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AVCHD Lite to DVD??

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I have a ZS3, and it's my first experience with any AVCHD (had been doing avi and dv before).

Just wondering -- is there anyway to burn an AVCHD set of movies direct to DVD -- without have to convert to AIC, and use iDVD?

I don't do much with DVDs, but we're taking more family movies on this thing, and much of it I don't want to manage, produce or store on my HDD. Just want to burn it to DVD and move on.
 
If you're talking about having playable movies, no.

iDVD needs Quicktime movies or DV files to transcode to DVD and burn to disc, and the only way you'll get those is by transcoding the AVCHD video somewhere. And without buying additional software, that would be iMovie.

After you have a playable disc, you can always trash the iMovie events to delete the AIC video from your hard drive. But keep in mind that this essentially defeats the purpose of owning a camera that records HD. Hard drives are cheap.
 
CaptainChunk said:
If you're talking about having playable movies, no.

iDVD needs Quicktime movies or DV files to transcode to DVD and burn to disc, and the only way you'll get those is by transcoding the AVCHD video somewhere. And without buying additional software, that would be iMovie.

After you have a playable disc, you can always trash the iMovie events to delete the AIC video from your hard drive. But keep in mind that this essentially defeats the purpose of owning a camera that records HD. Hard drives are cheap.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I meant without having to convert and WITHOUT using iDVD. My original post made it sound like I wanted to use iDVD. I was wondering if there's something else that can take mts or straight from the cam to DVD.
 
Another related question: If I roll up all the AVCHD files into a dmg (I've done this so I can import into iMovie without the camera present), is there software that understands AVCHD, so that I can delete clips from that DMG file without wrecking the integrity of the whole AVCHD file set? (I've found just deleting the mts file before trying to load into iMovie seems to stop the ability of iMovie to see the DMG file as a camera).
 
bking1000 said:
Sorry, I meant without having to convert and WITHOUT using iDVD. My original post made it sound like I wanted to use iDVD. I was wondering if there's something else that can take mts or straight from the cam to DVD.
Click to expand...

You can certainly take the AVCHD files and burn them straight to DVD but they're not going to play in a DVD player. It's the conversion that allows this to happen and iDVD is the only program that comes packaged with your Mac and can do this.

As far as your idea of storing AVCHD files in a DMG, generally you can't edit a DMG once you've created it. Storing your video via DMG files isn't a bad idea to conserve file space, but editing DMGs is complicated, if not impossible.
 
Erendiox said:
You can certainly take the AVCHD files and burn them straight to DVD but they're not going to play in a DVD player. It's the conversion that allows this to happen and iDVD is the only program that comes packaged with your Mac and can do this.

As far as your idea of storing AVCHD files in a DMG, generally you can't edit a DMG once you've created it. Storing your video via DMG files isn't a bad idea to conserve file space, but editing DMGs is complicated, if not impossible.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not sure of the issues with a DMG. I can add and delete stuff from my DMG whenever I want. Not sure what you mean by "editing DMGs is complicated"

What I meant was, I download the entire file structure from the "AVCHD" folder on my ZS3, the I create an appropriate sized DMG, put the files (with the structure) in the DMG, and now I can mount the DMG, and imovie sees it as a camera, and I can import movies from there, encode into AIC, edit and then final encode into some end product.

But, I'm finding I'm taking a lot of "family" movies (e.g. 16 minutes of a circus act) for the kids. I just want to get that burned onto a DVD so it's not taking up camera or PC storage, and then the kids can watch it on TV whenever they want, and I have no interest in editing it.

I'm looking for the easiest tool to take it from the AVCHD on the camera to DVD. It doesn't have to be free/included with my Mac. I just want 1 button simple (if it exists)
 
Yes!

I'm trying to do the same thing. If anyone knows of a 3rd party software that will do this, please let us know. I need something I can use in my hotel room that will burn the video taken that day to DVD-R (recording live performances for archive). Then I can use my memory card to record more the next day.

But taking 2 hours 2 get info from camera to laptop, then 3 hours to convert from iMovie to iDVD, then another 90 mins to burn from iDVD to DVD-r is a process that fills my mind with expletives! It's not even possible to complete these steps under my working environment, unless I decided to skip sleeping completely so I can push a few buttons on the computer when it needs to move to the next step.

Alas, I feel your pain bking1000... Do not buy anything AVCHD unless you enjoy spending hours at your computer waiting to push a button. This is exactly the sort of mindless simple task that computers are supposed to take care of for us humans. The irony is maddening...
 
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