Repack Canon XA25 AVCHD to AIC MOV: the best supported format for iMovie and FCE

"I have a Canon XA25 camcorder, and it was just purchased. The XA25 output either AVCHD or H.264/AVC MP4. Unfortunately, I can't import AVCHD shootings on the XA25 into iMovie on My Mac BookPro. It reads them as incompatible file. I followed all directions, using their CD loaded software, but failed. Any ideas on this? I use iMovie 11, Mac OS X (10.7.3)."

I've checked from the web that theoretically, iMovie 11 supports both of these two format footages (AVCHD and H.264/AVC MP4). However, if you find it doesn't work and you don't want to bother so much about the further setting of iMovie, you can take my advice into consideration. That is,you can transcode AVCHD MTS files to AIC for FCE and iMovie edting.

Here you can try this Pavtube MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac, which stand out as the best AVCHD to AIC converter on Mac. You can import AVCDH files into the converter without any hassle and what's more, with the build-in editor, if you want to do some editing before the conversion, like trim, crop, add subtitles, etc, you can totally free yourself from reloading them into other NLEs for a second refine.

Hot search: AVCHD to ProRes, AVCHD Column Page, AVCHD to Windows Movie Maker

How to re-encode Canon XA25 MTS to AIC for editing in iMovie and FCE?

Step 1. Launch Pavtube MTS/M2ST Converter as a simple Canon XA25 Video Converter.

In the main screen, click either "Add video" button or "Add from Folder" button to load your individual XA25 recording clips or the folder that contains your source media.

Tips:

You can double click on a clip to preview it in the preview window right side, and you can also check a clip and click the play button under the preview window to play a clip before conversion.

Step 2. Choose AIC for editing in FCE or iMovie

Move to the Format bar, and select "Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC)(*.mov)" as output format under "iMovie and Final Cut Express" preset.

Step 3. Click "Settings" button next to Format bar to adjust parameters if you want

The "Profile Settings" window appears, where you are allowed to adjust video and audio settings like resolution, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channels. When finished, click "OK". If you are not familiar with this, simply skip it.

transcode XA25 AVCHD clips into AIC

When ready, click "Convert" button to start repacking Canon XA25 AVCHD footages to Apple InterMediate Codec MOV, so that they would be editable either in iMovie or Final Cut Express. As soon as the conversion completed, you can click "Open output folder" icon in the Conversion window to get the exported MOV files. You can also press "Open" button behind "Browse" button in the main screen to locate the output video.

As we mentioned in the beginning, the AIC MOV format is the best supported format for iMovie and Final Cut Express, so you can simply import the converted files to iMovie and FCE to do further editing without rendering, and you will not encounter incompatibility issues any more.

For newbie to iMovie, how to transfer media files into iMovie can be very useful.