How to Play AVCHD (.mts / .mt2s) on Mac OS X?

[MacVault]

I have a Canon HF100. I love it! However, I cannot seem to find an OS X app that will play the raw AVCHD files from the HF100's SD card. I have tried the latest nightly build of VLC but it is unstable and fails to play the video all the way through.

I did find an AVCHD player for Windows XP called Oxygen, however, as you can see from going to the site it has been stopped due to copyright issues or something like that.

Surely someone here must know of a native Mac OS X app to play these files.????

[NRose8989]

Originally Posted by MacVault

I have a Canon HF100. I love it! However, I cannot seem to find an OS X app that will play the raw AVCHD files from the HF100's SD card. I have tried the latest nightly build of VLC but it is unstable and fails to play the video all the way through.

I did find an AVCHD player for Windows XP called Oxygen, however, as you can see from going to the site it has been stopped due to copyright issues or something like that.

Surely someone here must know of a native Mac OS X app to play these files.????

iMovie or FCE/FCP where you have to transcode it a quicktime format

[MacVault]

Originally Posted by NRose8989

iMovie or FCE/FCP where you have to transcode it a quicktime format

I do not want to transcode it. I want to play the raw AVCHD.

I can't believe it... the "world's most advanced OS" has no way to play raw AVCHD files???

[speakerwizard]

As I understand it AVCHD isnt designed to be played back raw, but decompressed into something like prores (used in final cut for editing before final rendering) or the intermediate codec in imovie designed for non-pros that probably dont have very high powered machines. Ive not had any problems with my avchd cam.

[plod]

Voltaic will copy and convert your AVCHD files.


http://www.shedworx.com/?q=volmac-home

[Tummy]

I had the same problem. Roxio Toast 9 Titanium will play those files back without having to wait for transcoding, plus do a lot more. It's $79/$99 though.

[Peel]

Though I haven't yet tried this myself, it's been reported that one of the recient nightly builds for VLC will play back avchd in its native format: http://nightlies.videolan.org/

[Tummy]

Originally Posted by Peel

Though I haven't yet tried this myself, it's been reported that one of the recient nightly builds for VLC will play back avchd in its native format: http://nightlies.videolan.org/

I tried that and it didn't work for me. The files would play for maybe 1/2 second then freeze.

[RicAlonso]

Originally Posted by MacVault

I can't believe it... the "world's most advanced OS" has no way to play raw AVCHD files???

This is not an OS issue. AVCHD was created by Sony and Panasonic. They tend to make Windows based computers.

Sony has a Windows based editor which supposedly lets you edit natively. That has not been my experience, even on a powerful PC.

One of the problems of native AVCHD editing has nothing to do with the OS. It has to do with processing power. Most computers today, even with 3ghz dual cores, cannot do it properly. So it has to be converted to something that the computers can work with.

Eventually we'll all have 16 core 4 ghz Intel Quatrapinion (silly) Macs with 64 GB of RAM. Then we'll be able to edit AVCHD. Of course by then someone will come out with Ultra HD cameras and the cycle begins once more.

[mynameisshawn]

Originally Posted by RicAlonso

Eventually we'll all have 16 core 4 ghz Intel Quatrapinion (silly) Macs with 64 GB of RAM. Then we'll be able to edit AVCHD. Of course by then someone will come out with Ultra HD cameras and the cycle begins once more.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what they said about DV years ago.

[bobbleheadbob]

Roxio's Toast 9 (as someone mentioned earlier) is the only app I know of. Although I just dump it directly into FCP using Log & Transfer, not Log & Capture, and edit it from there. No problems doing it that way.

[robbietherobot]

I looked into this about a month ago and one of the nightly builds at the time played my AVC files from my Sony no prob. Problem is I can't find the number of the nightly build!

But it did work. I'm sure if you look into different nightly builds you will find one that plays them fine!

Here's hoping there will be proper QuickTime support in Snow Leopard.

[a2dxp]

Just use nightly built VLC to play AVCHD .mts files. It works flawlessly on my macBook Pro, a 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB ram. However, it barely works on my old mac G4. To play .mts file with VLC, a fast mac is recommended.

[Courtaj]

Has anyone used Roxio Toast on an Intel Mini? I'm wondering whether my C2D 2GB 2GHz Mini will handle AVCHD relatively smoothly via Toast.

Otherwise, is there a Final Cut Express solution, or does FCE just do what iMovie does with AVCHD and translate it to AIC?

Cheers very much,
Andrew.

Originally Posted by vionel

I have a dual core 3.16GHz 2GB of RAM and Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT and processors are at 50-60% and the videocard it seems to interlace a bit, I'm not sure if is because is overloaded or my video settings are wrong.

Perhaps it's because the video is interlaced?

Enjoy your spam.

[sjbaydm]

is my mac compatible with a sony camcorder HDR-SR12 ? will my mac book pro recognize the camera when i plug into each other best buy reps. says no camera will not see camera when connected sony say's yes what do i do i have an old imac g5 10.4.11 version and i recently bought a macbook pro 10.5.4 2.6 ghz intel core 2 duo 4gb 667 mhz ddr2 sdram please advise me what to do why doesnt apple support these files or usb or firewire all this is so annoying oohhh this camera is a hard disk drive its a new kind of technology no more little tapes its like a hard disk drive i think thats why theres the problem apple wont recognize the drive anyway pease advise me

[Courtaj]

Originally Posted by sjbaydm

is my mac compatible with a sony camcorder HDR-SR12 ? will my mac book pro recognize the camera when i plug into each other best buy reps. says no camera will not see camera when connected sony say's yes what do i do i have an old imac g5 10.4.11 version and i recently bought a macbook pro 10.5.4 2.6 ghz intel core 2 duo 4gb 667 mhz ddr2 sdram please advise me what to do why doesnt apple support these files or usb or firewire all this is so annoying oohhh this camera is a hard disk drive its a new kind of technology no more little tapes its like a hard disk drive i think thats why theres the problem apple wont recognize the drive anyway pease advise me

An SR12 should work fine with an Intel Mac. If you want to be sure, grab an Memory Stick (if you have one), take it to the Sony store, tell them you want to fire off some clips to test the camera's compatibility with your Mac, set the camera to record to the Stick then plug the card into a USB card reader when you're back home and import into iMovie.

That is, assuming you have a spare Memory Stick and a card reader . . .

You could also do a more specific search on this forum for "SR12" or "SR11" - I'm sure there are people out there who own these cameras and use them with Macs, and a search might turn up a few reassuring remarks (though is more likely to turn up a bunch of anxious posts by people in the same boat as you - thinking about buying the Sony but fed misinformation by cretins employed by Sony).

Cheers.

[sjbaydm]

Originally Posted by speakerwizard

As I understand it AVCHD isnt designed to be played back raw, but decompressed into something like prores (used in final cut for editing before final rendering) or the intermediate codec in imovie designed for non-pros that probably dont have very high powered machines. Ive not had any problems with my avchd cam.

WELL I BOUGHT A SONY HDR-SR12 TAPELESS VIDEO CAMCORDER AND IM WORRIED WITH ALL THESE COMPATIBILITY ISSUES I WONT BE ABLE TO IMPORT / PLAYBACK MY RECORDINGS IN HIGH DEF I HAVE A BRAND NEW MACBOOK PRO 2.6GHZ 4GB MEMORY INTEL 2CORE DUO COULD YOU TELL ME ANYTHING THAT WILL HELP ME PEOPLE SAY THE OS WONT EVEN RECOGNIZE THE CAMERA WHEN CONNECTED

[northernmunky]

I've been given some .m2ts files on a disk but have found no way of converting them without VoltaicHD.

Anyone any idea how to convert these decently without having to fork out for VoltaicHD?

[Courtaj]

Originally Posted by northernmunky

I've been given some .m2ts files on a disk but have found no way of converting them without VoltaicHD.

Anyone any idea how to convert these decently without having to fork out for VoltaicHD?

Yup. Use the free Voltaic demo.

[northernmunky]

Originally Posted by Courtaj

Yup. Use the free Voltaic demo.

The demo only supports files under 50Mb, have to pay to convert the 3Gb+ files I have here...

[bobbleheadbob]

Why not just pay for it? It's a quality program and if you're using it as intended (e.g., over 50mb files) then shouldn't the developer be compensated for your use? It's only $35. It's not that much money.

[northernmunky]

Originally Posted by bobbleheadbob

Why not just pay for it? It's a quality program and if you're using it as intended (e.g., over 50mb files) then shouldn't the developer be compensated for your use? It's only $35. It's not that much money.

Because I only intend to use it once an never again. I dont own an AVCHD camera.

Besides, I discovered a workaround albeit a bit lengthy....
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=545597

[Chris7]

Originally Posted by plod

Voltaic will copy and convert your AVCHD files.[/url]

Looks like some people on this thread have experience with VoltaicHD. I was planning on buying something like this to convert AVCHD into AIC or ProRes, before importing into FCP. However, VoltaicHD only converts to AIC, and I'd like to also be able to convert it to ProRes. Any other suggestions for third party software that will do this?
Thanks in advance,
Chris

[polyethyleneguy]

just curious at how long this VoltaicHD program takes in converting, say, a 60 minute long AVCHD file into AIC?

[Courtaj]

Originally Posted by polyethyleneguy

just curious at how long this VoltaicHD program takes in converting, say, a 60 minute long AVCHD file into AIC?

12 hours, give or take. See this: http://www.shedworx.com/volmac-faq#1. It's much, much slower to convert AVCHD than iMovie, which'll do the job in about 1.5x to 2x real time on a 2GHz Core 2 Duo.