How to import avchd to imovie

I have a canon camcorder that records avchd files. I cannot import these into imovie. Any suggestions for making this work?
Thanks!

Situation 1 Does iMovie 10 for Mac support AVCHD files?
Though the new iMovie 10.0 for Mac OS X Mavericks/Yosemite claims the native support for AVCHD, its support for AVCHD is just the same as iMovie 11: iMovie can import and edit native AVCHD in 1080i 50/60, 720p 24/25/30, 1080p 24/25/30, but iMovie does not support AVCHD 1080p 50/60 or 720p 60.
That is, you will still fail to import AVCHD to iMovie 10/11/09/08/HD if the AVCHD footage recorded at 1080/60p, 1080/50p or 720/60p with whatever model of cameras or camcorders like Panasonic Lumix DMC, Panasonic HDC series, Canon XA20, Pana TZ7, Sony Alpha DSLR(SLT) Cameras, Sony HDR-PJ790 and etc.
Situation 2 Can iMovie for iOS iPad, iPhone or iPod import AVCHD?
The short answer is no. Normally, iMovie for iPad, iPhone or iPad only works with the video files recorded by the iOS devices in MP4, MOV or M4V format. And iMovie for iOS will not import AVCHD footages recorded with other cameras or camcorders.
In order to successfully import all kinds of AVCHD to iMovie for Mac or iOS, a recommended solution is convert AVCHD to iMovie more supported video format.
Hope it will help you more or less.

Similar Messages

How to import avchd in imovie

How to import 1080P AVCHD content in Imovie 11 ?

Situation 1 Does iMovie 10 for Mac support AVCHD files?
Though the new iMovie 10.0 for Mac OS X Mavericks/Yosemite claims the native support for AVCHD, its support for AVCHD is just the same as iMovie 11: iMovie can import and edit native AVCHD in 1080i 50/60, 720p 24/25/30, 1080p 24/25/30, but iMovie does not support AVCHD 1080p 50/60 or 720p 60.
That is, you will still fail to import AVCHD to iMovie 10/11/09/08/HD if the AVCHD footage recorded at 1080/60p, 1080/50p or 720/60p with whatever model of cameras or camcorders like Panasonic Lumix DMC, Panasonic HDC series, Canon XA20, Pana TZ7, Sony Alpha DSLR(SLT) Cameras, Sony HDR-PJ790 and etc.
Situation 2 Can iMovie for iOS iPad, iPhone or iPod import AVCHD?
The short answer is no. Normally, iMovie for iPad, iPhone or iPad only works with the video files recorded by the iOS devices in MP4, MOV or M4V format. And iMovie for iOS will not import AVCHD footages recorded with other cameras or camcorders.
In order to successfully import all kinds of AVCHD to iMovie for Mac or iOS, a recommended solution is convert AVCHD to iMovie more supported video format.
Hope it will help you more or less.

How to import AVCHD files to imovie

Hi Apple community, I just got a Cannon Vixia R300 and I can't import AVCHD to iMovie. Any suggestions. Thank you.

This camera should work easily by taking the SD card and putting it in a USB (or built-in) card reader.
Open iMovie and it should recognize the card. If it does not after a minute or so, try FILE/IMPORT FROM CAMERA.
If you import by hooking a USB cable to the camera, make sure that the camera is plugged into AC power, not batteries only.
What have you tried?

How to import movies from iMovies to memory card

How to import movies from imovies to a memory card.

Well, if you mean transfer movies from the iMovie events folder, go to that folder as in Finder-movies-imovie events, and drag a copy to your card.
Or, you could finish making the movie, and drag the .mov file from your desktop or wherever you have it.
Hugh

How to Import AVCHD Lite From iMoves to Aperture

I am very new at this, but I have found that I can import my AVCHD Lite movies from my Panasonic camera into iMoves with no problem. Just plug in the camera card in the card reader and off we go. This is great, now I would like to move the AVCHD Lite movies from iMove to Aperture, please tell me in very simple terms how I can do this or if it is impossible

You can't import AVCHD to Aperture.
Think of it this way: Video files are huge and so folks who work with Video talk of Production Formats and Deliver Formats. So, they shoot in Production formats because they contain the most data, are less compressed and survive the editing process with minimal quality loss. They then export the finished product to Delivery formats. These are heavily compressed and not suited for further editing. But the smaller file size is ideal for delivering to the viewer.
AVCHD is a Production Format (not a pro-level one, obviously) and is designed for processing and exporting to a smaller sized deliver format. That's what Movie is for.
It's broadly analogous to shooting Raw and processing into a Jpeg.
Regards
TD

Imovie freezes osx 10.9.3 & how to import AVCHD files?

Hi,
I have 2 questions:
1. imovie freezes:
Since a few days, imovie freezes when being launched.
I do not know the version I have and I do not think I can find out as ... imovie crashes before it even opens.
I have a macbook pro and got it in May 2014, so the imovie should be not older than whatever version was current back then.
I am not sure when it exactly started crashing, the first time I noticed it was last week when trying to import AVCHD clips from a camera. imovie would not launch so I used quicktime instead.
This brings me to my second question
2. how can I access AVCHD files to use in imovie?
Thanks

I do not have a time machine file available.
I believe the issue started after I imported AVCHD files from a camera by using quicktime since imovie did not let me do it.
After that, it has been crashing ever since.
I found the suggestion to delete all quicktime files in library-quicktime except AppleIntermediateCodec.component and AppleMPEG2Codec.component, but those were actually the only 2 files in there.
I also found the suggestion to delete all com.apple.imovie files in library-preferences, but there are no .imovie files in there at all.

How to import AVCHD clips from HD camcorder?

How I can import AVCHD clips from Sony HDR-TG1 with best possible quality to iMovie '09?
Camera records clips as 1080i format but when I import them to iMovie '09 quality are cr*p. I have a same problem with iMovie '08. This has something to do with interlacing and single field processing but is there any workaround (other than using PC)?

tgynther wrote:
Camera records clips as 1080i format but when I import them to iMovie '09 quality are cr*p. I have a same problem with iMovie '08. This has something to do with interlacing and single field processing but is there any workaround (other than using PC)?
Preview playback may not be too good since QuickTime in general doesn't seem to deinterlace very well (when it deinterlaces at all).
Quality of exported footage varies greatly according to whether or not you select +just the right+ export settings. See this thread for details:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8859971
If exporting to SD (particularly, to iDVD), see here:
http://pond.org.uk/misc/imovieandhd/workflow.html
I'm planning to update this guide soonish with information on how to end up with 720p60 output from 1080i60 input (i.e. in effect treat the input as 1920x540 at 60 frames/sec progressive, turning it into 1280x720 at 60 frames/set progressive).

How to Import AVCHD 1080/60p Files into Final Cut Pro 7?

How do I import AVCHD 1080 / 60p Files into Final Cut Pro 7? And if there is no direct way [I certainly haven't found one, but I'm no expert], what additional software would be used? I want to import the files from a Panasonic HDC-HS700 onto an Intel Mac laptop [Mac OSX 10.5.8]? Obviously I don't want to compress & compromise my footage.
I’m sure a simple, straightforward series of steps would help many people with this issue.
Thanks!

Thanks for the response!
I'm guessing you've found ClipWrap2 to be better than competing products [such as AVCHD Converter for Mac, Toast Titanium, or Voltaic].
On to the next steps. Using Clipwrap2, would I leave the checkbox "Convert Audio to LPCM" selected or deselected [and what the heck is LPCM?]. In the pulldown menu would I choose "Rewrap (Don't alter video samples)" or do I save a step by choosing "Apple ProRes 422"?
And finally, am I gaining anything by shooting 1080/60p on this Panasonic HD Camera other than a headache? [Some have suggested this is not a True 60p.]

How to Import AVCHD Files?

I recently purchased a Sony HandyCam HDR-SR10 Camera. I love the camera overall but now i have video files that i need to put on my computer. After speaking with Sony Support they said that in order to transfer files i must use the camera as a hard drive basic stuff just click and drag. However i ran into the problem that all of my AVCHD Files were not able to be opened by any program. After reading up and looking around i found that it seems Final Cut Express 4 now has the ability to import AVCHD files DIRECTLY from the camera to Final Cut Express... I really would like to know how to do this in Final Cut Express.... Any Help, Insights, or Tutorials, would be GREATLY appreciated. I really just need to know how to import the files to my computer and be able to edit them.....
-- thanks in advance.... charlie

For starters, watch the FCE4 Built-In AVCHD Quicktour
There are tutorials also.

How to Import .3g2 into iMovie '09?

My friend filmed a video on his cell phone and emailed it to me. I'd like to import it into iMovie for editing but it will not drag in or allow me to chose iMovie from "open with...".
How to convert this .3g2 video to a form that will allow me to edit it in iMovie?

You will need to convert it to something that iMovie can edit.
1) The first step is to see if QuickTime can play it. See if you can open it in QuickTime Player.
If you can, Proceed to Step 3
2) If QuickTime cannot play it, I would try to download a set of open source codecs called Perian. They will handle many odd codecs like this. Go to Perian.ORG and download them. Then go back to step 1.
Note: If Perian does not work for you, come back for some more ideas.
3) Once QuickTime can play it, you need to convert it to something iMovie can edit. If you have QuickTime Pro, use that. If you would prefer a free alternative, download MPEG STREAMCLIP from Squared 5. Drag the 3G2 clip into MPEG Streamclip and then FILE/Export to QuickTIme...
Choose Apple Intermediate Codec (for highest quality) or choose h.264 (for smallest file size) and save it in a place you can find it.
4) Now open iMovie, and use FILE/IMPORT...MOVIES to import the converted file into iMovie for editing.

How to import MP4 into iMovie 09

How to import MP4 into iMovie09

You will need to convert it to something that iMovie can edit.
1) The first step is to see if QuickTime can play it. See if you can open it in QuickTime Player.
If you can, Proceed to Step 3
2) If QuickTime cannot play it, I would try to download a set of open source codecs called Perian. They will handle many odd codecs like this. Go to Perian.ORG and download them. Then go back to step 1.
Note: If Perian does not work for you, come back for some more ideas.
3) Once QuickTime can play it, you need to convert it to something iMovie can edit. If you have QuickTime Pro, use that. If you would prefer a free alternative, download MPEG STREAMCLIP from Squared 5. Drag the 3G2 clip into MPEG Streamclip and then FILE/Export to QuickTIme...
Choose Apple Intermediate Codec (for highest quality) or choose h.264 (for smallest file size) and save it in a place you can find it.
4) Now open iMovie, and use FILE/IMPORT...MOVIES to import the converted file into iMovie for editing.

How to import AVCHD from Panasonic DMC-FT1?

Hello everybody,
I just tried to import AVCHD Lite media files from a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 (also known as DMC-TS1) using an USB card reader and the log and transfer function.
A preview of the media files works, even the sound is ok.
When I mark the video for import it tries to import it, but if I click on the clip its status becomes a red {!}. An offered retry gives the same result.
Sometimes, especially after a preview of the media file, the log and transfer function crashes the whole FCE application.
Thank you for your help!
Best regards,
Florian

Tom Wolsky wrote:
If you've tried different ones then trash your preferences, you've probably corrupted them.
OK, I tried tried this. No direct success but after changing settings I will try again.
I don't know your camera nor its terminology, what's the frame size and frame rate and audio format and sample rate?
Sorry - the technical documentation is not very good. Here is what I found out:
1,280 x 720 pixels, AVCHD Lite (SH: 17 Mbps / H: 13 Mbps / L: 9 Mbps):
[NTSC] 60p *CCD output is 30p (fps).
[PAL] 50p *CCD output is 25p (fps).
Since I live in Germany I've got a PAL model.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9110880&#9110880
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8888041&#8888041
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9039721&#9039721
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9140255&#9140255
Thanks for the links!
(None was about Panasonic, but lots about import problems like mine.)
Is the audio set to plain stereo in log and transfer?
Yes, I chose "simple stereo" instead of "matrix stereo".
Maybe this is important: The camera has only one microphone. And it has a feature called "Dolby Digital Creator".
Did you empty the cache?
I remember something like that. I'll try again.
What drive are you ingesting to? How is it formatted?
It's an external USB 2.0 hard drive. It's formatted with Mac OS Extended (Case senstive and journaled)
Do you have Perian installed?
No.
It's very possible this doesn't work with FCE, but it might, so if you give us as much information as you can maybe we can see something that can be adjusted to make this work.
Thanks a lot for your effort!
I see you're using a Mac mini. What are the full specs of that? It's going to be very borderline for editing video and some things in the application will not work.
2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB RAM (3 GB usable)
Intel GMA 950 graphics using 64 MB RAM
200 GB 7200rpm hard drive
1 TB USB 2.0 external hard drive
Looking at the simple configuration of FCE, none seems to really fit:
We have "AVCHD-Apple Intermediate Codec" but not with 1280x720.
We have "HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec 720p25" but not with AVCHD.
And, of course, lots more. Which one should I choose?
Thank you, again!
Best regards,
Florian

How to import AVCHD movies from Canon HR10 (mini DVD) to iMac / iMovie?

I have just bought an iMac (I am a PC user for a very long time and not yet familiar with the Mac software), and I am having troubles with some basic tasks: I want to transfer AVCHD movies from my Canon HR10 (mini DVDs) to my iMac / iMovie. However, the iMac / iMovie does not seem to recognize the camera when I connect it via the USB cable, i.e. nothing happens at all (the disc is finalized, and the camera is in "Play" mode). I have also tried to import the contents of the mini DVDs via a network harddisk, but iMovie does not seem to recognize the format?! I don't know what I am doing wrong?

I think iMovie will want to see the camera as a device before it will do the import.
Not sure you can import direct from the card, as your experiments have shown.
It may be due to the processing of the video as it comes off the camera.
Other people may have a solution though.

How to import AVCHD 2.0 (1080p50 or 1080p60) in iMovie

I posted a tutorial on my blog using free software
http://wp.me/p2QoIB-5g
Hope you find it useful though it was originally meant for underwater video it applies to anybody that has a camera that saves files in that format like the Sony RX100

I would suggest that you get a free app called JES Deinterlacer. Use this to convert the frame rate to 25 frames per second. You can keep all frames, and it will have the effect of 50% slow motion, or you can keep every other frame and keep the speed in real time.
Under Project in JES Deinterlacer, choose Standards Conversion.

Can I import AVCHD to iMovie and edit

Hi - new to this, but have just been bought Panasonic HDC-SD800 HD camcorder. Before I play with it, the instructions suggest that the only format I can use with imovie11 is 'i frame' which is 960x540/25p. As I already have a similar 'standard' canon camcorder with similar definition, is there any point in keeping the new Panasonic. Am I missing something here, or is this 'new' Panasonic just not Mac friendly?

If you have the camera, your best bet is to shoot a minute of footage with it and see if it will import to iMovie. I think it will. Check your owners manual for recording mode. You should have several choices, including 50P, 50i, 25P and iFrame. If you choose 50i, 25P, or iFrame, it will work with iMovie. If you choose 50P, it will not be editable in iMovie without some bit twiddling. I think you will like 25P the best, but if you are shooting sports, you should also try 50i. In fact, try it anyway so you get to see both and choose the one you prefer.
iFrame produces movies that will look almost as good as the AVCHD (you probably will not be able to tell the difference) but the import is much quicker, and the fill sizes are much smaller.
Let me seeif I can decipher the manual for you.
"This unit is based on AVCHD format/MPEG-4 AVC file format.
Video signals for the AVCHD that can be played back with this unit are 1920x1080/50i, 1920x1080/25p and 1440x1080/50i. Video signals for the iFrame that can be played back with this unit are 960x540/25p
Like I said, stick to 50i or 25P if you want to edit in iMovie and/or play back on a TV set. Use 1920x1080 for highest quality (but this will also be the biggest file size. 50i and 25P are about the same in file size. (50P would be 4 times bigger in file size - but do not use 50P mode if you want to edit it.)
When motion picture is recorded in iFrame format
You can play back on Mac (iMovie11)
It is not compatable with motion pictures recorded in AVCHD format."
This means basically that you can edit and play on the Mac. From there you can share to a Blu Ray, DVD, Apple TV, iPod, iPad, iPhone, the Web, etc. etc. The key message is that you cannot edit the iFrame on a Windows computer.
It is also possible to record in 1920x1080/50p at maximum quality.
Quote-
"The scenes recorded in 1080/50p can be saved or played back by this unit or the HD writer AE 3.0"
It is possible to record in 50P at maximum quality, but what they are telling you is that you will be limited to playing it back on the camera. Television sets will not play 50P. iMovie will not natively edit 50P. I assume the HD writer AE 3.0 is a proprietary Panasonic disc burning program. It is likely Windows only, so it will not work on your Mac.
If you want to edit 50P on your Mac, here is an excellent blog post on how to do it. You can judge for yourself whether you feel comfortable doing it.
From the above, can I move HD from this unit into iMovie and edit without too much hassle or do I return it and stick with the perfectly decent 5 year old Sony not in HD that just 'works'. I have happily played with iMovie for 3 years and want to be able to tidy up family videos.
If I were you, I would keep it and shoot at 25P. I think you will really like the HD quality.
Keep in mind that if your final result is DVD, then evertying will be converted back to standard definition anyway. You will need to find new ways to share your results with your family.
The Apple TV is a great way to do this. Also YouTube does a great job these days making it easy to share 1080P video with friends and family. Finally, you can invest in a BluRay device. I don't generally recommend this, because if you want to give copies to family or friends, they would need a BluRay player as well.
There are a lot of nuances to BluRay. Come back and ask if you want to go that route.
Good luck.

How to import avchd to imovie

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for