Problems with AVCHD Files

I just bought a Canon HG20. It works great and I've had no problems whatsoever editing/importing movies in iMovie.

However, when I checked the status of my hard disk I notice that the one hour of video I've taken so far has consumed 70GB of disk space! After doing some research online I've learned that iMovie converts the compressed AVCHD files into a proprietary Apple format at about 5 times the size.

Is there anyway to edit/store/work with these AVCHD files directly on my Mac without it exploding the file sizes? I mean, a 500GB drive will give me about 5 hours at this rate. That's brutal!

That is brutal! Have a look at this program, there's a free demo, it may be of use to you as it avoids the Apple 442 Codec.

VoltaicHD | AVCHD converter, AVCHD video converter, how to convert AVCHD, convert AVCHD, HD converter | ShedWorx

Not too expensive if you find it does the job.

Correct me if I'm wrong but here is the issue.

AVCHD is a highly compressed video format. In order for iMovie (or programs like it) to edit the video, they need an uncompressed version of the file. Apparently there are some programs out there that edit AVCHD directly, but they require copious amounts of horsepower.

So what about this for a solution.

I could import my movies to iMovie (in their enormous size) and then edit them to my hearts content. When I'm finished, I would export the project to a DVD and then erase the clips from iMovie freeing up my HD space. Now, of course I'd want my raw footage intact. At that point, I could just drag the files from my Camera to a folder on my computer and store them as AVCHD files that take up very little space. In doing so I'd have access to the RAW data down the road, but it wouldn't be stored in an uncompressed, memory hog of a format.

Now that I think of it, dragging the AVCHD files into a folder could be done immediatley after the iMovie import. Six of one, half dozen of the other I suppose.

Am I wrong here, or does that sound reasonable?

The only disadvantage I can think of is that I couldn't go back and update an old iMovie project because it would be gone. Well, at least the uncompressed footage would be.

The_Grudge said:

At that point, I could just drag the files from my Camera to a folder on my computer and store them as AVCHD files that take up very little space.

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DO NOT move the files directly from your camera. I made this mistake. They become useless. You need to preserve the filesystem. To do this you have to use the Archive All command at the bottom of the import window. This will store all of the AVCHD files where ever you specify on your computer. Apple recommends against storing them in your iMovie Events/Projects folder because they will slow iMovie down.

To see more info on what I just wrote type 'camera archive' in search field under iMovie's help menu.

About the space being used, I guess you're importing the footage at full resolution instead of the optimized 960x540, right? Those sizes sound ridiculous.

I have played with Sony Vegas because it supposedly can natively edit AVCHD from my Sony camera. Its sluggish on a P4 3.4 GHZ. It also crashes a lot. The grass may seem greener, but the way iMovie scrubs like butter and shows edits in real time is far superior to anything that you could ever do with an AVCHD file directly. Scrubbing through files in Vegas has terrible precision. I felt like it was snapping to keyframes, like once every 25 frames or so.

Yes, I have been importing into iMovie using the "full" format. I wasn't aware that the sizes were so large until just recently and I figured I may as well go full out! My first concern was why take video in HD and then reduce it all for iMovie - it made no sense. However...

If this iMovie archive works as you say it does (and I believe you;D ), then it makes much more sense to import the smaller size for editing PROVIDED I have the full quality HD files archived. And thanks for the heads up...I'll make sure to store them elsewhere outside of the iMovie folder.

So that makes sense going forward.

The question is, what do I do with the 70GB of footage I have on my computer right now. You see, I've erased it all from my camera

The_Grudge said:

The question is, what do I do with the 70GB of footage I have on my computer right now. You see, I've erased it all from my camera

Click to expand...

Oh, thats a toughie. Well, you could kill a few hours by compressing the them with h.264 and then keep those smaller files as the archives, then re-import them for later editing. The drawback to this is lots and lots of transcoding which isn't exactly great for quality. But that may be your only option.

I would take your smallest clip and test this to make sure you can import with decent quality. I would also recommend downloading handbrake, as this has some decent presets and gives some really good file sizes. It also has a very handy batch feature, so you can set your stuff up to convert overnight. It will work fine for converting those movie files that are in the AIC codec. It doesn't work with the raw AVCHD files from the camera though. Sorry. I already tried that.

Yeah, maybe I'll just convert the AIC files to something more managable using Handbrake. 70GB sounds like a lot of footage but it's only an hour the way I've been recording it.

It's a valuable hour though. Lot's of clips of the new baby etc.

I wonder if perhaps iMovie had the archive feature on by default. Perhaps it did archive everything and I just didn't notice? I'll have to check when I get home.

The_Grudge said:

Yeah, maybe I'll just convert the AIC files to something more managable using Handbrake. 70GB sounds like a lot of footage but it's only an hour the way I've been recording it.

It's a valuable hour though. Lot's of clips of the new baby etc.

I wonder if perhaps iMovie had the archive feature on by default. Perhaps it did archive everything and I just didn't notice? I'll have to check when I get home.

Click to expand...

Ha ha, congratulations on the baby. My first project in iMovie 09 was my daughter's first birthday last week.

Here we are talking about all this crazy stuff, meanwhile there's a roll of film and a projector sitting in my parent's house where footage of little me is archived. Crazy.

I'd be very careful on how you proceed - you've gone from AVCHD (a highly compressed format) to AIC (or whatever iMovie uses) potentially back to an H.264 .mp4 format (another highly compressed format) to maybe later edit again (another decompression and possible re-compression cycle).

That footage is going to deteriorate over time from decompression/re-compression cycles.

There is a full hierarchy on your camcorder HD, if it were me, I'd try to just copy the entire hierarchy so you are then keeping the source footage rather then decompressing and re-compressing to make new source. As long as you maintain the full hierarchy, the footage should still be useable. An easy way to test this is to take the top level folder, move it onto an external drive, create a new project in iMovie and attempt to import the footage (you may need to transfer the AVCHD folder to something like an SD card and insert the SD card for the footage to get recognized, I'm not sure how flexible iMovie is if you can just point it to a given folder or not)

The most important thing with AVCHD footage for the editor is to maintain the folder hierarchy as well as all files contained within the folder structure to properly identify the footage data.

If you never wanted to edit the source again, and just save it - then sure, storing as an H.264 file is a fine solution - it'll only cause you grief with degradation with repeated decomp/recomp sessions.

Just my $0.02.

If you are going to re-compress that 70GB, you likely want to use custom export settings via the QuickTime sharing option. My iMovie Export Guide maybe helpful to you. Keep in mind that to export from iMovie you have to export from a project of iMovie, so you have drag all of the footage into a project.

Perhaps Handbrake is a good solution here. You'll need to point it to the files in your iMovie event folder. Just don't over compress. Oh, test this. I just tried and had totally messed up audio on the output of one file. Another was fine. I also noticed that the new MP4 file is brighter which could blow out some details.

It seems some experimenting will be required, so use shorter clips for that process.

It's not so bad. I just realized that about 35 of the 70GB are still on my camera.

I was able to do a backup (archive) using iMovie and it did save a bunch of folders/files to the directory I chose. Can someone tell me what I'm to do with those files though? None of them appear as a recognized format and there are more folders than I would have expected. From what I can gather on this board it's the MTS files I want to work with. What program on the Mac reads MTS files I guess is what I'm asking. I assume I need to keep the other folders as they are without deleting or messing around with them also?

The_Grudge said:

It's not so bad. I just realized that about 35 of the 70GB are still on my camera.

I was able to do a backup (archive) using iMovie and it did save a bunch of folders/files to the directory I chose. Can someone tell me what I'm to do with those files though? None of them appear as a recognized format and there are more folders than I would have expected. From what I can gather on this board it's the MTS files I want to work with. What program on the Mac reads MTS files I guess is what I'm asking. I assume I need to keep the other folders as they are without deleting or messing around with them also?

Click to expand...

Yup, the .MTS files are the video files. Now here's the thing, if you take them out of the folder hierarchy they can't be used by iMovie, however, if you leave them as the are, in iMovie you can go File>Import>Camera Archive...

Mind you, I haven't done this myself yet, so I don't know exactly how it works.

Back to the .MTS files by themselves. I've used Handbrake on Windows and been able to convert SOME of the files. The ones that fail seem to have no rhyme or reason. With Handbrake on my Mac, they just can't be loaded, period. However, this was when I didn't have the file structure, you may be able to use Handbrake on them with this structure intact. Of course that is if you want to convert them to another format. If you just want to watch them, try using VLC media player. If it can be played, VLC will play it.

So, what to do with the archives?
Well, I read somewhere about a user that created a large enough Disk Image to contain an archive to store that folder system in. The neat thing about this little trick is that when he mounted the disk image and fired up iMovie, it treated the mount as if it were a video camera and imported the clips in the exact same way.

Thats kind of complicated though, I imagine you could just burn the archive to a DVD and use iMovie to Import them directly from that disc as well.