Best way to get Full HD AVCHD footage onto iPad?

OSMac · Mar 25, 2012

macbook123 said:
Unfortunately I just had to declare this thread unsolved again, because the solution GraphicGeek suggested only works for 720p videos. iTunes does NOT allow me to import 1080p .mov files.

To get the 1080p mov files on my iPad I use the SD adaptor in the camera connection kit.

I just make the following folders:

DCIM/100DICAM

Then copy all the jpgs, raw, or mov files to that directory.

You have to have the files named in digital camera format,
like IMG_0001.jpg , IMG_0002.mov, IMG_0003.CR2 etc
but they all import fine.

If they have different names,
I use bulk rename utility to change them on the card.

Canon 5D II 1080P mov files import directly and can be edited in iMovie too.

I've used Clipwrap to convert Canon AVCHD MTS files to MOV.
They playback fine but some 1080i ones have issues being edited in iMovie.

Hope that helps, works great here with my files.

macbook123 · Mar 25, 2012

OSMac said:
To get the 1080p mov files on my iPad I use the SD adaptor in the camera connection kit.

I just make the following folders:

DCIM/100DICAM

Then copy all the jpgs, raw, or mov files to that directory.

You have to have the files named in digital camera format,
like IMG_0001.jpg , IMG_002.mov, IMG_0003.CR2 etc
but they all import fine.

If they have different names,
I use bulk rename utility to change them on the card.

Canon 5D II 1080P mov files import directly and can be edited in iMovie too.

I've used Clipwrap to convert Canon AVCHD MTS files to MOV.
They playback fine but some 1080i ones have issues being edited in iMovie.

Hope that helps, works great here with files.

Hey, thanks for the info!

Can you confirm that importing them into iTunes does NOT work for you either?

OSMac · Mar 25, 2012

macbook123 said:
Hey, thanks for the info!

Can you confirm that importing them into iTunes does NOT work for you either?

You know, I have not used iTunes with the new iPad yet.

I am trying to avoid it ,
I never fully understood Apple's syncing concept,
and what the different options do.

It always seemed a mystery what would happen to my apps and photos

I dreaded its warnings that it was about to wipe all my apps
if I dared use iTunes on another computer, too.

I know with my iPad 2 when I used iTunes I could drag mov files to the Videos section for easy viewing on the iPad, but I like them in the Photos Album better, dont think the ones in Videos can be edited.

If you can post a link to one of your smaller mov files I'll try importing it with the SD camera kit and let you know if it works if that helps...

macbook123 · Mar 25, 2012

Thanks OSMac, I do actually have the camera connection kit so should be able to do it myself. I just tried and it didn't work. The file is names 00070.mov. Is that not the sort of name it has to have?

What app do you have open to initiate the import? Photos app? Or does it only work with iMovie? Or the Video app?

macbook123 · Mar 25, 2012

OK, I just tried doing everything exactly as you said, including all the directory names, and the .mov video appears neither in iMovie, Photos, or Videos apps.

OSMac · Mar 25, 2012

You probably did this correctly but just incase...

Format a SD or SDHC card

Create a directory at the root level
DCIM

Inside that directory create another
100DICAM

Copy your mov file to that directory and name it
VID_0001.MOV

Copy a jpg to it as well just for testing and name it
IMG_0002.JPG

Names need to be 8 chars long as above.

Then plug the SD into the camera kit and attach to the iPad with it awake.

A window will open showing a preview image of whats on the card and you press select to import, or import all of them.

They will go to the Photos App in the imported album or regular album
and can be moved as needed.

The JPG will show for sure, or something is wrong with your naming or kit.

The MOV should show but I guess its possible its not compatiable.
I was lucky so far all mine worked.

macbook123 · Mar 25, 2012

Thanks for taking the time to respond again. My first thought is that it's unbelievable that Apple's software engineers would not think of a solution that's more straightforward than what you describe, when coming out with HD-capable devices. And they didn't even provide the directions you gave anywhere! What's the point of the new iPad if it can't even play HD videos without going through the procedure you outline or through complicated third-party software with complicated settings?

My second thought is that I did everything as you said I should, and images are detected without a problem, however movies, strangely, are not.

Thanks anyway. I really appreciate it.

OSMac said:
You probably did this correctly but just incase...

Format a SD or SDHC card

Create a directory at the root level
DCIM

Inside that directory create another
100DICAM

Copy your mov file to that directory and name it
VID_0001.MOV

Copy a jpg to it as well just for testing and name it
IMG_0002.JPG

Names need to be 8 chars long as above.

Then plug the SD into the camera kit and attach to the iPad with it awake.

A window will open showing a preview image of whats on the card and you press select to import, or import all of them.

They will go to the Photos App in the imported album or regular album
and can be moved as needed.

The JPG will show for sure, or something is wrong with your naming or kit.

The MOV should show but I guess its possible its not compatiable.
I was lucky so far all mine worked.

whtrbt7 · Mar 25, 2012

Normally you can transfer photos directly from your camera using USB. If you can't import MOV from your existing folder, try this structure:

DCIM\100Canon

It's the default for Canon cameras and that should allow you to import MOV directly into the iPad. Have you tried to connect your camera directly to the USB on the camera connection kit?

whtrbt7 · Mar 25, 2012

Ah, I should also mention that AVCHD is not a widespread format used in lots of cameras. The method was made by Panasonic and Sony in order to make their MTS or M2TS files unreadable by software other than their supplied software. Normally no matter what computer you were using you had to use software to make it viewable. You couldn't just play it even on a Windows based computer natively. A lot of manufacturers are now defaulting to MP4 native or MOV in order for the video to be more useable right out of the camera. Sony and Panasonic however are probably going to cling to this format for a while however since it allows their cameras to store MP4s without the portability which then makes you want to purchase their hardware and software to edit and view the video.

macbook123 · Mar 25, 2012

whtrbt7 said:
Normally you can transfer photos directly from your camera using USB. If you can't import MOV from your existing folder, try this structure:

DCIM\100Canon

It's the default for Canon cameras and that should allow you to import MOV directly into the iPad. Have you tried to connect your camera directly to the USB on the camera connection kit?

My camera doesn't record to MOV, only MTS, sadly.

OSMac · Mar 25, 2012

macbook123 said:
My camera doesn't record to MOV, only MTS, sadly.

Sorry I could not help .

Guess the only thing left is to try Handbrake to reencode the MTS from the GH2. The Apple TV 2 setting and change to 1080P if needed.

Think I tried Handbrake once on a MTS ,
and it did not pick up the audio, I ended up using Sony Vegas to make a mp4.

I agree for such a amazing device some things seem overly frustrating.

Azzin · Mar 26, 2012

I'm new to the whole world of movie importing into tablets!

I've just got myself a 27" i5 iMac and I'd really like to get to grips with movie/picture editing a whole lot more.

I also really like the look of ClipWrap that someone linked to earlier.

Essentially, what it does is leave the video/audio clip alone (so no conversion/transcoding), but it puts your *.MTS file in a *.MOV container.

You can set the ClipWrap output folder for the clip(s) to even be your iTunes Movies folder and then just sync the iPad with iTunes (I think so anyway-I've only been playing around with it for a few minutes!).

macbook123 · Mar 26, 2012

Azzin said:
I'm new to the whole world of movie importing into tablets!

I've just got myself a 27" i5 iMac and I'd really like to get to grips with movie/picture editing a whole lot more.

I also really like the look of ClipWrap that someone linked to earlier.

Essentially, what it does is leave the video/audio clip alone (so no conversion/transcoding), but it puts your *.MTS file in a *.MOV container.

You can set the ClipWrap output folder for the clip(s) to even be your iTunes Movies folder and then just sync the iPad with iTunes (I think so anyway-I've only been playing around with it for a few minutes!).

It would be nice if it were that straightforward, wouldn't it?

The sad truth is that 1080p movies produced by ClipWrap don't import into iTunes. Even if you move the .mov files directly into the folder where iTunes stores all its videos, they are not recognized.

Azzin · Mar 26, 2012

macbook123 said:
It would be nice if it were that straightforward, wouldn't it?

The sad truth is that 1080p movies produced by ClipWrap don't import into iTunes. Even if you move the .mov files directly into the folder where iTunes stores all its videos, they are not recognized.

Really?

I only film ion 720p, as we only have a 720p projector, would that work ok?

macbook123 · Mar 26, 2012

Azzin said:
Really?

I only film ion 720p, as we only have a 720p projector, would that work ok?

In my experience, iTunes allows 720p but not 1080p.

OSMac · Mar 26, 2012

macbook123 said:
In my experience, iTunes allows 720p but not 1080p.

My 1080P Canon 5D mov import fine using the camera kit.
They are native mov files, clipwrap not required.
Can even edit them in iMovie.

My AVCHD files from a Canon camcorder,
are recorded in 1080i and need to be
converted with clipwrap.
Then they import and playback
but I can not edit them in iMovie
unless I convert them to mp4 in Sony Vegas.

macbook123 · Mar 26, 2012

OSMac said:
My 1080P Canon 5D mov import fine using the camera kit.
They are native mov files, clipwrap not required.
Can even edit them in iMovie.

My AVCHD files from a Canon camcorder,
are recorded in 1080i and need to be
converted with clipwrap.
Then they import and playback
but I can not edit them in iMovie
unless I convert them to mp4 in Sony Vegas.

It's curious that your converted files can not be edited in iMovie, isn't it?

It seems then that there are three levels of .mov files, those that can be imported as well as edited, those that can only be imported, and mine that can't be imported at all.

In which App on the iPad do your .mov's show up while you import them, and after?

----------

Btw, another thing I have tried is to import the .mov's post ClipWrap conversion into Aperture, then import into iTunes from Aperture (while keeping a check mark on the "include movies" option).

They import into Aperture just fine, and can be viewed, etc, however once again iTunes is simply ignoring these movies and is not putting them on the iPad. It does so without giving any error messages.

whtrbt7 · Mar 26, 2012

iTunes on a PC or Mac can accept 1080p video but it's pretty strict in what it allows. Normally only MP4 or M4V video encoded at very specific bitrates. It's best to use Handbrake for this.

Apple didn't ever mean for AVCHD to be edited on the iPad. They only allowed consumers and professionals to edit movies via iMovie on the iPad and iPhone. This is why the iPad and iPhone will accept 1080p shot at 30fps or so on the iPad from Canon DSLRs for a more streamlined workflow. They didn't intend an AVCHD user to use the iMovie which is a little funny but I know it also creates problems for Sony and Panasonic to license out AVCHD which they may or may not do. I'm guessing that Sony and Panasonic are not pleased with Apple due to Apple's dominance in their computing markets. Funny enough, I was a believer in SCEI's VAIO line until they royally messed it up. The next logical step was to go directly to Apple since they understood the importance of workflow and integration which none of the other manufacturers cared about. As long as you're within the range of Apple's favored gear and circles of influence, you'll have ultimate functionality.

In this case, it means that Apple fits you into 1 of 2 categories: Consumer or Professional. For Consumer, you're expected to use iPhones or iPod touches for photos and video. All those nice point and shoots don't really have full functionality with Apple unless they shoot in native MP4 or MOV. This means all of the Sony and Panasonic AVCHD cameras are out of the loop. AVCHD tech belongs to Sony and Panasonic. If you're a professional, Apple will support the same formats because why would they support someone else's format? While this makes us as consumers go "Why don't they support this?" It's because the Apple ecosystem is designed to have end-to-end functionality with whatever they specify. I've written SCEI execs multiple times about their formation of standards but they just do their own thing. It's not my responsibility as an outsider to control standards of other companies.

OSMac · Mar 26, 2012

macbook123 said:
In which App on the iPad do your .mov's show up while you import them, and after?

Soon as I plug in the SD card the import screen pops up.
After importing they show in the standard Photos app in the Imported Album .

iMovie sees the Clipwrap movs
and even lets me drop them to the timeline
but the video shows just black.
Maybe because they are recorded in 60i .

macbook123 · Mar 26, 2012

whtrbt7 said:
iTunes on a PC or Mac can accept 1080p video but it's pretty strict in what it allows. Normally only MP4 or M4V video encoded at very specific bitrates. It's best to use Handbrake for this.

How about MP4TOOLS? It sounds like it is much faster since it doesn't re-encode like Handbrake does.

whtrbt7 · Mar 26, 2012

macbook123 said:
How about MP4TOOLS? It sounds like it is much faster since it doesn't re-encode like Handbrake does.

Basically if something can encode for iDevices, then it should be fine. I'm just noticing that while Handbrake is kinda slow, the video quality is pretty good compared to videomonkey and few other apps out there I tried. If you're trying to preserve quality as much as possible, you could either do Handbrake or try using something with a 2-pass so quality is maintained higher. I accidentally hit the Ultra-fast button in some of the converters and while I was able to convert 720p video that was 90 minutes long or so in about 4 minutes, the results are just crap with lots of dithering, artifacting, and skipped frames. I'll have to try MP4Tools.

macbook123 · Mar 26, 2012

removed because fixed

pure3d2 · Apr 1, 2012

macbook123 said:
I have a Panasonic GH2 which produces ultra-nice full HD footage. I'd like to have as many family movies as possible synced to my 64 GB iPad 3 at the best possible quality. Is there something like a consensus for what is the most convenient and high-quality software to take care of this? Thanks for any thoughts you might have!

Use XMedia Recode. If your video is in AVCHD already, choose "Video copy." In the Video tab.

For the audio, isn't in AAC, then you'll have to configure the program to encode it into AAC. You want the final output to be an mp4 file. Once you have that, you'll be able to sync it to your iPad.

Here's a guide on these steps.

The other 3rd party players available on the market (AVPlayer HD, Goodplayer, FlexPlayer) won't handle 1080p very well. There's a new one called RushPlayer which uses GPU-decoding (hardware), but they're still making improvements to the interface.

Check it out here.

Best way to get Full HD AVCHD footage onto iPad?

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68000

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68000

macrumors 68000

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68000

macrumors 65816

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68000

macrumors 65816

macrumors 603

macrumors 68000

macrumors 603

macrumors 68000

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68000

macrumors 65816

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68000

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68000

macrumors 6502

Our Staff