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High Def Video not smooth

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macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 12, 2010
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Would really appreciate help here.
I have spent many many hours trying to work out why my High Def Video is not smooth on my Mac.
I have a Sony HDR CX-12 Handy Cam. It records high def video in MTS format.
And I have recently purchased the 27 inch 2.8ghz quad core Mac desk top.
Firstly it does not recognise the MTS format. I find this really surprising as I have been lead to believe that most high def video comes in this format.
Anyway VLC media Player plays it however it is not smooth especially when panning. Like the graphics card is not upto spec.
I was advised by Apple Techs to convert it to an MOV file. So I did that and the quality is really poor.
I have been to Sony, Apple and everwhere else looking for help. But no one can. And the thing is that it plays perfectly on the Sony laptops and desktops. Surely Mac arent behind the game here???
Anyway I would really appreciate any help here as I have come to a dead end.
Thanks in advance.
 
what editing software are you using. If your using Final Cut you need to do a log and transfer because it needs to be transcoded into Prores. It will then play back smoothly
 
Im not using any editing software at the moment.
I thought the first thing would be to get it to play smoothly on the Mac.
Is it not right to assume that if it doesnt play smoothly now it wont be any better with a bit of editting??
I'm new to this game. I just want to shoot and play good video of my familly.
Thanks.
 
do you have imovie on your mac? (you should, its free) try importing footage from your camera into imovie and see if it plays back fine. What are the specs of your computer?
 
Is it that the motion in the video looks fluid on the Sony laptop and juddery on the Mac? If so, try using the Bob deinterlace filter in VLC.
 
Specs
2.8ghz intel quad core i5/2560 by 1440 res / 4gb (2x2GB) Mem/ITB HD/ATI Radeon HD 5750 with 1 GB

I do have imovie.

I cant import the files from the camera because it doesnt recognise the MTS files.

It is fluid on the latest Sony laptops but not on the Mac.

Ill try the deinterlace

Thanks,
Guys.
 
I'm not familiar with Sony's consumer cameras, but I'm wagering it's some form of AVCHD camera(flash/hdd/dvd). It's not on the list of supported cameras, but I'm guessing this camera may have been released after this list was released. It should be as simple as plugging it into your iMac via the USB cable and launching iMovie 08/09 and selecting your camera in the available sources. iMovie will transcode your media into AIC(Apple Intermediate Codec) which will more than triple the resultant file sizes.

I haven't touched iMovie since 2003, but I have heard people saying they've had problems with iMovie recognizing their camera. Another option is third party software, like VoltaicHD, to convert your MTS files into a format that's editable.

http://www.shedworx.com/voltaichd

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3290

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1102115
 
Martinx you are a legend.
It did it!! I have spent so much time trying to solve this problem. I have upgraded my graphics card on my PC, been to several computer shops, been to Sony, made a million phone calls, loaded different media players etc etc and with no luck.
But I am a happy boy now,
Thanks to all especially Martinx.
Cheers.
 
Actually I have another question.
And I cant seem to get the answer off the net.
My computer doesn't recognise my Sony camera. And I cant drag the mts files into imovie.
Any suggestions? I assume I have to change the format but when I have done it the quality becomes poor. And even then I still cant paste into imovie.
 
Hi,

I don't use iMovie but FCP. I think the problems you encounter are the same. There have been treads about it, so you can get more info if you google. Here is what I know:

  • AVCHD/MTS file is more a storage codec (heavily compressed), not to edit or play. On the camcorders you are able to play it, but on computers it takes a lot of processing power to play smoothly. (One is better in it then the other, but bottom line: it is not meant to edit or play.)
  • Artifacts while panning happens more with avchd
  • iMovie and FCP are able to handle it, but they have to ingest the files and transcode them in something else, more edit friendly (AIC for iMovie and FCE, ProRes for FCP)
  • iMovie and FCP cannot ingest MTS files, but need additional info for it. That is the reason you have to ingest from the cam. So standard workflow is to ingest through the cam.
  • There are tools to rebuild the MTS info (google, I don't remember which).

I don't know why youre computer doesn't recognise the cam, but I do know there are nummerous treads including solutions for that

Oh, and the deinterlace is usefull if you play on a computer monitor/the web. But on tv sets interlace is still the best. If it looks horrible on the computer monitor and you burn a dvd (with iDVD), you will see it looks better on your tv set.

Good luck.
 
I've just tried the demo of it and works well. However when I play back the movie on iMovie it appears there is a loss in quality.
Is this to be expected?
 
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