Convert/Import Sony HDR-CX900E MTS clips into iMovie

Summary: Tips and tricks for Sony HDR-CX900E AVCHD and iMovie: In order to import and edit Sony CX900E MTS into iMovie smoothly, you need transcode 60p AVCHD to iMovie compatible format on Mac OS X.



As you see, Sony HDR-CX900E is an excellent camcorder, offering us vivid image and can bring your memories to life in 1920x1080/50p Full HD. As more users get Sony CX900E, more problems are coming up: some of them have the need to import Sony HDR-CX900E MTS to iMovie for editing on Mac OS X, but they always meet the problems during the process. This article is mainly to solve the HDR-CX900E recordings to iMovie importing issues.

As far as I know, AVCHD is not a good editing format for NLE system including iMovie, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, etc, especially the non-standard 1080 60p AVCHD format. Then how to import Sony HDR-CX900E 1080p videos to iMovie for editing without any issue? Well, if you make the recordings editable before taking to the program, the incompatible error won’t happen any more. The most favorite format for iMovie is Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC) (*.mov)”, so you can use Brorsoft MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac to achieve the goal in a fast way.

Overall, this Mac AVCHD converter can easily convert MTS/M2TS to any other format, like AIC for iMovie/FCE, DNxHD for Avid Media Composer, ProRes for Final Cut Pro, etc with best quality at a fast speed. Besides transcoding, the program is also able to merge AVCHD .mts or m2ts clips into one file as a best MTS joiner for you. You can follow the below guide to reformat CX900E Full HD files to Apple Intermediate Codec.

So, what does the workflow look like?

Step 1. Run the MTS/M2TS Converter on Mac and load .mts files to it from Sony HDR-CX900.



Step 2. Click "Format" drop-down bar to select iMovie supported video format. “iMovie and Final Cut Express > Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC) (*.mov)” is the best compatible video format you need for iMovie.



PS: You also can click “Settings” to set video frame rate, video size and Video Bitrate as you want. I set the video frame rate as 30fps, video size as 1920*1080 and I got the perfect video quality for editing in iMovie.



Step 3. As soon as all things are finished, please click “Convert” button to start converting Sony 60p AVCHD to iMovie.

Once the conversion is 100% completed, you can smoothly copy the converted files to iMovie 08/09/11 for further editing without hassle.

See more:

How-To: Editing .m2t files in iMovie 08/09/11
Panasonic1080 60p AVCHD and FCP workflow
Smoothly Editing AVCHD (.mts/.m2ts) footage in Premiere Pro