AVCHD - slow to import to iMovie

I have a Panasonic HDC-SX5. The lovely high quality HD video can be imported via USB2 – no Firewire port on cam – directly into iMovie 08, BUT it takes ages to import. In fact it's about the same speed as it was with "old fashioned" MiniDV.
Is there any way to speed up this process? eg. would it be quicker to get Toast 9 and use that to grab the file from the camera – and if so, would the material still be available for iMovie?
Thanks!

this is the funny piece, when I drag the movie from my desktop into the event I created, I get the beachball, but it imports in half the time. When I let it work for 6-8 hours, then I can preview w/o the beachball
Erm Sounds like you need to import your footage using the File menu>>>>Import>>>>Movie to your event browser
Then LET it generate the thumbnails and go from there.

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Fixing a few AVCHD Lite clips imported under iMovie '08

Before upgrading from iMovie '08 to iMovie '09, I imported 6 AVCHD Lite clips from my Panasonic DMC-TS1. Whoops! As others have noted, the video moves at double speed, while the audio is normal. So I bought iMovie '09.
Subsequent imports into iMovie '09 from AVCHD Lite have worked well. My son is pretty cute in these clips, and I'd hate to lose them to a technical mistake.
I no longer have the original MTS (AVCHD Lite) files. The clips are in .MOV and stored on my hard disk. When I try to edit cache.mov, if I change the 2997 to anything else, it just gets changed back when I launch iMovie.
Any suggestions for slowing the video of these .MOV files without slowing the audio?

Hello,
I am not sure if this is the right thread, but I am hoping someone can help me out or point me in the right direction. Karsten, perhaps your reply on 31 July is a solution?
About a year ago I purchased a new MacBook. Two months ago I received a Panasonic TS1 as a gift. Naturally, I had problems with the AVCHD video (at least twice the normal speed) when imported into iMovie. Because I did not have iMovie 8.0 in the suite of applications that came with the computer, I recently purchased iLife 09. I have since updated to iMovie 8.0.4. My problem is that the video is still too fast. I don't know what to do or how to fix it - I would have thought that when I updated the software it would have fixed the video clips to play at the correct speed. My bigger problem is that I deleted the video off of my camera when I initially imported because at that time I didn't realize there was a problem between the video and iMovie 7.0.?. Therefore the only footage is that which is in iMovie. Any suggestions? Perhaps if 8.0.4 does not automatically fix the speed, I can somehow pull the video out of iMovie and import it back in? I would really like to fix this as this is the only video footage I have of my 5 year-old singing at a school play. I am with the Army and away from him so I would like to make a movie so he can see it.
Appreciate any thoughts or advice.
Thank you.

Incredibly slow photo import into iMovie 11

Can anyone tell me how to speed up the uploading of photos for a time lapse movie into iMovie 11? I am trying to upload 3232 8 meg pics, and so far it has been 14 hours. At the current upload rate, it looks like it will take about 18 hours total. This seems to me to be ridiculously long, but I can't seem to find a way to upload them any faster. As a recent convert to Mac, I am mostly impressed with my new iMac, but on this point it is like a drunken dinosaur. Any help appreciated, including any tips on any free program other than iMovie that I might use to speed up the process.
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Matt- thanks for the response. To be honest, I was recording in whatever the default mode was. I did not realize there was a 60i vs a 60p. I will look into that.
As far as imports go- I have the camera hooked up to the usb port of my iMac and have iMovie running. I selected import from the camera and it brings up the window I described in my post. I also tried to just import movies- but got the same response.
Mark

Importing video clips in AVCHD (Lite) into Aperture vs iMovie

I'm trying to figure out which application I should use for importing and storing video clips shot on my Panasonic DMC-ZS7 camera. This camera can shoot in AVCHD (Lite) or in Motion JPEG. I use the AVCHD (Lite) format to shoot the videos with this camera.
The two application options I currently have for importing video clips from this camera are:
a. Aperture 3.5.1 (I'm not using iPhoto since I have Aperture).
b. iMovie 10.0.1 (I'm not using Final Cut Pro)
When I first got this camera, Aperture 3 did not support the AVCHD Lite codec. Back then, iMovie could import video clips shot in AVCHD Lite, but it had to transcode the AVCHD video clips into AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec). Some time later, one of the Aperture 3 updates made it possible to import AVCHD Lite into Aperture (without having to transode into an intermediate codec), so we started importing our video clips shot in AVCHD Lite (together with our photos shot by the same camera) directly into Aperture.
iMovie 10 released in 2013 supports importing video clips shot in AVCHD Lite without having to transode them to AIC for storing these video clips in iMovie. So, now we have a dilemma that we need help with. Which application should we use going forward for importing video clips from this camera?
When I look at the metadata for the imported videos in Aperture, I see that the format of the imported video clips is listed as H.264. However, I can't seem to be able to find any information about the format in which iMovie stores imported videos. I can "Reveal in Finder" a video that I import into iMovie, and I see the size of the file and the .mov extension assigned to the file. With video files, the extension does not always determine the codec of the file, but in my non-expert opinion, the .mov extension is not H.264; I may be totally wrong here, though. What I have noticed, though, is that a video clip imported into iMovie has the file size that is about 10% larger than the same video clip imported into Aperture.
Therefore, I have three questions:
1. What format is a video clip (shot in AVCHD Lite) stored in Aperture 3.5.1 and in iMovie 10.0.1
2. Which format (the one used by Aperture or the one used in iMovie) is better suited for transoding AVCHD videos into? The balance of the quality and file size is the main consideration for us.
3. Which applications would you personally prefer using for importing video clips to and why?
I do want to use some of these video clips to make home videos in the future, utillizing iMovie. However, it seems I can still store the raw footage in Aperture and access this raw footage from iMovie to be able to create an iMovie project and a final home video. One of the concerns is that if we keep importing our video clips into Aperture, the Aperture library could grow beyond the size that Aperture can support and we may end up losing our photos due to the database corruption. Is this a real risk?
Thank you!

I had the same question recently. Go to the right of this box and a little above, into the Search Discussions window. Type in this: Is MPEG2 the answer
You will find my question, and the great answers I got. Follow those directions and you will be all set!

Importing AVCHD and DCIM folders into iMovie that someone has sent me. They live on my desktop. How do I bring them into an event library?

Someone has sent me the AVCHD and DCIM folders to import into iMovie. They live on my desktop. How do I bring them into an event library?

DCIM contains only stills.jpg ...
AVCHD is a highly complex file structure:
the 'video iself' is within STREAM as .mts, plus corresponding .cpi files in the CLIPINF ...
if the structure is intact, you go via File/Import/Camera Archive …
WITHOUT such a complete structure, the mts are not readable for iM and the automatic conversion routines don't get triggered. you have to manually convert/rewrap with 3rd party tools.-
the pics/jpegs can be imported via Finder/drag'n drop.-

I imported video from a card into IPhoto and it plays in slow motion. Any suggestions? Would importing into IMovie help at all?

Hello
I am importing video and pics into Iphoto and the video plays in slow motion. Would importing in Imovie help or does it have something to do with the type of camera or file the video is in?

It should. So they aren't shown in the Last Import smart album, right? Try the following:
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
2 - Run Option #4, Rebuild Database, followed by Option #1 if needed.
OT

Why do I have to make disk image of AVCHD to import into iMovie?

iMovie imports AVCHD format file structure from the camera quite easily. (or so I hear, I have not done so myself yet). I have footage from the camera saved to an external hard disk which I want to import into iMovie08. I am a newbie to Apple/Mac things. From these fora I learned that I need to make a disk image of the AVCHD directory and mount it. I did that and it seems to work.
But this process is painful. For the 12Gig save I made on 27Jan08, the disk utility took forever to make a disk image. It failed once complaining lack of disk space. I thought the firewire external disk was overwhelmed by IO and copied the directory to the internal disk, and made a disk image. I thought it was hung after about 15 minutes killed the diskutility. I had a corrupted image file. Then left diskutility running overnight and seems to have finished the job. This morning iMovie looked at the disk image and is estimating it is going to take 3 hours to bring it in. May be it is transcoding to a more editable format like mpeg-4 or something.
Why do I have to jump through so many hoops to make iMovie recognize the AVCHD structure? Why can't I just drag a AVCHD directory into iMovie and make it read it? If I can reclaim the 24 gigs in the internal disk at the end of the process, I guess I can live with it. But, come on, copying 12 gigs over Firewire, another hour to make a disk image... I was expecting better user experience than this. (Did I mention I am newbie for Apple? Recent refugee from the vistaland)

AppleMan1958 wrote:
I would not recommend waiting until you have 12GB of AVCHD (which might import as 120GB of AIC). You could lose it all if your camera is dropped. I suggest you get in the habit of importing from your camera on a regular basis.
I agree, it is not a good idea to accumulate so much footage in the camera. But these were downloaded from the camera way back before I even bought the iMac. At that time, the only device that can deliver 1920x1080 video to my shiny 50inch TV in the living room was the camcorder! (and the OTA antenna). So I kept the clips in the camcorder, even after taking regular backups to the hard disk. That way I can show the clips to friends and family in full HD glory!
BTW 12 Gig is just 2 hours in HD. It is not much. I dread bringing my second backup 4 hours of our trip to Anguilla, St Marten etc. We all know HD requires ooodles and oodles of data and storage. I am not really complaining about the disk usage. My most important beef was: iMovie imports AVCHD from the camera easily. But it is unable to start from a AVCHD folder in the internal hard disk and start reading it. I can burn a DVD-ROM with AVCHD directory in the root and it reads it. I can copy AVCHD folder to the root of a thumbdrive and it reads it.
But put the very same AVCHD deeply nested in the external drive it barfs.
I am going to experiment after going home. I will create a symbolic link to the AVCHD folder from the root of the external disk. Heck, I am root here, I can even do an ln -s /nested/directory/deep/in/the/external/drive/AVCHD /AVCHD
and see if I can fool iMovie to import the files without creating a diskimage. If someone who has immediate access to iMac would do the experiment it would be very helpful

AVCHD file Import via iMovie then ?possible FCE can import these files?

I am new to Apple. I want to Upgrade from iMovie 08, to FCE HD.
I believe that FCE DOES NOT import AVCHD files / format., however, iMovie 08
DOES! Before I Buy FCE, Has anyone with FCE successfully tried using iMovie 08 to import AVCHD video, then , with FCE running, import the iMovies 08 / AVCHD
files ( which I believe are uncompressed ' *.mov (movie) files ), into
Final Cut Express HD?

iMovie 08 converts the files to Apple Intermediate Codec when it ingests the material. That's the same format used by FCE.

Can I import avchd videos from canon into Imovie'11

can I import avchd videos from canon into Imovie'11

actually the only error in the system logs I see is..
11-02-27 10:59:49 AM iMovie[90311] NSEnumerateMapTable: map table argument is NULL

AVCHD Import into Imovie

So here is my problem, and it a big one. I recorded some video with a sony camera that records AVCHD ( .mts ) So I imported into imovie first try everything was great! So i recored more and now i want to import the footage. Same camera Same computer same program. I connect the usb to the camera and computer. Click connect usb on the camera just like i did before. Now in imovie I see the little circle spinning for a few seconds then quits. No window pops up. Then I click the camera button in imvoie and my webcam comes up. My camera is showing up on my desktop. I dont understant Before I could esaily import every thing. Now I cant? What is the problem? I browsed ever forum on this topic and cant find anything like it... Please help. Im using imoive 09.

Any ideas? Without converting, say to mp4 or something?

IMovie 11 (9.0.2) slow to import pictures, crashes

Hello all,
I’m trying to import 2600 pictures to make a time lapse and it takes approximately 5 seconds PER picture to import. I have already formatted the pictures into desired size (720P movie, therefore exported all pics at 1280 x 720 and average only 500KB size).
I tried both dragging and dropping the pics from desktop to iMovie as well as first importing to iPhoto and then importing from iMovie through the picture thing.
I tried in small batches (100pic) at a time too but it’s still dog slow. I have NO other projects or anything.
Also, no matter what, after about 20-30 mintes the application hangs completely and I have to force quit it...
Latest version of iMovie 9.0.2
I have a powerful MacPro (2 x Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3.2 GHz, 10GB RAM, a new ATI Radeon HD 5870, and 7200rpm HDs)
Everything up to date

Just want to say I am having a very similar problem. I've been working iniMovie for a couple years, and I have never experience this before. I do have the latest update iMovie11 9.0.2. I have about 1400 pictures imported from iPhoto (and really didn't experience major issues importing them), but now I am trying to go in and adjust cropping and transitions, and every slight adjustment takes approx 20 - 30 seconds, so it's taking me FOREVER to edit this project. Am seriously frustrated!! Any ideas out there?

Importing from iMovie to FC Express

I have attepted to import AVCHD files from my Canon XA20 Camcorder to FC Express with no success. I then attepted to import the same files into iMovie with success.
I have 2 questions.
1. How can I import AVCHD files direct int FC Express.
2. To import from iMovie to FC Express I cannot find where iMovie video file are on the system. In FCE you can nominate a drive for the files to be put.

That is PAL 25 fps?
The data rate should be fine.
AVCHD is possible to ingest directly to FCE.
Make sure you set the comatching Easy Setup BEFORE trying to capture.
Use Log and transfer over USB cable.
Al

Older DV Tapes Will Not Play or Import Into iMovie

I have a lot of DV tapes shot ten years ago on a JVC camcorder that I want to import into iMovie.
I have a new Canon Vixia hv 30 and I'm assuming these older mini DV tapes are compatible because these old tapes play fine in the camcorder itself, and also on my TV, but when I try to import them into iMovie, they do not display in the iMovie import window. However, new tapes shot recently with the new hv 30 display and import just fine.
Is there a problem with the old tapes being incompatible in some way I'm not understanding?
Dino1956 answered a similar problem in 2008:
*iMovie Camcorder Import Fix*
*Connect your camera. put it in 'play' mode (sometimes also called vcr). start up imovie (hd or 08; both work, but i use HD). go to the blue 'import' screen. it should just say 'camera connected'.*
*Now comes the trick. don't click import, but instead put your camera in 'record' mode. you should now see whatever it is that your aiming the camera at on your computer screen.*
*QUICKLY put your camera back in play mode. again very quickly press the 'play' button, either on the imovie import screen or on your camera. your DV tape will start to play back.*
*-On my computer, the video now suddenly shows up in imovie! You can now click the 'import' button in imovie, and imovie will start importing the tape in realtime. This is a bit slower than the normal import method, but hey, at least you can now get your video into imovie!*
...but this solution doesn't work for me. I cannot "quickly" click the Play button on the camera monitor or in the iMovie window after switching from record to Play on the camera because there is a 5 second time lag on both the camera's monitor and in the iMovie window while the iMovie screen/camera monitor switches over from Record to Play.
Is there any way I can get older DV footage into iMovie from my Vixia hv 30? My resources are at a very low ebb right now.

I found a clue on the www.hv20 website: Old DV tapes recorded before HDV...you need to go into the hv 30 menu and select "DV" rather than "HDV", then the video shows up in the iMovie import screen and imports easily.

S-L-O-W importing into iMovie 3

I am trying to import a 1.5GB Quicktime video file into iMovie 3 for editing and ultimate online posting. When I start to import it iMovie tells me the import will take 550 minutes (more than 9 hours!). This happens whether I try to import directly from the disc containing the file or copy it first to my hard drive and then start to import. (Also, first time I tried this my computer froze up a few minutes into the import and I had to bail. Sleep is set on "never;" display was set to go to sleep after 15 mins but that shouldn't affect import, correct?) Should this import really take this long? Is there something else I need to do?
Machine is Powerbook G4 550MHz 256MB RAM OS 10.3.9.

Should this import really take this long?
That depends on the running time of the movie, the codec used in your movie, the speed of the hard drive and the speed of your computer. All I know is the speed of your compouter, which is slow by today's standards.
The display sleep won't affect anything.
Just let it run over night and make sure you have plenty of free hard drive space.

How to prevent color banding in AVCHD files on import?

Hi!
I am trying to import some 1080 60i AVCHD files from my Panasonic G3 camera into iMovie '11. Once the files are imported they show very strong color banding/pixelation, that does not show up if I play the clips on the same computer/screen directly from the SD card in Quicktime player. Here is a screenshot from of the original frame, and here is exported movie.
I am using all default setting for export to Quicktime movie (1080 HD, "Best" quality).
For import I tried so far:
1. Import into iMovie at full quality from the SD card;
2. rewrap AVCHD into MOV (with ClipWrap) without resampling then import
3. convert AVCHD to Apple Intermediate codec (with Clip Wrap), then import
No difference!
Is it even possible to avoid such banding/pixelation with iMovie or another video editor that's available for free/cheap? If yes, how is it done?
Here is a 40 Mb mts file if you want to try to test your method: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40852067/00011.MTS
Will appreciate any advice!
Thank you in advance,
Vlad

Finally found a solution to this problem:
Remove saved state for Fireworks CS6 on Mac OS X Mountain Lion
Quit Fireworks.
In the Finder, navigate to /Users/Your User Name/Library/Saved Application State/com.macromedia.fireworks.savedState
3 files in folder:
data.data
window_1.data
windows.plist
Prefix files with 'OLD' just to be safe.
Start Fireworks

AVCHD - slow to import to iMovie

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