• The Mac-Forums Community Guidelines (linked at the top of every forum) are very clear, we respect US law and court precedence when it comes to legality of activity.

    Therefore to clarify:
    • You may not discuss breaking DVD or BluRay encryption, copying, or "ripping" commercial, copy-protected DVDs.
    • This includes DVDs or BluRays you own. Even if you own the DVD or BluRay, it is still technically illegal under the DMCA to break the encryption. While some may argue otherwise, until the law is rewritten or the US Supreme Court strikes it down, we will adhere to the current intent of the law.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying unprotected movies or homemade DVDs.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying tools in the context that they are used for legal purposes as outlined in this post.

AVCHD Video Editors

Joined
Apr 27, 2008
Messages
92
Reaction score
5
Points
8
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 2.5 Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB 667 MHz DDR2, 17" Hi-Res Display ; iPhone 3G 2.1
Im looking at getting a new HD Digital Camcorder. The one im looking at uses a AVCHD video format which im not familiar with. Will i have trouble finding editing and exporting apps for mac that can handle AVCHD? Does iMovie support it?
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
NOTE: Moved to more appropriate forum
 
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
251
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Kent, UK
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook White 2.16GHz 2Gb OS X 10.5, 16Gb iPhone 3G Black
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Messages
3,231
Reaction score
112
Points
63
Location
On the road
Your Mac's Specs
2011 MBP, i7, 16GB RAM, MBP 2.16Ghz Core Duo, 2GB ram, Dual 867Mhz MDD, 1.75GB ram, ATI 9800 Pro vid
iMovie 08, Final Cut Express 4, and Final Cut Pro 6 all are designed to handle AVCHD. BUT, as this Macworld article indicates, it is still a bit of an issue. Voltaic HD is a third party tool that may be helpful where the above have incompatibilities.

I'd suggest you narrow down your camera choice and then research those specific cameras for compatibility.

A side note; AVCHD gets converted when imported to the Apple Intermediate Codec.
 
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hi
You have done a good question, it’s really interesting. If you get any good reply, so please let me know. So I’ll also get some good idea.
Thanks for your future help.
 
Joined
Jun 18, 2008
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
New York
Your Mac's Specs
MacPro 2.88, MacBook, G5 iMac
AVCHD Tips

I've recently purchased a Canon HF100 (AVCHD) and love it. The advantage is that you can archive the AVCHD directory off the flash on a a DVD (as long as you don't exceed the DVD size.) It is cool because the AVCHD DVD can be played in full HD on a BlueRay player or Sony PS3.

Although there are plenty of Mac or PC based AVCHD editors (FCP, FCE, iMovie 08), they only import and convert the file for a intermediate QT file. Since it uses very low compression, a 3GB video blows up to 30 GB. It slows down the encoding process significantly when you compare it to SD.

The Mac does not play the AVCHD .mts file directly! Canon provides no video software. Although AVCHD is .h264 based, it is not the typical MP4 .H264 file format. It is a stream and therefore Quicktime can not play it. You can to locate a player which is virtually non existant for now. VLC can play some AVCHD, but it has not been fully debugged. Oxygen player exists for PC. Turns out that the latest TOAST Titanium 9 includes a AVCHD player, but it only play individual AVCHD .MTS files. It won't play all clips in the play list. When Toast Titanium 9 gets debugged, it will be a must have software since it should burn AVCHD DVD and BlueRay disk.

And last, HD editing really taxes the computer heavily. My MB can't play the .MTS file using the Toast player. It barely plays the HD .h264 MP4 files under Qt. Rendering / compressing is still disappointing slow on my Mac Pro 2.88gHz. It also requires alot of disk space. But the end product is worth it.


Al

iMovie 08, Final Cut Express 4, and Final Cut Pro 6 all are designed to handle AVCHD. BUT, as this Macworld article indicates, it is still a bit of an issue. Voltaic HD is a third party tool that may be helpful where the above have incompatibilities.

I'd suggest you narrow down your camera choice and then research those specific cameras for compatibility.

A side note; AVCHD gets converted when imported to the Apple Intermediate Codec.

Im looking at getting a new HD Digital Camcorder. The one im looking at uses a AVCHD video format which im not familiar with. Will i have trouble finding editing and exporting apps for mac that can handle AVCHD? Does iMovie support it?
 
Joined
Jul 22, 2008
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
avchd and final cut express 4. please, anyone.

I was told that you can use this program to edit my avchd files, then i can burnt those files to a standard dvd which will only read in my ps3. Is this true, again it is edited, music, transitions added, etc... how do i do it, being that idvd has to burn the dvd.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top