Photos for Mac, how import AVCHD video?

[Fishrrman]

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but once again I will suggest you at least try to download iPhoto 9.6.1 and see if this can do what you need.

It's not a question of "I don't want to do a backwards step and use iPhoto now." (as you wrote above).

It IS a matter of "what works".
The old version of iPhoto worked for you before.
Perhaps the newer version can "do the conversion" that you need to do...

Hmmm....
Another thought.
I'd suggest you download a copy of the [now-discontined] "Picasa" (which was put out by google).
It's old, but it still runs.
Can this "do the conversion"?

 

[Fofer]

A client just called me with this same issue, newly introduced after she upgraded to High Sierra. She used to be able to import AVCHD video directly into Photos. So today we tinkered around and discovered that we could use iMovie to import these videos instead. Then selected them in iMovie, chose "Show in Finder" from the menus, and then dragged those .mov video files into Photos. It's a bit of a pain, not as easy as it was before, but at least it works.

 

[Tkarrde]

Anyone know how to, or what to use to get AVCHD into Photos for Mac? I'm running latest MacOS High Sierra v10.13.2 , and Photos for Mac latest v3.

Thanks

I too have wrestle with this problem and have found a preferred solution. Trans-coding is not preferred as you lose all your EXIF style data from the video file and the movie will no longer appear in the correct place in your photo library. In order to keep this data and avoid extra trans coding try the following.

This is for SONY Cameras, but may also be very similar for other camera types.

You camera records into a folder on the SD card labeled PRIVATE (most likely), open this folder and you will find a single file named AVCHD this is the file size of all the videos you've shot. Right click and select "SHOW PACKAGE CONTENTS" to reveal a second file labeled BDMV. Right click on this file folder and also select "SHOW PACKAGE CONTENTS."
You are now in the root directory where your camera stores clip data, index, playlist and stream files. Brows to the STREAM folder, there you will discover each clip you have shot, the files should end with a .MTS extention.

By dragging and dropping the .MTS files directly into your Photos library you will be able to import them in the traditional way that Photos does with other image files. This direct import method still trans codes the videos while importing, but it preserves the clip data and date and time the clip was shot.

Good Luck

 

[MrMister111]

I too have wrestle with this problem and have found a preferred solution. Trans-coding is not preferred as you lose all your EXIF style data from the video file and the movie will no longer appear in the correct place in your photo library. In order to keep this data and avoid extra trans coding try the following.

This is for SONY Cameras, but may also be very similar for other camera types.

You camera records into a folder on the SD card labeled PRIVATE (most likely), open this folder and you will find a single file named AVCHD this is the file size of all the videos you've shot. Right click and select "SHOW PACKAGE CONTENTS" to reveal a second file labeled BDMV. Right click on this file folder and also select "SHOW PACKAGE CONTENTS."
You are now in the root directory where your camera stores clip data, index, playlist and stream files. Brows to the STREAM folder, there you will discover each clip you have shot, the files should end with a .MTS extention.

By dragging and dropping the .MTS files directly into your Photos library you will be able to import them in the traditional way that Photos does with other image files. This direct import method still trans codes the videos while importing, but it preserves the clip data and date and time the clip was shot.

Good Luck

So the process is it seems almost enabled anyway, why can't Apple enable it!?! It used to work as well in iPhoto.

I didn't realise transcoding/converting with EditReady would stripe out the EXIF data! I'll have to check that thanks

 

[Dave Braine]

I've recently bought a camcorder that records in AVCHD. When I connected it to my MBP, Photos automatically opened and tried to download the videos. However, it was taking an absolute age, so I eventually Force Quit.

The easiest way is to use iMovie to download the video. It only took a minute or so and it automatically rewraps to .mov.

If you really then want the movies in Photos, you can drag and drop from the iMovie Library file.

 

[petri71]

Hi everyone, I have the same problem with my LUMIX LX100 but worse, I can't even get to see the AVCHD files when I plug the camera to the iMac, I tried using pic bridge or simple USB plug but I can only see mp4... and I can't move the video file from the phone either...anyone has an idea ?

 

[Dave Braine]

Have you tried putting the SD card into a card reader and opening iMovie? It should see the AVCHD files.

and I can't move the video file from the phone either.

Explain please.

 

[syeetie]

#4
I'd be interested to see what you find out.
btw
I downloaded many movies to my computer (yeah, I am a movie fanatic), maybe the movies are too much that the hard drive capacity of my computer is not enough, but I don’t want to delete any one of them. Some movies are in MP4 format, is there any MP4 to DVD converter recommended? I think it will be wonderful to burn my loving movies to disc for storage.

 

[Fofer]

Looks like the most recent update to macOS High Sierra, 10.13.6, has incorporated a fix for at least some of these issues:

 

[jasonhavens]

Can't find any in app atore, and ones I can are converters.

Don't mind paying for a product that will work, I'm just presuming Apple may add it (hopefully) soon and probably a day after I drop $50 ha ha.

If ClipWrap/EditReady work, I've tried ClipWrap very briefly and seemed to, then I'll buy.

Actually ClipWrap and EditReady have the ProRes422 you mention, whatever that is!

I just chose rewrap *.mov choice and it converted them to about same size as a .Mov.

It allowed to add either AVCHD, .mts direct though seemed to convert fine.

Sorry to respond several years later, but I just had to work through these issues in order to import into Apple's Photos app a number of archived folders containing Sony AVCHD files (spanning several years and all 10+ years ago). Revealing the "MTS" files is helpful; however, Apple's Photos app still will not import them. After trying the new version of Roxio Toast Titanium, which will batch convert the files (as it did years ago) but wasn't retaining all of the metadata (or at least not on the settings that I was using), I thankfully found your post/thread here. I purchased ClipWrap (now EditReady), and successfully --- and quickly -- used its superb "Rewrap" settings to convert each subfolder of revealed MTS files to MOV files, all of which were easily imported into Photos on my Mac (M1 chip running macOS Monterey).

I merely am posting here in case I can save someone else hours of struggles. There might be other options. Using EditReady was by far the best and most efficient one for me, despite paying $79.99. Many thanks, @MrMister111 , for helping me.

Kind regards,

Jason

 

[MrMister111]

I merely am posting here in case I can save someone else hours of struggles. There might be other options. Using EditReady was by far the best and most efficient one for me, despite paying $79.99. Many thanks, @MrMister111 , for helping me.

Kind regards,

Jason

No problem glad I could help in some small way! I haven’t used Clipwrap/Editresay for years now actually. I got a bit sick of messing about, and had decided to change camera anyway. This time I looked for a specific non AVCHD video and the normal MP4, which is infinitely more compatible.

I’m no expert on cameras and mostly use my iPhone now, but for zoom level nothing compares to the camera, Coolpix A900. Still got it now and use on holidays

 

[jasonhavens]

No problem glad I could help in some small way! I haven’t used Clipwrap/Editresay for years now actually. I got a bit sick of messing about, and had decided to change camera anyway. This time I looked for a specific non AVCHD video and the normal MP4, which is infinitely more compatible.

I’m no expert on cameras and mostly use my iPhone nowX but for zoom level Nothing compares to the camera, Coolpix A900. Still got it now and use on holidays

Well, thanks again! I put off for too long migrating all of those videos (and a few photos) and paid dearly due to the Western Digital debacle last summer. So I finally set aside time to tackle and had to use DriveSavers (also very highly recommended, but at a premium price) to recover these files/folders and others. That's why I had to reach into my email archives and do some contemporary searches to find a good solution, which you absolutely helped to provide!

Yes, I'm no AV expert either and think that we all use our far-more-advanced smartphones these days, although the Sony handheld "camcorders" still are excellent along with your handy Nikon travel camera, which we still like as well and conserve our battery-hungry iPhones/apps when using something separately to record a lot of footage or take numerous photos. I purchased a newer one years ago that was set by default to MP4 format. I imported those recovered files into Apple's Photos without any issues. It was the older AVCHD/MTS format that presented the challenge.

Cheers again to you. I hope that this revisited thread will save some headaches for others in my shoes or similar. Have a good rest of your weekend.