Summary: This article will quickly walk you through how to import Sony Hanycam video to Mac and convert MTS/M2TS files to iMovie, FCE and FCP natively supported format for easier editing.
The Sony Handycam was the first camcorder designed specifically to fit in the palm of the user’s hand. Until its release, most video cameras had been rather bulky, shoulder-mounted contraptions that recorded directly to VHS. Over the years, the Handycam has evolved from using analog formats such as MPEG4 AVC/H.264, HDV(MPEG2). Sony HDR-CX220, HDR-PJ230, HDR-PJ380, HDR-PJ650V, HDR-PJ790V, etc are all the featured Handycam camcorders. As the newbie of the Sony Hanycam, our concern is how to import Sony Handycam video to Mac and how about the compatibility of Sony Handycam and FCP, iMovie, FCE.
We found that it is difficult to play and edit the Sony Handycam AVCHD videos with Final Cut Pro, iMovie, FCE on Mac due to its high rate compression and special codec. In order to make the AVCHD videos from Sony Handycam compatible with Mac, the easy workaround is to convert Sony Handycam files. For this purpose, this article mainly shows you how to transcode Sony Handycam videos for editing, playing, sharing or uploading in detail. Below is how.
1. First, connect Sony Handycam to Mac via usb cable, firewire, or a/v cable, turn on the camcorder and copy video files from Sony Handycam to Mac hard disk.
2. Download and install Brorsoft MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac
It works as a best Sony Handycam MTS Converter under OS X Leopard (10.5), Snow Leopard (10.6), Lion (10.7), Mountain Lion (10.8). With it, you can effortlessly transcode Sony Handycam MTS files to ProRes for FCP (X), AIC for iMovie/FCE. Plus, it can also help you to convert MTS/M2TS to MP4, MOV, FLV, AVI etc. videos for different uses.
3. Launch Sony MTS Converter Mac and click add button to import 1080p Handycam video to the program.
4. Click "format" bar to choose the output format. There are many output format for you to choose: you can freely choose Final Cut Pro > Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov), or iMovie and Final Cut Express > Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC) (*.mov).
Tip: Click the Settings button; you can recommended to set the video size to 1920*1080, bit rate to high quality, and the frame rate to 30fps (25fps for original 50p videos), which can output the best quality videos.
5. Hit the Convert button to start the conversion; it will convert Sony Handycam 1080p AVCHD to iMovie/FCE/FCP friendly format on Mac OS X.
After the conversion, you can transfer video from Sony Handycam to Mac for further editing with FCP, FCE, iMovie smoothly.
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