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.

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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!

IMovie '09 won't recognize AVCHD Lite clips

I am using iMovie 09 (8.0.5) and was previously able to import AVCHD Lite MTS files from my Lumix FZ35's SD card (private folder) using Import from Camera. This no longer works and I wonder if it was an update that created the problem. When I use Import from Camera I no longer see my SD card or my USB-connected Lumix as a choice, just the iSight. When I try to Import Movies the MTS files are greyed out. Tried this on two different Macs. The only way I have to import the clips is converting them to MP4 files using Handbrake, but that is tedious as it only queues one at a time and I have dozens of little files.
Any idea why this is no longer working and what I can do to get these clips? The Apple Support site clearly states that iMovie '09 supports this camera.

G'day Steve,
We only use the SD card directly to transfer images from camera to Mac and PC.
The AVCHD file (.MTS) can be viewed and played by VLC without any problems - indicating OSX is recognising the file on the SD card.
However we have tried many ways of importing this file into iMovie and in all cases the file name is greyed out. As per the original post by JaneNYC, i Movie won't recognise AVCHD Liteclips and like Jane the Apple support clearly states that IMovie 09 supports our camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1) which is the forerunner of FT2.
I don't believe a clean install of OSX and iMovie is required as this would be a drastic move for the novice mac user especially when Apple specifically states that iMovie supports both JaneNYC's and our cameras.
Would you agree the problem is more likely to be with iMovie than OSX or are we not understanding something about importing AVCHD Lite into iMovie?
Cheers,
Ellen and Ian (New to Mac)

Clips imported into iMovie will not play: Please Help!

I have been working on a project in iMovie for awhile now and I have a few different clips imported into it. I have not had a problem with it before yesterday. I went to import another clip and for some reason I got error message "-43" that said it could not copy the files into iMovie. Then today when I opened iMovie to try again, all the clips that had been imported already were grayed out and a little yellow warning sign was in the bottom left hand corner of each clip display (yellow triangle with ! in the middle). They would not play.
It is not the clips though- they work fine when I open them in quicktime and iPhoto.
I don't know if this is ay significance, but this morning before the clips stopped working iMovie made new thumbnails- could this be any reason why it isn't working?
Can anyone help with this problem? I don't know what happened!
Message was edited by: Chelsea217

Anyone?

Why do 4 video clips import into iMovie and one doesn't?

I attempted to import 5 short clips into my MacBook Pro from the same event, shot with an ipad2. Four of the clips easily imported into iMovie. IMovie said that the fifth clip wouldnt import because it is 'not compatible with iMovie'. All of the clips are 1280x720, H.264/AAC, encoding 7.0.2. Importing to IMovie 11, version 9.0.9. I've read thru some of the strings but haven't quite found this problem. Any ideas?
thank you

I think this is an SD memory card camera. It does not work in a format that FCE uses. FCE only works with DV, HDV or AVCHD material. Everything else has to be converted to a format FCE works with.

Why is AVCHD 25p clips imported in as 25i ?

Hi there,
On the video recorder, I set my video settings to 1920 x 1080 25p.
When I ingest in FCPX, I selected "create optimized media".
Then in the browser, when i select the clip & goto the info tab, it says my clip is 1920 x 1080 25i.
But in the codec, it says AVCHDi50
Is there a bug in FCPX 10.1 ?
Thanks

Thanks Ian,
But I think it is more of the FCPX problem rather the camera itself ?
Anyone can help ?
Thanks
Ian R. Brown wrote:
Perhaps I should have said, "most consumer AVCHD is interlaced".
Your GH3 is a high end still camera and the Sony is a pro/semi pro camcorder.
I know nothing about either.

Clip imported into iMovie has no sound

I have recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion (actually had to have a fresh OS Lion install at Apple Store and restore from Time Machine). I have imported three clips from my Sony DCR DVD-201 camcorder but they have no sound. The clips play fine, except for the lack of sound. Wondering if I should go into the Movie folder and delete the events and try to import again. Found a few posts about this problem on the web, but no apparent solutions (except deleting iMovie and reinstalling and then not updating with the latest update). Wondering if the experts on this thread have any ideas.
Using an iMac (late 2010) running Lion (10.7.4), and iMovie 11 (9.0.6).
Thanks.

First: We did switch to MPEGStreamClip with the same result - No sound in iMovie.
Second: Thanks for your recommendation of MPEGStreamClip over HandBrake. However, HandBrake has been completely satisfactory for the last 5 years. Just not this time. I think the problem is not HB but something Apple. My local Cafe Mac techs say they have seen the no sound situation before and have been able to correct it by using an earlier version of iMovie. However, I did use iMovie '08. An upgrade to iMovie '11 didn't help.
Thanks for replying to my inquiry.

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.

Handling AVCHD Lite files in PE7

After much research and trial and error, I thought I would share what I have found about this topic. There does seem to be a couple of ways to handle these clips without PE7 falling over every time, though teh first is very tedious. If anyone can find a better way, please let me know?
First convert the clips to HDV
1. Transfer all clips to the PC. You can use PE7 to do this or the Panasonic supplied s/w. It seems that only the .MTS file is necessary
2. Start a new project using the HDV 720p setting
3. Import one AVCHD lite clip by copying from Windows folder into project widow.
4. Move to timeline and wait until the video images appear fully with the red line over the top.
5. Render (Slow process: >5 hours for a 1:30 clip on a 2.67 GHz Quad Processor)
6. Export (Share) as a new PC file into a different folder as an MPEG file using HDV 720p 25 file preset.
7. Back to 3. For the next clip
Note: You can do more than 1 clip at a time but the more & bigger clips the more likely PE7 is to stop working.
Edit Project
When you have all the clips converted, start a new project using the HDV 720p settings, import your converted clips and edit away!
Notes This is a tedious and time consuming process even on a new PC with a Quad processor but it does eventually work.
Note to Self: Next time, it may be better to use Motion JPEG to record video on TZ7. Set at HD, you get the same resolution as AVCHD lite i.e. 1280x720 at a frame rate of 30fps. This might also give a better result when panning.
PS: You can also use the Panasonic PhotofunStudio HD edition to import the file and use their editor to delete unwanted portion of the clips. This might save time but the numbering system on the Panasonic clips is unusual.
Much Faster Method
You can use VoltaicHD from Shedworx to do the conversion to a WMA/Vor an AVI file. This seems to work quickly and simply but will cost you $35. Cheap if you have a lot to do!

An even better solution is to use the free AVCHD Converter to convert the AVCHD Lite clips to 1280x720 MPEG2. It can batch convert a bunch of AVCHD Lite clips and is free...
http://www.koyotesoft.com/
Import the clips, up the bit rate to 25000kbps and convert. Use these in the HDV 720 project preset in Premiere Elements.

AVCHD/AVCHD Lite native support ever?

Just wondering if there was any plans for AVCHD/AVCHD Lite native support in iMovie 08??? I just bought a Lumix LX5 today, and used it for video...then I just tried to import and found out that it doesn't work without third party software to convert it first...
Bit of a hassle... and that was basically why I bought the camera in the first place... Serves me right for not doing my homework properly, but still I'd like to know if there will ever be plans for native support for AVCHD(Lite)!?!??!?!?!

I have the same problem and now looking into it
Sorry i cant help but if i have any answers i will let you know

Making a fixed image from a video-clip

Hello,
how can i make a fixed image from a video-clip? In iMovie-HD it was the shortcut shiftappleS.
Thanks
Achim

Here's a cool method with flexibility:
http://imovie08.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-to-capture-still-image-from-clip.html
Thanks Aaron...
Rick

Can you change import settings..? Getting poor quality AVCHD Lite results.

Further my earlier post regarding AVCHD Lite (.mts) clips being too dark after import, I have established that it makes no difference whether I use values of 1.8 (10.5 native) or 2.2 (10.7 native).
Is there any way to affect the iMovie import settings that I've missed...?
iMovie has some excellent clip adjustment tools, but if I let iMovie import my clips at Full Quality (they are 720p AVCHD Lite .mts format clips from a newly purchased Panasonic FZ38), and try to use the video adjustment tools to 'lift' the clips – i.e. adjust exposure, brightness – the results are terrible, with blotchy areas and loss of definition. It seems the Quicktime conversion to get the clips into iMovie loses all detail in the shadowy areas, which obviously can't be recovered.
I've found a temporary workaround by converting the .mts clips using a third-party video converter which has brightness, contrast and saturation controls – a little boost on both the brightness and contrast is all that's needed to get the clips coming out the same on my Mac as they do on camera LCD (and TV playback off camera) - but I'd much prefer not to have to resort to an extra piece of software.
Is this a 'problem' with iMovie (and indeed Quicktime's) support for the relatively new AVCHD format that we may see 'fixed' in time?
Any other thoughts or advice would be much appreciated!!

I'm not sure if this is the cause, but there is a difference in the way iMovie 08 handles the video after import, as compared to iMovie HD6, the older, better version. Something to do with the interlacing? or something, but I'm not sure. Some people here think HD6 produces a better quality image than 08.
Oftentimes too, the image you see on your monitor will not be the same as you see on the final DVD product.
Anyway, you are entitled to a free download of iMovie HD6 from the Downloads page of this Apple website. Maybe get that and see if the picture is better.

Fixing a spanned AVCHD clip

Before I knew better with respect to spanned AVCHD files, I renamed the clips prior to copying (not importing, unfortunately) them to the folder from which I intended to work on them. I shot them on a Sony NX5U camera.
I now understand that the entire directory structure from the CF card must be copied, not just the clips.
That directory structure STILL exists. The only thing that has changed is the file names on the clips.
Does anybody know of a way to go back and make it as if I had never made this mistake to begin with so that I might now import the clips the proper way?
Many thanks.

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.

Best way to import MTS (AVCHD)/missing clips using Log and Transfer

My footage (Sony HDR 500) of an average project consists of approximately 10 hours film and 1600 clips. When I use the option Log and Transfer to import in FCE not all clips are imported in FCE. All other clips are consecutively numbered and cannot be compared with the numbering of the clips on the camera anymore. As a result it is, with those large amounts of clips, almost impossible to find out which clips are missing.
Importing takes a very long time (is that normal?) so I would like to run this proces at night, but due to this missing clips problem I am afraid to do this so it is not a good option for me. Does anyone recognize this problem?
To avoid all this I now convert all clips with Voltaic to .mov before importing. At least I know for sure that I have all clips imported, but it is so cumbersome and it takes a lot of time too. This proces I do in steps because I am afraid to start everything at once. After converting the project almost takes 120 GB.
It takes days before everything is imported and that frustrates me. If the same material is imported in Edius for example it only takes an hour (tested) so it appears to be an FCE/Apple problem. Is there any way to accelerate?
I am working with an iMac from 2010, 2,8GHz quadcore i7, 16GB intern geheugen met snow leopard.
I hope someone can help me out.
Thanks, Jacqueline

While I have not seen the exact problem you describe, 1600 clips is a lot of clips to import at once - so is 10 hours of video.
If you are using FCE to Log & Transfer directly from the camera, your clips are automatically being transcoded to QuickTime/Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC) during importing, which explains the long time it takes to ingest the clips.
Also, QT/AIC files are much, much larger than the AVCHD clips in your camera. If you are shooting 1920x1080 video, 10 hours of AVCHD translates into roughly 450GB of QT/AIC clips. It is possible that you may be a) running out of disk space, or b) exceeding the scratch disk minimum allowable free space set in FCE > System Settings. If so, that could explain why not all your clips are being imported - FCE is probably stopping the Log & Transfer process when it hits the disk space limit.
Regarding alternatives, I'm not so sure about Voltaic. The Voltaic documentation says it only supports H.264 in QT/.mov files, and that would not be usable in FCE. Check some of those clips to see what codec they are. I suspect they are H.264. (Also, you referred to the converted clips taking 120GB space, which just happens to match the AVCHD storage capacity of your camera ... and AVCHD is a form of H.264 video, so they take up about the same disk space.)
In order to edit your clips in FCE, they need to be QT/AIC. Two alternatives come to mind - Clipwrap and MPEG Streamclip. Both can convert AVCHD video to QT/AIC, and both support batch conversion. If it were me, I'd consider Clipwrap first, for this volume of material, since Clipwrap was specifically designed for AVCHD.
The reason importing is so much faster in Edius is that it can import & directly edit AVCHD clips; Edius basically just copies the clips from the camera to your hard drive. FCE has to convert the clips to QT/AIC first, before you can edit the video, and that takes considerable time.

How do I rotate an .mts (AVCHD Lite) video clip 90 degrees?

How do I rotate an .mts (AVCHD Lite) video clip 90 degrees? It's a video taken in the portrait orientation with a digital camera. I can open the .mts video clip in VLC player for Mac, but I don't see any editing options relevant to this.

If it will play with QuickTime Player, then you can rotate it with QuickTime Pro.
<http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/>
It provides a key to enable extra functions in QuickTime Player 7 (Utilities folder).
Click "Show Movie Properties" in the "Window" menu, select the video track, then the "Visual Settings" tab. Select the desired rotation, then "Save As" from the "File" menu.

Fixing a few AVCHD Lite clips imported under iMovie '08

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