Using IMovie HD (version 6) and AVCCAM footage from the AF100

Oliver Rush

Oliver Rush

Well-known member
My girlfriend wants to play around with my AF100 and my kit lens (and eventually teach herself form there how to use the camera and use manual primes... we are talking someone with next to no experience who wants to play around and teach themselves... she is a fine artist curious about filming....)... anyway, her mac only has iMovie HD (version 6) and OSX 10.4.11 and she wants to be able to play with her footage with out asking me to 'make it work for her' so she can use it in imovie (ie; transcoding in FCP it to something she can work with and giving it back to her to input into imovie). I have no experience with iMovie at all, and my question is what is the easiest to use application (stressing ease of use, freeware or next to free is a big plus) to make it into something she can use on her version of imovie, preferably something that she can use on her computer (2.16 core2duo w/ 2GB of ram). Updating her computer is on our list in the future, but not an option right now, and she just wants to watch and simply cut and play around at her own pace and not have to learn and use my FCP set-up.
 
Last edited:
I read Barry Green's book and I thought he said that both FCP and iMovie had log and transfer function for converting the files, but I couldn't find it on my wife's mac book. She has iMovie 9 installed.
 
dustylense said:
Imovie converts AVCHD into "AIC" (apple intermediate codec).
Click to expand...

I could not find the option for that on hers. What version are you using. She has iMovie HD version 6... is it too old to deal with it? It is an intel mac, but she is still running tiger.
 
I thought you had to use VoltaicHD (or similar) to convert the ACVHD to something iMovie could handle?

oh .. looks like they've updated it .. here's the support page..

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1014

Looks like you need iMovie 7.1.2 or later...

jeff
 
Last edited:
Just checking, my wife has iMovie 09 on her mac book, though about shows it as ver 8.06. When I try to import clips from a camera archive on my sd card it shows a thumbnail of the clips 24p in a red crossed circle over the thumbnail. Does this mean it will not work with things recorded in 24p?
 
jmarkham said:
I thought you had to use VoltaicHD (or similar) to convert the ACVHD to something iMovie could handle?

oh .. looks like they've updated it .. here's the support page..

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1014

Looks like you need iMovie 7.1.2 or later...

jeff
Click to expand...

Thanks for checking that out!!

So, Anyone know what can I install on her computer so she can convert her clips so she can import them into her version of iMovie (version 6). We don't need complicated here or top notch, she just wants to play around with her clips, cut them, and not have it look like total crap. Her computer is kinda a mess, so I really dont want to do major upgrades or mess with it. We are just planning on replacing it in 4-6 months. I just want her to be able to deal with whatever little stuff she does when she plays with the camera. She is an artist, not a technician, lol, so it needs to be simple, or I am going to end up just processing them for her, but I don't want her to have to wait on me to do it (or to have to keep doing it, lol)
 
Oliver Rush said:
Thanks for checking that out!!

So, Anyone know what can I install on her computer so she can convert her clips so she can import them into her version of iMovie (version 6). We don't need complicated here or top notch, she just wants to play around with her clips, cut them, and not have it look like total crap. Her computer is kinda a mess, so I really dont want to do major upgrades or mess with it. We are just planning on replacing it in 4-6 months. I just want her to be able to deal with whatever little stuff she does when she plays with the camera. She is an artist, not a technician, lol, so it needs to be simple, or I am going to end up just processing them for her, but I don't want her to have to wait on me to do it (or to have to keep doing it, lol)
Click to expand...
Just our of curiosity and if you have the time. I use Premiere CS5 on my pc and it can edit the files directly without transcoding. I wonder if Premiere Elements can do the same. In any case you can download the full version of either for the Mac, and try them for 30 days.

Just noticed that the trial version is somewhat crippled by adding a watermark to the output files.
 
If you're going to upgrade, the obvious thing to do is to upgrade to iMovie 11, which is very cheap from the Apple App Store and which can read AF100 files natively (well sorta- it transcodes to AIC MOV files, but it can do that unassisted). Unfortunately, that presumably needs a later version of Mac OS too, which starts being a major operation, but I think that's probably the best way to go to be honest.

I think the trouble you'll have is that AVCHD post-dates both the editing package and the OS version you're trying to use so finding a program which can transcode it may be tricky. You could do it in FCP of course but as you say that's just setting yourself up for a world of "honey is that footage ready yet?" :)

iMovie 11 is pretty good and Snow Leopard seems to work well for me so I'd go for that upgrade path if your hardware supports it rather than thrashing around trying to find something to let you feed new codec footage into an outdated edit system that can't cope with it.

Cheers, Hywel
 
David Saraceno said:
24p is not supported in earlier version of iMovie; just in iMovie 11
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I just recorded a few test clips at 1080 60i and 30p and they imported fine into iMovie9. Interestingly I could play back and view a 24p file in the import dialog box, it just wouldn't allow me to import it into iMovie9. Since the upgrade is only 14.99 I may have to do that for her.
@ Oliver - I think my wifes MacBook is around 3 years old.
 
iMovie just wrecks the AF100's footage and it gets even worse when you do the final export... It's like applying a bad "posterize" filter to your footage ;-) Switch to FCP if you can!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top