Video Editing On Mac

[Nick Manning]

Hey everyone, I've recently bought a iMac and so far loving it, I am a mac newbie and slowly getting to grips with it. I was out riding today and did some filming. I am using a JVC HD camcorder, unfortunately it records in AVCHD, I had problems with this on my windows laptop, and ended up buying Pinnacle 14 HD so that I could view and edit my HD footage. Unfortunately this program is not mac compatible.

I put my SD card into my machine and was able to find my clips saved in separate files on the SD card, but I was unable to view. I have downloaded a free app (iSkysoft) and can now view all AVCHD files, but I still cannot add these files to iMovie. I have now downloaded a MTS converter and have converted my files, these files still won't be accepted by iMovie. I am that there are some forum users that also use macs that can help.

I am a little disappointed as I was told I would have no problems with editing HD footage, they just seem to have left out the fact that you need to convert files and what not first.

Anyway, hope someone can help.

Cheers.

[Krisboats]

Well to be fair, you're not having problems editing the footage, you're having problems with accessing the files container type within an editing program.

Have you tried final cut pro? It's quite expensive at around £500, however the slightly slimmer version is around £100 http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB278. Or there are always alternative methods of obtaining them if you should so wish .

If you want to use imovie you should be able to do it with imovie08 or later, however if you're using the old g5 powerpc models of mac even this won't help. You'll need a mac with an intel based setup for AVCHD.

If you go with final cut express you'll need version 4 or later and you'll need to import the clips directly from the camera using the footage capture feature you'll need to use the apple HDV codec for it to capture the footage correctly.

On the pc side of it, adobe premiere pro works very well with AVCHD and it's what i use with the footage off my JVC camera.

[Nick Manning]

Well to be fair, you're not having problems editing the footage, you're having problems with accessing the files container type within an editing program.

Have you tried final cut pro? It's quite expensive at around £500, however the slightly slimmer version is around £100 http://store.apple.c...s/product/MB278. Or there are always alternative methods of obtaining them if you should so wish .

If you want to use imovie you should be able to do it with imovie08 or later, however if you're using the old g5 powerpc models of mac even this won't help. You'll need a mac with an intel based setup for AVCHD.

If you go with final cut express you'll need version 4 or later and you'll need to import the clips directly from the camera using the footage capture feature you'll need to use the apple HDV codec for it to capture the footage correctly.

On the pc side of it, adobe premiere pro works very well with AVCHD and it's what i use with the footage off my JVC camera.

My iMac is the new 21" with Intel i5 processor. I don't fancy paying £100 to be able to do this, as the whole point of buying a mac is that I was under the impression things work so much better and chose this as it's better specced than my laptop which was struggling during editing to keep up.

[Matthew62]

Have you converted the clips to avi files? You should have no problem with these in iMovie.

Also 'handbrake' is a decent convertor also.

[Krisboats]

My iMac is the new 21" with Intel i5 processor. I don't fancy paying £100 to be able to do this, as the whole point of buying a mac is that I was under the impression things work so much better and chose this as it's better specced than my laptop which was struggling during editing to keep up.

Well thats not true. Just because it's a mac doesn't make it better for video editing. For example with imovie 08-09 you can only import avchd through the hdv - apple intermediate codec. This uses loads more space than standard avchd where an hour would typically be around 13gb, with HDV-AIC its over 40gb. You could convert it to avi using handbrake, however with any convertor, quality will be lost. Also avi's aren't built for hd. They'll either be huge in size (1gb/min) or using a container, which most likely will not work in imovie either.

[Nick Manning]

Well thats not true. Just because it's a mac doesn't make it better for video editing. For example with imovie 08-09 you can only import avchd through the hdv - apple intermediate codec. This uses loads more space than standard avchd where an hour would typically be around 13gb, with HDV-AIC its over 40gb. You could convert it to avi using handbrake, however with any convertor, quality will be lost. Also avi's aren't built for hd. They'll either be huge in size (1gb/min) or using a container, which most likely will not work in imovie either.

I'd rather keep the quality, after all what would be the point in filming in HD, lol.

I believe I am using iMovie 11 on OSX Snow Leopard. Are there any other HD editing software compatible with Apple that would accept AVCHD and be easier than having to do conversions and what not?

[Krisboats]

You should be meeting all the criteria for getting the footage off your camera then. How are you going about importing the clips? The JVC cameras won't work like a digital camera where you copy the clips straight from the memory card to the hard drive.

With a pc you need to use the (i'm guessing you've got an Everio) Everio media browser to capture the clips to your hard drive and i believ that this software isn't compatible with Mac's. However if you go into imovie, connect your camera and then click the mac equivalent of windows File>Import>Capture from camera and then choose the HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec then you should be able to import the clips that way.

Try having a look through here, see if it's of any use.

http://mtsconverters.lefora.com/2010/07/23/how-to-transferedit-jvc-everio-gz-hm200-videos-in-/

[Captain Scarlet]

I was about to say have you tried log and capture in iMovie?

It's what I used to have to do when FCP didn't like the container format from my handicam, very good as it allows for playback in the programme so you can choose your good and bad takes in iMovie.

I'd also give another vote for FCP, it is a seriously powerful bit of kit, biggest advantage is being able to edit with proxy files of your 1080p footage to enable faster rendering times and better playback.

However if you do want to go for it, just wait until the update which is planned for release in a few months, it is a HUGE revamp of the software.

[Nick Manning]

You should be meeting all the criteria for getting the footage off your camera then. How are you going about importing the clips? The JVC cameras won't work like a digital camera where you copy the clips straight from the memory card to the hard drive.

With a pc you need to use the (i'm guessing you've got an Everio) Everio media browser to capture the clips to your hard drive and i believ that this software isn't compatible with Mac's. However if you go into imovie, connect your camera and then click the mac equivalent of windows File>Import>Capture from camera and then choose the HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec then you should be able to import the clips that way.

Try having a look through here, see if it's of any use.

http://mtsconverters...200-videos-in-/

I was taking the SD card out of the camera and putting it into the sd card slot of the iMac. I take it when you say to connect the camera and import and capture, I need to be connecting the camera to the iMac via the usb port rather than using the sd card slot for the sd card.

[Krisboats]

I was taking the SD card out of the camera and putting it into the sd card slot of the iMac. I take it when you say to connect the camera and import and capture, I need to be connecting the camera to the iMac via the usb port rather than using the sd card slot for the sd card.

Yeah, import the clips straight off the camera via USB using the imovie software to capture the footage in the same way we used to have to do with those dreaded DV tapes from 10 years ago. Should be quicker and more reliable than miniDV but an almost identical process.