I Movie question

[Snoggin]

I have a Sony cam corder and it is not being recognized by I Movie. The files are labeled as Mts in the finder window.. The camera shows up as a hard drive in the finder.. I looked up the Camera in the help section and it does appear to be supported..

I had a problem with this before when I had a Mac and ended up getting Pinnacle and was able to access things.. I figured I would be able to deal with the high def files on the Mac but its a problem..But I know there are a lot of video savvy people here .

I tried just draggin the files into imovie but no go. I tried to import movies but it says there are no supported files.. What do I do?

Camera is a Sony HDR- XR100

 

[ActionableMango]

Not sure your iMovie version supports that format.

You can try downloading handbrake (its free) and converting the MTS into MP4 or MOV. None of these are ideal formats for editing, but it's an easy thing to try.

Also, this forum is for Mac Pro desktops. As your question has nothing specifically related to the Mac Pro, you might have better luck getting advice in a different forum.

 

[MetalheadGCN]

I'm relatively certain iMovie doesn't support that format.

I personally LOVE MP4 for video editing, so I would second what the person above me suggested in DLing Handbrake to convert those files.

Best of luck!

 

[Snoggin]

Well there are all kinds.of posts on this when I googled it. I may have to reformat my drive. I will try handbrake to get off the stuff I need now.

Thanks

 

[goMac]

http://www.google.com/search?client...=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=945aa3766ac44c23

Sounds like there are a lot of options to convert the video.

I personally LOVE MP4 for video editing, so I would second what the person above me suggested in DLing Handbrake to convert those files.

Don't edit in MP4. MP4 files aren't really meant to be edited in since they can't be read at a specific frame (decompressor has to decompress chunks) and are compressed. MP4 is good for archival and transport, not so good for editing. This is why QT X can't actually edit movies, because it has an MP4 workflow.

There are formats meant for editing that deal with these... issues.

 

[linuxcooldude]

From what I've been reading you have to have iMovie '08 or later for it to work with your camera. What version of iMovie do you have? If you have an earlier version Mac app store has iMovie 11 for $14.95.

 

[bearcatrp]

I have a Sony SR-11 which records in same format. iMovie recognizes it and transcodes it to AIC on import. You must be using an older iMovie, before 8. Upgrade and you shouldn't have any problems. Just get ready for some very large files.

 

[MacintoshMan]

http://www.google.com/search?client...=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=945aa3766ac44c23

Sounds like there are a lot of options to convert the video.



Don't edit in MP4. MP4 files aren't really meant to be edited in since they can't be read at a specific frame (decompressor has to decompress chunks) and are compressed. MP4 is good for archival and transport, not so good for editing. This is why QT X can't actually edit movies, because it has an MP4 workflow.

There are formats meant for editing that deal with these... issues.

You could edit mp4 in quicktime 7. QTX is a joke. I use edit loosely, you could always make in and out points and export those.

 

[ActionableMango]

Well there are all kinds.of posts on this when I googled it. I may have to reformat my drive. I will try handbrake to get off the stuff I need now.

I don't really understand this camera, but if it already shows up as a hard drive in finder, it sounds like the formatting of the drive is fine. I doubt you need to reformat it.

Handbrake should work fine for the iMovie you have. It's free, but it's an extra step. As others have stated, a newer version might be a better long term solution.

 

[Snoggin]

Ww thanks for all the help.. Let me clarify though this is a brand new Mac pro with IMovie 11 on it. I already converted the existing files using handbrake to mp4 which I see from here is NOT good for editing I guess?

The ae a number of threads on this situation on google and some say that after reformatting the drive on a Mac that after that IMovie can sees the files.


Thanks for the link on the video conversion stuff too. That another option for sure but another step I would rather Do without if I could.

 

[ActionableMango]

MP4 is adequate, it's just not ideal.

But what "ideal" is really depends on your requirements. If you're just messing around with home videos or whatever, I'm sure it's fine.

 

[bearcatrp]

Every time you convert, you loose a little quality, depending on the program. How old is that camcorder? Is it on apples list of supported camcorders? Cineform is a real good converter but cost money. You could experiment with the free ones to see how much quality you loose. You might have to consider boot camp or use a PC and use PMB from Sony.
Just remembered something. My SR11 requires that NO SD video be on the camcorder when uploading to iMovie. Pretty sure it's a iMovie requirement. Had to move, then delete SD video from my cam. Then iMovie recognized it. Yours could be the same.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1793