avchd on a macbook

hi guys im asking this for the benefit of a friend.
can you edit an avchd video in imovie without the need of conversion software?

thanks

 

Doing a Google search with your exact thread title results in this:

http://suburbia.org.uk/blog/2007/07/28/175003.html

 

with imovie ... I dont believe so, it seems bad enough to get it working well in FCP without converting and next to impossible with DVD based camcorders

 

Imovie can only handle HDV from what I remember.

The new final cut pro is supposed to be able to use it natively like premiere.

 

I have no issues whatsoever editing avchd with my Canon Vixia HF20. There's actually a support document on Apple's website that lists cameras that are compatible with iMovie 08 and 09, as well as any issues those supported cameras have.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1014

That would be the link

 

thanks for the replies
so am i correct in saying that imovie cannot edit avchd natively. but it can convert avchd to a format that apple can use?

 

anyone know?

 

bump. would like to know this too.

 

AFIK you will need to convert the footage to get it working correctly. One of my customers has lost alot of hair and gone back to windows for video editing because of all the incompatable formats and slight differences in encoding that different cameras use, that iMovie and FCP do not seem to like but something as stupid as windows movie maker in 7 actually likes.

 

i just sent a friend a small avchd vid and he tried to edit it using the imovie that came with his imac which he just got 2 weeks ago. he says he coulndt edit it without converting.
another friend however says that he found a plugin that will let imovie nativley edit avchd, when i asked him what this plugin was he didnt reply
so im really more prone to thinking that there is no way imove and final cut can edit avchd natively without the need to convert

 

Sigh I hate it when people make claims and then can't back it up. Always feel like its my time wasted when I could have been getting the right information elsewhere.


But yes, I believe Imovie would convert its clips to a ProRes format anyway so it shouldn't be much of an issue.

 

except, how long does that take for a 5-10 minute clip, for example?

 

i saw avideo another friend made using iskysoft plugin for imovie that converts avchd to macs video format for editing.
i dont know how long the conversion took, but the output quality of the conversion/edit was inferior to the original's.
so it seems there is a quality issue and a time issue with regards to converting, which is why i was looking for a program that could do native conversion. and so far there seems to be none

 

premiere pro cs4 can handle avchd i believe.

 

you are right! afaik its the only apple program that claims to edit avchd and other tapeless formats without the need of video conversion.
have you used it ?

 

yes, but not for that purpose.

 

easy to use? stable?

 

Yes it is easy to use (resembles final cut) and the latest versions are stable (if your project happens to crash, it is saved to the very last task you did just before you did the crashing task, so that's always a plus.

And this is the Windows version that I use, so I can only imagine there being more stability and performance via the OSX version.

 

it isn't going to be more stable in os x, it will be almost exactly the same. all the serious video editors have a bit of a learning curve, but it certainly isn't too difficult to use.

 

yeah premiere should be similar to the rest and probably easier than to use than vegas pro. but iveheard it is quite unstable, even compared to other video editing software.
ill give it go though, there is a demo version in the website.
thanks