin

Thanks for the info Kevin.

I'm assuming from your post that the video quality in the AVCHD Lite format is not necessarily any better than other formats (Motion Jpeg?) but is easier to handle from a file size perspective? After all, if it's 720p HD video that you're shooting, then that's what it is regardless of the format used to store/compress it?

Regards

dubious

When I started using my Panny TS3, I found that it was very difficult if I let something copy the AVCHD files to the Mac, and then tried to do something with them. But, if I left the files on the camera, and let iMovie do the import, it was quick and easy.
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Eric

Can you also process AVCHD (not "lite"?) from a Panny G3 (or GF2) using iMovie or Final Cut Express?

Do you have to import it from the camera directly?

I have copied the files from the card to my disk, and tried importing the STREAM/xxxxx.MTS files without success (invalid file format). I can view them with the VLC viewer, and I can convert them to .mp4 files with a trial version of a separately purchased program and then import the .mp4 file. If I can import them directly that would be ideal.

Any suggestions would be appreciated...

Thanks,
-howard

I was shocked when I first tried editing AVCHD footage on my new iMac. Every single piece of editing software you can buy handles and edits AVCHD fine without converting to another format wich requires a lot of harddrive space... Well everyone EXCEPT apples iMovie and Final Cut!

I am sure this is another case of Steve Jobs holding a grudge against someone (Sony?) and therefore not wanting Apples software to use AVCHD. I really do not see any reason why else it does not handle AVCHD. It is simply stupid to have to waste time and space on converting to another format.

Also output from iMovie/Final Cut X is VERY limited because Apple again denies you to output anything non-quicktime. Same with iDVD. You cannot even import a DVD ready MPEG2 file to make a DVD. It HAS to be a quicktime file?!? Such a shame...

I love Apple and my macs, but as far as editing home video for DVD or bluray you are better of with non-apple apps...

Per Zangenberg said:

I was shocked when I first tried editing AVCHD footage on my new iMac. Every single piece of editing software you can buy handles and edits AVCHD fine without converting to another format wich requires a lot of harddrive space... Well everyone EXCEPT apples iMovie and Final Cut!

Click to expand...

it all depends on what you're planning on doing with the video. if you're doing heavy frame by frame editing, converting to an uncompressed format is the better solution.

Per Zangenberg said:

I am sure this is another case of Steve Jobs holding a grudge against someone (Sony?) and therefore not wanting Apples software to use AVCHD. I really do not see any reason why else it does not handle AVCHD. It is simply stupid to have to waste time and space on converting to another format.

Click to expand...

AVCHD video implies directories and support files to support subtitles, audio, menus, etc for blu-ray playback
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD

if you really want to just mess with the video, you could always transcode mts using the clipwire demo to rewrap to a mov file

As noted above avchd and Mac has been a pain. Believe me...I have spent a lot of time researching this....hrs on hold with Apple support....you cannot import AVCHD files from a hard drive either internal or external. The files HAVE to be on the camera. This is even stated in an Apple support statement. This is absolutely inexcusable by Apple...even got Apple support to admit to what a pain in the rear it is.

I looked into transcoding but that it both time and memory intensive...again what a pain. So the much better solution I found is a app named Clipwrap. They claim it unwraps the AVCHD file and expose the .mov file. It is super quick and can verify after "unwrapping" dozens of AVCHD files, that it quickly imports to iMovie without loss of quality. To me it does not make sense to transcode anymore. Overall IMovie is a joke with respect to speed....I have a mid 2011 core i7 iMac and iMovie does not take use of all cores to process and render final video file. Checked activity monitor and only 10-40 % of processor power being utilized when rendering. I thought how could this be? again called Apple support...iMovie support couldn't help...didn't know why...finally got to an upper level support after an hr where I was told rudely that I was expecting too much from a consumer level program. I the told him that the FREE app, Handbrake uses all cores when transcoding. he didn't have much to say to that. I feel your pain but give Clipwrap a try. It $50 or so but much worth it. Here's the site:

http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap

Month old thread, but I don't have any problem importing AVCHD content from a hard drive. You need to use "Import from Camera" under FPCX, but instead of selecting the camera, you click on "Open Archive" button in the bottom of window, from there, you can import AVCHD files into your FCPX projects.

Dominic

Final Cut Pro X handles AVCHD directly. The current version of iMovie is quite old and really needs and update. I think we will see updates to the iLife and iWork apps pretty soon. And, of course, you could always use something like Adobe Premiere Elements or Premiere if you choose.
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Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

http://www.dougwigton.com/