it made a mov file of 148 mb... this whole process took 20-25 mins.
my question is, did I lose any quality by this import/export process? is there a faster/better way to convert mts files to mov or mp4s ?
I am very surprised that the file got smaller on import... I honestly did not expect this! Are you sure about the original file size of 160MB on the camera? That seems a bit much to me...
Most people don't know that there are two things that define how a video is stored: The codec and the container. The codec is something like H.264 or DivX, Apple ProRes or mpeg4 (I'm sure you've heard some of those) and it is with what algorithm the video is compressed, i.e. how big the file will be, how the quality is and how easy it will be to use in an editing software. The container contains (sic!) all the additional information on the video, like resolution, the type of codec that is inside and other meta information (like recording date or similar). The container defines the file type of the video, for example .mov, .avi, or .mp4.
Your camcorder stores video in the codec "H.264" and in a very special container, which together make up the AVCHD standard. The codec is pretty standard and can easily be played by your computer or iPad, but the container is kind of weird and only very few players can handle it directly. The reason for this exotic container is because it holds a lot of information (like time code, information on your camcorder or even GPS data) that most other containers are not equiped for.
Anyways, to the point: iMovie will convert all your footage on import into Apple's ProRes codec, which is far less compressed than the original AVCHD files. This is very advantageous if you really want to do serious editing afterwards, since the compressed files will be very hard on your CPU when cutting.
That is the reason why it takes quite a long time and produces big files on import. And there is not really a workaround in iMovie if you want to just copy the files from your camera to view them without any editing. Final Cut Pro X will ask you on import if it should convert the footage or leave it as is. But iMovie won't (at least I think so).
You don't lose any quality (well, hardly any...) during that kind of import, since you are converting from a highly compressed codec into a much less compressed.
If you only want to copy the files to your various devices without really editing them, you may only want a tool that changes the container of your files to .mp4, but leaves the content inside as is. I don't know of any free and nice looking program that can do this (maybe others do?). There are some converters out there, but they cost money (first one I stumbled across was
this one). I know that it can be done with the command line tool ffmpeg, but that might be a bit raw in handling.
how can I transfer these to my ipad ? itunes or any other easier/faster way ? ( before converting or after converting )
I am pretty sure there is an option to export to your iPad from iMovie.
If you want to actually edit your movies, there is not really a way around the time consuming conversion and (again time consuming) export via iMovie if you are working on an older machine. If you just want to basically transfer the movies without really touching them, then iMovie is not really needed. Maybe someone can point you in the direction of a free converter for that. Or you can ask me about ffmpeg, if you are somehow familiar with using the Terminal.
Wow, that was a long post. Sorry for rambling. I hope it somehow came across what I wanted to say.
