Bring M2TS into iMovie '09?
February 28, 2010 4:46 PM Subscribe
How can I get a M2TS video file into iMovie?
I have a MBP and iMovie '09. Someone just sent me a M2TS video file. It's a common enough high-definition video format, but not common enough for iMovie. I can get it to play in VLC, but if I want to do anything with it, I obviously need to convert it with some combination of codecs and magic.
Google searches for any type of file conversion advice leads directly into a recursive nest of SEO-cluttered affiliate links and sketchy sales sites. I'm willing to pay for a solution, if it's an actual, trusted, legitimate solution. But I'm hoping that, given the widespread use of M2TS and iMovie, that someone else has solved this problem recently!
I have a MBP and iMovie '09. Someone just sent me a M2TS video file. It's a common enough high-definition video format, but not common enough for iMovie. I can get it to play in VLC, but if I want to do anything with it, I obviously need to convert it with some combination of codecs and magic.
Google searches for any type of file conversion advice leads directly into a recursive nest of SEO-cluttered affiliate links and sketchy sales sites. I'm willing to pay for a solution, if it's an actual, trusted, legitimate solution. But I'm hoping that, given the widespread use of M2TS and iMovie, that someone else has solved this problem recently!
I would use "MPEG streamclip" from square 5 to open the transport file and and transcode it to something i-movie friendly.
posted by jade east at 6:20 PM on February 28, 2010
posted by jade east at 6:20 PM on February 28, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks, Inspector.Gadget. That's of course a good question. I'm not even sure how to tell what's inside the file. Unfortunately, though I used to use FFMPEGX (a OSX gui build for FFMPEG), it no longer installs (last updated 2008!), and I have absolutely no idea how to compile the official FFMPEG.
MPEG streamclip looked promising, jade east, but I'm already at Snow Leopard and didn't keep the old MPEG-2 Playback Component.
Thanks, Mwongozi, for the VoltaicHD recommendation. It's already the first site I've seen for something like this that doesn't look like a scam. And I see it at least merits mention on Apple's website.
posted by pzarquon at 8:40 AM on March 1, 2010
MPEG streamclip looked promising, jade east, but I'm already at Snow Leopard and didn't keep the old MPEG-2 Playback Component.
Thanks, Mwongozi, for the VoltaicHD recommendation. It's already the first site I've seen for something like this that doesn't look like a scam. And I see it at least merits mention on Apple's website.
posted by pzarquon at 8:40 AM on March 1, 2010
VoltaicHD is just a frontend to FFMPEG. ProRes is better than other lossy formats as an intermediate, but it's generally better just to re-encode once. If the source is AVCHD, then it is H.264 video with either AC3 or (L)PCM audio. Using a command-line binary of ffmpeg (not the ffmpegX gui), you may be able to get away with.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 12:41 PM on March 1, 2010
ffmpeg -i somesource.m2ts -vcodec copy -acodec copy -o somesource.movposted by Inspector.Gadget at 12:41 PM on March 1, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks, Inspector.Gadget, but after fumbling around the download of ffmpeg to try and do some command line magic, I just bought VoltaicHD and it did what I needed it to do with two clicks. I envy those for whom this stuff comes easily!
posted by pzarquon at 1:20 PM on March 1, 2010
posted by pzarquon at 1:20 PM on March 1, 2010
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posted by Inspector.Gadget at 4:51 PM on February 28, 2010