Canon XH-A1 not recognized in iMovie- How to fix

Summary: iMovie does not recognize your Canon XH-A1 for editing? In this article, we introduce the easy solution to you. Fin it now.



I own a Canon XH-A1. What I want to do is to get my Canon XH-A1 to iMovie program. Whereas, iMovie does not recognizing my camera. Has anyone experienced this? Are there any known issues with connecting the Canon XH A1 to iMovie software? Or is there any easy way to import and edit Canon XH-A1 recordings(HDV files) in iMovie smoothly?

I have read around and I’m not the only one that is having difficulty with this camera. One suggestion is that if you have a fairly new Mac then you need a 400 to 800 firewire cable. Looks like that Cam has the full size 400 cable not the mini ones on many mini-cams. iMovie supports HDV generally. If iMovie is not seeing the cam then try quitting iMovie and having the camera booted up and in playback mode and try launching iMovie. Still not working try convert Canon XH-A1 HDV to Apple InterMediate Codec- this was my experience in the past.

Download and install the app Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac

It is a top Canon HDV/DV Converter. It can help you convert Canon XH-A1 as well as HV20/HV30/HV40 HDV files to AIC for iMovie/FCE, ProRes 422 for Final Cut Pro, DNxHD for Avid Media Composer on Mac(Mountain Lion, Mavericks included). Besides Canon HDV files, this video app can also transcoding Canon Vixia MTS to iMovie, FCP, Adobe Premiere, etc for editing. This will help you import the file correctly and saving the rendering time.

Step 1: Add Canon HDV videos to the program

Launch this Canon HDV Converter for Mac. Import XH-A1 footage to the converter. You can join several video clips together by checking the “Merge into one file” box.



Step 2: Click Format bar to choose the output format

For importing Canon XH-A1 HDV in iMovie, select iMovie and Final Cut Express > Apple InterMediate Codec(*.mov) as output format.



Tip: If need, you can click "settings" to customize the output parameters, adjust the resolution, bitrate for easy editing with iMovie.

Step 3: Start Canon HDV file conversion

Click convert button to start transcoding Canon XH-A1 HDV to iMovie most compatible format for editing. After the short conversion on Mac, you can import the Canon HDV videos to Mac software iMovie with smooth workflow.



More Guides:

Transcode Canon Vixia AVCHD clips to iMovie/FCP/Avid
Transcode Canon 1080p MOV to FCP/iMovie
How to Import Canon MXF Footages to iMovie on Mac OS X