Conversion to mp4

What settings have you found give you the best quality video when converting to mpeg4 with Quicktime?
I've never found settings that I like so I always output it as DV and then convert to mp4 with ffmpegx or burn to DVD and then rip with Handbrake...but it seems like Quicktime should be able to do as good or better a job...

No solution, but I had the same thing happen yesterday.

Similar Messages

Losing Audio in Video Conversion m2ts mp4

I am using a video importing device and software that creates a "m2ts" file.   I can play the created "m2ts" file perfectly using VLC.
However, neither QuickTime 7 or QuickTime 10.3 will play this file.   When I tried to use MPEG Streamclip I was presented with a pop-up suggesting I need to purchase an additional plug-in, (which I am happy to do). It suggested I go here to purchase. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2
I tried that, but was redirected here http://www.apple.com/quicktime/extending/components.html
I have no idea if the software I need is at this redirected website.
The plot thickens.   The importing software has the ability within it to convert video file to a mp4.   I tried that because I have found mp4 to be more compatible.
Unfortunately, I lose all audio (the video is perfect) when I try MPEG Streamclip or VLC. With QuickTime 10.3 I get perfect audio and video. So, I drag the mp4 file into iMovie 06 (aka iMovie HD) and it begins converting into something. When the conversion is complete the audio is gone!
I have dumped many mp4 files into iMovie 06, and never had a problem until now.
Thanks for reading, suggestions appreciated.

I thought I would report my progress. ( I have sound now, BUT !! )
I purchased a video conversion program from the Mac App Store.   It is called “AnyVideo converter HD". It is well reviewed.
So, I dropped in my "m2ts" file. I set the conversion to "Computer MOV 720p HD". "AnyVideo converter HD" converted a 1 minute video in about 15 seconds to a "mov".   The converted file had excellent picture quality and sound, it played perfectly using QuickTime.
Then the trouble started. When I dropped this 60 second clip into iMovie 06 (set for 720p) it's conversion process took 35 minutes ?!?!   The result was flawless! However, a two-hour video conversion would not be complete until about the time Capt. Kirk joins Starfleet.

Mobile video only playing through headphones from 5D MKIII .MOV mp4 conversion

I have not run into something like this before and hope that someone has...
I have been capturing video with a 5D MKIII for a while now and create videos for work and upload to YouTube and mobile platforms. Someone recently told me that through the YouTube app, these videos (this one for example: Hail Recovery in V12 Corn - YouTube) will play fine on computer browsers and on a mobile device through headphones. When you try to play through the YouTube app without headphones, this video will play only garbled sound and very quietly.
I have traced the problem to the 5D MKIII video capture, as capture with a canon XF105 doesn't have the issue (after AME conversion to mp4) on upload or playing directly from a mobile device or streaming from something like Dropbox.
I'm not sure what to check now. I have tried almost every conceivable export choice and setting through AME CC2014 (and tried CC as well). I have tried this through my laptop and another machine on the same software set. I have tried exporting just the MP3 and listening via dropbox (same issue - sound garbled and quiet). I have tried W/O Quicktime installed on machine (thinking there might be an issue with the AME QT and the local QT. I have tried taking the .MOV file direct from the camera and creating a .AVI and MXF file and then used those in editing and export to MP4. None of these things have changed the outcome.
The things I know are:
- only happens from DSLR not other captures (like XF105)
- only happens to sound trying to come through mobile device speaker (works with headphones) - I have checked the various 'mute' settings on all mobile devices i've used and this isn't the issue. I have tried Samsung, iPhone and iPad all with the same result
- audio plays normally through computer browsers and through mobile device headphones
If anyone has had this experience please let me know. This is very problematic as we have transitioned to using DSLR for most video now. It seems to be something with streaming but it also happens when I take the file (from the camera > mp4 or after editing in Premiere/AE > mp4) and play direct from the device. It must be something with the conversion from .MOV to mp4 but what?
Thanks in advance for any insights.
System:
Dell Precision M6800 64-Bit Windows 7
Intel (R) core(TM) i7-4940MX CPU @ 3.10GHz
32 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro K5100M Video Card (8GB RAM)
Adobe Master Suite CC2014.2
Adobe Master Suite CC
Tom

See this link:
Re: audio missing on vimeo and youtube

From MPEG-2 to MP4 on a Nokia N8?

Hello
I have some old birthday movies on VHS that I ultimately want to transfer to my N8.
After the conversion to MPEG-2 on my computer, which program is best suited to convert the files to MP4 in the best resolution that the N8 can handle?
Which program do you recommend for conversion to MP4?

vesperillo wrote:
Hello
I have some old birthday movies on VHS that I ultimately want to transfer to my N8.
After the conversion to MPEG-2 on my computer, which program is best suited to convert the files to MP4 in the best resolution that the N8 can handle?
Which program do you recommend for conversion to MP4?
I use Nokia video converter factory.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30612400/nokia-video-converter.zip
Ray.

Error in FCE 4 while exporting an mp4 HD Movie

Hallo,
I try to export an mp4 movie, by using the quicktime conversation mode. I selected mp4 with 20,000 kBit/s. The tests of a short 5 minutes clip were successfull. Exporting the whole movie of 81 minutes was interrupted by FCE 4 after many hours with the massage 'A generell error'. I used an external USB harddisc (70 GB of free space). I also tried to export to the internal harddisc (90 BG of free space): no results.
The error also in Mac OS X 10.5.3 has happened.
What can I do?

That's not right. If i write a Quicktime movie of my 81 minutes long HD-movie, I see the .mov file growing. After 8 hours I got a correct .mov file of 45.2 GB.
But if I am using the Quicktime conversation with .mp4 encoding, the export file doesn't grow and after 6 hours, the file still is 0 KB large. Then FCE interrupts the exporting process and the file disappears. Shorter movies of some minutes were not interrupted!!! But why?
Unfortunately the using of Streamclip 1.9.1 to convert a .mov to a .mp4 file was not successfully too. After 14 hours of converting the file, I just got 51% of the mp4 movie. This seemed to by wrong.

Converting MP4 to FLV

Hi,
I posted this in the Flash Encoder forum a few days ago, but
haven't gotten any responses. So I'm hoping someone here might
know.
I'm trying to take a MP4 file, and convert it to a .flv to
use on our Intranet.
When I open Flash Encoder, I select the .MP4 and settings in
Encoder are
Flash 8 Medium Quality (400kbs)
It goes through the process of converting the file, and saves
a .flv.
but when I try and view the .flv I can double click on it and
it opens Flash Player 9 and I get nothing but a white screen. All
the controls in the control menu are shaded out.
If I try and insert the file into a page within dreamweaver
and upload everything to the server, I still get nothing.
So it seems the conversion from MP4 to .flv is not working
correctly.
Before I encode it, if I go into the settings area of Flash
Encoder, and move the timeline I can see the frames of the video.
So I'm assuming the MP4 is not the problem.
Is there something else I need to do?
Thanks.

Hmmm...so you encode the mp4 and it generates an flv, right?
And then in Flash (I'm just thinking out loud here) you create a
new fla, import -> video and choose the flv and it walks you
through the process where you select 'streaming from server' and
the player skin, etc. and then it places the flv instance on stage
in the fla.
Then you can fiddle with the stage dimensions, publish it,
and once you upload the flv, the swf with the flv as a parameter,
the swf for the player skin, the .js file and the html file to the
server you should be able to play the video.
If you've done all that, I guess the next question would be
whether you've tried it with another format, like an .avi or
something else.
Sean

MP4 to .flv

Hi,
I'm hoping someone can help with this problem I'm having.
I'm trying to take a MP4 file that, and convert it to a .flv
to use on our Intranet.
When I open Flash Encoder, I select the .MP4 and settings in
Encoder are
Flash 8 Medium Quality (400kbs)
It goes through the process of converting the file, and saves
a .flv.
but when I try and view the .flv I can double click on it and
it opens Flash Player 9 and I get nothing but a white screen. All
the controls in the control menu are shaded out.
If I try and insert the file into dreamweaver and upload
everything to the server, I still get nothing.
So it seems the conversion from MP4 to .flv is not working
correctly.
Before I encode it, if I go into the settings area of Flash
Encoder, and move the timeline I can see the frames of the video.
So I'm assuming the MP4 is not the problem.
Is there something else I need to do?
Thanks.

I discovered this problem when uploading an MP4 encoded out
of Vegas to Blip.tv.
I attempted to encode to FLV manually via flash encoder and
like you, I could see the video in while setting encoding options
but when it was actually encoding it came out white.
To get around this all I had to do was rename the .mp4 to
.mpg before encoding. I hope that helps.

How can I convert a MP4 file to a MOV file to be viewed on my windows PC?

How do I convert a MP4 movie file to a MOV fIle so I can view it on a Windows PC?

Hello, there are many such software can convert the file format, the conversion from MP4 to MOV format, avi formats to MP4 formats, these formats are supported, you can try this software, supports converting various formats , this software is free to download the trial, I have been using.
I hope you can help.

Mac Pro 3.1 Nvidia 8800GT problem

Here I am again guys
and after about 3,5 months from 8800GT failure and rebaking it succesfully, the card is dead again, so I baked it once more.
I am on OSX Yosemite 10.10.2 now with my Mac Pro 3.1. I don't use photoshop or any 3d game.Beyond safari, firefox, mail, youtube, itunes and some other common apps, I use Wmware for win7 and xp compatibility and there I have installed Autocad 12 but I don't use it for 3d design. I do some movie format conversions with Handbreak (6-10mins job) every now and then. Recently, last 15days, I started to use Garageband and a little imovie 2-3 hours a day both of them. I understand that, this is not heavy duty jobs for the graphic card!!!
What's surprising me is that MacPro works without the card installed!!! via Teamviewer.
I have made a few secs mov conversion to mp4 format with Handbreak and also played a few secs movie with quicktime, I am afraid to use the mac for a long while because I don't know it's capabilities in this situation and I don't want to have a severe damage.
I've always noticed that Handbreak was taking all the cpu juice when doing convertions although I thought that the GPU does the major job for that. But then, when the GPU gets working? Only when sending picture to displays? I don't think so...
So question 1 is: when the graphics card get's into play....and get stressed by my Mac?
and question 2: I am planning to buy a low budget nvidia card for pc -non EFI so no Boot screen- and install it as a main card.
I am thinking to replace my 8800GT with this Asus gt740
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GT7402GD3/overview/
or
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
Then install again the rebaked 8800GT and leave it unconnected to screen. I will connect it to a screen only when I 'll need the boot screen, or update OS. Will this combination make the 8800GT to stress and overheat as before?
question 3: I use the term overheat just because the card fails, I don't know a way to measure the card's temperature and I pretty much like to, just to see what's happenning to card under any jobs..

After checking connections, I would try a NVRAM reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
If it still doesn't show, I'd pull it and connect it to a different machine.
If it does't show there, I'd call it dead.
Oh, and as for the jumper, I wouldn't change it without changing the second drive as well.

Big Blunder with movies in iPhoto '08 and web galleries

I've just upgraded to iLife '08 and found a REALLY BIG BLUNDER in the use of movies with iPhoto and the web gallery. As it is, the new 10GB limit won't be enough for diddly squat of movie hosting.
I've got a Canon A640 that saves to .JPG and .AVI formats. iPhoto opens a gallery with them just fine.
But .AVI movies take up ~50MB per minute of video. A 2 minute movie I made is about 100 MB, while a 9 minute movie is 550MB in size. So while it's fine to view them on your desktop, you do NOT want to upload them!
However, iPhoto has no ability to convert .AVIs to any other formats.
I went into iMovie and manually selected each .AVI clip and Exported it as "medium" to my local drive. Ok, this gets you a .m4v file that's much more workable.
Going back to iPhoto ... uh, gee, "iPhoto cannot recognize that file format".
The new iMovie can export exactly ONE format -- .m4v -- and iPhoto thinks it's an iTunes file and won't work with it. Thanks a lot guys. What movie format IS iPhoto expecting to use, exactly?
I went over to the Apple store and presented my dilemma to one of the geniuses there, and the ONLY solution he could recommend was to get a license for Quicktime Pro and use it to do the conversion to .MP4. But, even then, iPhoto won't recognize .MP4 files in your folder. You have to explicitly import them. Again, iPhoto seems to like movies, but ... in what formats?
As an aside, MP4 files are smaller than M4V files, but the additional compression takes quite a toll on the image quality.
I filled up two 4GB SD chips with a couple dozen photos and several movies. The way iPhoto works right now, the only way to get these movies onto a .Mac gallery is to upload them directly, which is NOT a good idea! They take up an ENORMOUS amount of disk space, take FOREVER to upload, and I doubt users will find it very fun waiting for a 500MB download to view them (which download will take longer than the length of the video being viewed).
iPhoto needs a way to recognize .AVI files and STRONGLY discourage you from uploading them -- offering instead to convert them to something more useful, like .M4V format, WITHOUT having to swith over to iMovie or use Quicktime or some other program to do the conversion.
It also needs a way to tell it to handle other movie file format besides .AVI files.
Thanks
-David

Errrr.... you guys are totally missing the point.
Apple sells little Canon cameras, and they have them sitting right next to just about every Mac in the store. Ever noticed them? Maybe you own one? (I suspect not because you probably would have noticed this already if you did.)
These Canon cameras take two types of images: stills are .JPGs and movies are .AVIs. Got that?
JPGs are compressed and "ready to use".
AVIs are UN-compressed and NOT "ready to use". You can play them locally and they look fine. But there's not much to tell you they're HUGE FILES. When I say "huge", I'm taling 50 MEGA-BYTES PER MINUTE huge. That means a measley 2 minute clip is 100 MEGA-BYTES in size. OK? Now, what's the download rate on your iPhone? How long will it take you to view a 2-minute AVI file? But, surely, nobody is dumb enough to load them onto their Web Gallery, right? Keep on reading.
See, when you connect the camera to the computer, most people have their system set to open something like iPhoto or Aperture when the camera is connected. Agreed? (Maybe YOU don't, but LOTS of people DO.)
Notice that you can choose to have iMovie or Final Cut Pro or something else launch when you plug the camera in as well. It's up to you. Most people launch iPhoto - or Aperture if they've got it.
It so happens that iPhoto '08 loads in in BOTH sets of files. Why in the world iPhoto is happy reading in AVI files is beyond me, considering it won't recognize M4V files and has to be slapped to get it to take MP4 files. But it happily reads AVI files with no problem.
Now, if you've got your iPhoto set to AUTOMATICALLY SYNCHRONIZE with your WEB GALLERY, what happens?
Well, if you're like me and you filled two 4-GIGA-BYTE Flash cards with movies, and iPhoto launches (like when you plug the camera or flash memory into the computer) and starts to SYNCHRONIZE with your WEB GALLERY, what's gonna happen?
Did you actually TELL it to upload those files? NOPE! But it DID!
Several HOURS LATER your computer will finish UPLOADING 8 GIGA-BYTES of MOVIES to your WEB GALLERY! And if you interrupt it, well, it'll happily start over when you turn the computer back on again.
That's really nice since .Mac now has a 10 GByte limit. Two and a half 4-GB flash cards will fill up your .Mac account if you shoot movies with your Canon camera, have iPhoto set to launch when you attach your camera, and/or have it set to automatically synchronize with your web gallery.
All I'm saying is that if iPhoto is going to work with movie files, it should NOT blindly upload AVI files, NO WAY. I'd much prefer it if it would let you apply some kind of compression to them, eg., turn them into MP2 files. (MOV files are even bigger than AVI files, from what I can tell.)
We're not talking about what you THINK about doing. We're talking about the DEFAULT BEHAVIOR of the program for a VERY COMMON SCENARIO -- that you don't HAVE to think about.
So it's very possible that while you're happily editing your AVI movies in iMovie or Final Cut, iPhoto is happily sitting in the background uploading the same files to your Web Gallery. And you are clueless.
Is that making sense now?

When I render my video I get a black bar on the left side of the screen

I just upgraded to FCS 2 and so far it's been a complete waste of money. I'm having nothing but problems with FCP, Compressor, and QMaster. I will just post my FCP problem here.
I've edited a weekly video podcast and everything looks great, until I render it and export it. When I render it, I get a constant, solid black bar on the far left of the video that takes up about 5% of the screen. My layers are definitely sized correctly to fill up the entire canvas, and they are all centered. I cannot figure out why I am getting this black bar or how to get rid of it without ditching the upgrade and going back to FCP5.1.
I have already tried completely uninstalling the FCS suite and reinstalling. No luck. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks for the reply.
My original source material is in Apple Intermediate Codec, with 32-bit float audio and a variable frame rate. This has not been friendly to FCP, so I use Quicktime to convert it to Apple ProRes with 24-bit audio and 29.97 frame rate. This is what I import into FCP.
My sequence settings are set to the same specs as my source material. 854x480, square pixels, no field dominance, Apple ProRes compression.
The black bar on the left side of the screen shows up before I even export. It shows up when I render everything.
I am exporting with Quicktime Conversion to:
MP4
h.264 codec
720x405
1000 video bit rate
Main Profile
No cropping/filters or anything.
The ONLY thing I did different before upgrading to FCP6 was that I used Apple Intermediate Codec all the way through. I was told by an FCP instructor that writes and publishes all kinds of FCP training material that I should upgrade to FCP6 and use the Apple ProRes422 Codec instead, so that's what I'm trying to do.
I am going back to restart my project using Apple Intermediate Codec all the way through like I used to, but it will be awhile before I can tell if that solved the problem. Either way, I would like to be using the ProRes codec....
Thoughts?

Can Adobe Media Encoder CC batch watermark & convert AVCHD

Im a videographer and i own a Youtube channel where i upload videos from dance competions.
Some of thes comeptitions can have anything upto 80+ 1v1 "dance off" type competitions.
I film using a NEX - VG30 which films in AVCHD.
What i need is a program that can.
a) Convert the files to MPEG-4 and
b) Watermark all the videos.
c) Do both at the same time at a touch of a button.
Can i acheive this with AME CC?
Thanks

Hi Todd,
Your advice is spot-on... I have been trying to use this **Effects: Image Overlay** option for my batch conversion and upload jobs, to add an image to the entire video track, and repeat this for 20+ files at a time.
There is one glitch I encountered that some users may encounter too... sometimes the Image Overlay does not render, when there is no video track in the source file.
"What?" you say? Well, my files are MP3s. They have no video track. But to upload to Youtube, for example, the podcast must have a video track. So I figured I could add an image to the video track. This is recommended everywhere as the only scalable local solution to getting podcasts to Youtube. It works fine if using Premiere.
But Media Encoder has a problem doing this... The handy Youtube preset I modified to have an Image Overlay effect appears to work, but after the MP4 is made, there is neither sound nor the image. They are in effect 70mb empty files.
The mp3 is known good, the conversion to mp4 with the same preset minus the image-overlay is good. It's just when the image overlay is added, the file is rendered useless.
Anyone else have this issue? Is there a tech moderator who has seen this?
thanks everyone!

Exporting Canon XHA1 from final cut pro?

I have a problem with my export. my footage plays fine in my browser when playing on final cut pro (before export). i have been exporting for YOU TUBE as a quick time conversion (mp2 & mp4) but when i play it back the footage cant keep up with the sound. the quality is ok (could be better) but the footage jumps.
i imported on sequence preset 1080i50. is this correct or can someone suggest something else.
im not sure what the best settings are if someone could please help. i want the footage to keep its quality but it also has to be compatible with you tube.
thanks

ok, your description is a little confused. What version of FCS are you using? In 3 the Share to YouTube works just fine. Are you trying to export a 1920x1080 image? If so that might be an issue. I note that you're running a G5. It might be time to move that forward a little bit.

Using Apple to store and play my DVDs

I have hundreds of movies on DVD-- all legally purchased over the years. What is the best way to store them and play them? A mac mini? Apple TV? I would like to be able to use Front Row to browse my library on the big screen TV. Any recommendations for the best configuration?

I too have decided to go in this direction. Right now, I have two Pioneer 300 DVD changers about half full of my movies & TV shows. They're connected into my big screen and my theater surround system. I get a great picture and great surround sound. But accessing movies is really clunky and slow, and now one of the changers screws up disc loading every once and a while. So I am working on setting up a Macintosh Media Center.
My goals are: 1) move all my video off DVD media into chapterized MP4 files stored on hard drives. 2) move all my music from iTunes in my G5 into the new Mac Media Center. 3) Try to have the AC3-5.1 digital surround stream fed from the Media Center into my theater surround system. 4) Try to have the digital video stream feed from the Media Center directly into my big screen HDTV at 1080i [the only resolution other than 480p my big screen accepts]. 5) have my Harmony One universal remote try to control everything as it does now. 6) be able to tranfer non-DVD media [VHS/Laserdisc/Satellite/Over-The-Air HD] into the Media Center.
So far, after looking around for a couple of weeks, this looks easy to do. I've decided on a Mac Mini Core Duo as the center of the Media Center, as you need at least a Dual G5 or a Core Duo to work in HDTV. I've also decided to stay away from AppleTV due to all its silly little limitations. I can connect the Mini directly to my big screen via the included VGA adapter. Then the Mini can be set to output 1080i video using SwitchResX, a video manager app from Madrau.com. Further the Mini had TosLink digital audio input and output for simple connection to my Yamaha surround amp. As for other hardware, I'm probably going to go with a Logitech diNovo Edge Mac Edition Bluetooth keyboard and a Logitech MX Air mouse that works a mouse cursor with your hand and mouse in the air. For video input, I have to get an Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus. This will not only digitize standard TV video and audio, but also has an antenna connection for over-the-air digital broadcasts. With my Dish receiver, pro VHS deck, and Laserdisc player all connected into the surround amp which then connects to the EyeTV, I can do DVR ops with any video source.
I have been playing around at DVD conversion to MP4. My current workflow is to backup my DVDs with MacTheRipper, use MPEG StreamClip to save a movie as one big VOB file, the convert the movie with Open Shiiva. A 45min Star Trek episode compressed from 1.84GB down to 226MB with no apparent change in video or audio quality. A 92min movie compressed from 3.09GB down to 1.04GB. After the DVD is turned into an MP4 file, I use an app I just found called MetaData Hootenanny to add my own chapter marks to the movie. This works great, both in QT Pro and in Front Row. I also see that HandBrake does most of the same work, but you lose some flexibility.
Where I'm at right now is file organization. iTunes does great job of organizing music MP3s, but doesn't touch video files at all.
Hey!!! All you Front Row Experts out there!!! Am I doomed to having a single list of a bzillion videos that I have to scroll thru or is there some way to organize a pile of six or seven hundred videos into some kind of multi-level order??? ....say by show / season / episode no for TV shows or genre for movies??? Right now I just have a gaggle of music videos, some TV show themes and a couple of movies. That's 147 videos and I haven't even got started on my DVD collection.

AVCHD + iMovie, best tactics for home movies

Hey all. Thanks ahead of time for your help. Even after a decent amount of research, I'm having a hard time figuring out some of this.
I have a late-2008 13" MBP (2.4GHz ic2d), iMovie 08, a Canon Vixia HF20. My previous camera (mini-DV tape Panasonic) imported into iMovie a consistent 6.86 MB / second at 29.97 FPS and 853x480. I guess we're spoiled by the small amount of hard drive space this uses up, since we have several years of footage (unedited) on my MBP.
My daughters like to look through the unedited footage in iMovie (as a player), so it has become kind of like iTunes for our video files. Plus, who knows when we'll have the time to do editing - i.e., no time soon, if ever.
So, we're just looking for a way to continue the trend with our new Canon HF 20 camera, a gift from the grandparents. (Yes I hear you laughing knowing what is coming...)
The HD clips are super small on the actual camera, but bloat up once iMovie imports them into AIC. I've read up on this already, so I understand why now. But obviously we don't have the internal HD space to store unedited HD video with huge AIC file sizes.
I tried downloading the VLC program that was suppose to play the MTS files, but it didn't work (probably because I didn't copy over the whole folder tree/stream files from the camera, I'm guessing). Is that my best bet to keeping the file sizes down?
I've been reading up on programs that convert the AVCHD format to MP4 and DV so that iMovie can read them (the conversion process takes forever). I guess I don't understand the benefit of this. If my iMovie already can import them into AIC, why would I need a 3rd party conversion program?
Or more specifically, does using a converter program to take AVCHD to MP4 retain full HD quality but reduce file size? How about to DV format?
I'm not wild about the idea of taking 12x the clip length to convert the AVCHD files into MP4, but if that will be a one-time "suck it up" process, and we'll ultimately have small file sizes (yet full HD quality), I can see the value there.
We're not tied to using iMovie (we don't even edit really, we're just using it as a player/organizer right now). *So I guess our goal is to keep file sizes down so we can (ideally) have all our unedited video on my MBP for view-any-time fun... all the while retaining HD quality if we ever (way in the future) want to edit it.*
Sheessh, it's just home movies. Got so complicated so fast.
I do have an ASUS G73JH (i7-720QM, Win7), and I read AVCHD is native to Win7, but I'd really like to avoid using the PC for the videos.

Thank you so much for responding. But my questions aren't really about archiving the raw AVCHD/MTS format (which I believe I can already do right now using Disk Utility or my PC).
The issue is that we still want to play/view the unedited HD files on the Mac, but need to keep the file sizes down (so AIC format is out of the question). I guess my questions can be summarized as follows:
*1) How can we simply view/play the raw AVCHD files on the Mac, while (a) keeping the file sizes down, and (b) maintaining the HD quality to do some editing in the (very) distant future?*
I tried the VLC Media Player program, but it didn't work (even with the entire folder tree from the camera).
*2) Does converting the AVCHD format into MP4 (or DV) result in a loss of video quality?*
My couple tests doing this (with AVCHD Converter program) took forever to do the conversion to MP4, but ended up with very small file sizes as well as file types that Mac could play. It was hard to tell, but it looked like the video quality went down. I have not tried converting to DV yet.
*3) If you are trying to retain the most video quality while keeping the file size as small as possible, is it better to convert AVCHD format to MP4 or DV?*
*4) Is the conversion from AVCHD to DV/MP4 quicker based on CPU?*
VoltaicHD, for example, says it takes 12 times as long as the original footage to convert the clip, but it didn't mention the CPU. If I did the conversion on my i7 quadcore PC, would it all go faster?

Conversion to mp4

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