Final Mate for Mac
Capture video footage from camcorder, join/split AVCHD without encoding, convert to Apple ProRes & AIC
So you just have some 1080p footage shot by a Sony Cybershot DSC-TX100V camera? Wanna import these recordings to iMovie to create your family movie? You will find iMovie 11 has a lot of trouble editing 1080p MTS footage from the Sony Cybershot DSC-TX100V. It has been suggested that changing format of the MTS file to Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) resolves the issue. But you may also have a few other questions like:
1. What is Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) and how to convert 1080p MTS to AIC for iMovie?
2. Now that iMovie 11 supports the AVCHD Lite format, why does it not support importing 1080p AVCHD directly? What’s the difference between AVCHD and AVCHD Lite?
Let’s find answers to the above mentioned 2 questions together in the following contents.
1. What is Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) and how to convert 1080p MTS to AIC?
About Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC):
The Apple Intermediate Codec is a video codec designed by Apple Inc. to be an intermediate format in an HDV workflow. It features high performance and quality, being less processor intensive to work with than other editing formats. Unlike native MPEG-2 based HDV - and similar to the standard-definition DV codec - AIC does not use temporal compression, enabling every frame to be decoded immediately without decoding other frames. As a result of this, AIC takes three to four times more space than HDV.
AIC is available only on the Mac OS X platform and cannot be read on other platforms to date such as Windows or Linux. All Mac OS X software which makes use of the QuickTime codec libraries - primarily Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, and iMovie, but also freeware such as MPEG Streamclip - can use the Apple Intermediate codec.
How to convert 1080p MTS to AIC for iMovie?
Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac comes with the feature of converting 1080p MTS to iMovie editable AIC format. You can give it a shot. Simply connect your Sony Cybershot DSC-TX100V camera to your Mac, run Final Mate for Mac software, and it is able to read all the MTS files out directly from your camera, then choose “iMovie and Final Cut Express” > “Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC) (*.mov)” preset to process AVCHD files conversion on Mac.
2. Now that iMovie 11 supports the AVCHD Lite format, why does it not support importing 1080p AVCHD directly?
iMovie 11 features supports for the AVCHD Lite format, but it does not support 1080p AVCHD files. The regular AVCHD and the AVCHD Lite have the different resolution quality, which mainly causes the iMovie importing issue.
What’s the actual difference between AVCHD and AVCHD Lite?
AVCHD = Advanced Video Codec for High Definition.
AVCHD Lite = this is exactly the same format as above but the Lite is used to indicate 720p HD content.
The main differences between AVCHD Lite and the regular AVCHD: a maximum resolution of 1280 x 720p in AVCHD Lite compared to 1920 x 1080p in regular AVCHD and a less-intensive compression method - both of which make the format more suitable for less powerful camera hardware.
AVCHD has clearly defined bitrates, resolutions and parameters that qualify as being AVCHD, while AVCHD Lite appears to be a marketing effort on the part of Panasonic to differentiate its digital cameras from the competition. What you really need to know is that any video editing application with support for AVCHD should also support AVCHD Lite without your needing to do anything differently. While on the contrary, not any video editing program with support for AVCHD Lite should also support AVCHD in 1080p quality. That’s why iMovie 11 does support the AVCHD Lite format, but does not support importing 1080p AVCHD. That’s where Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac plays a role in converting 1080p MTS to AIC for iMovie.
