Easiest way to edit some short movie clips?

Dr T · Mar 25th, 2011, 03:37 AM

I have some short movie clips, taken on a Canon camera. They are in .MTS format at present.

I thought I had some one lined up to edit the various bits into a short movie of about 8 minutes long. But that has fallen through. This is supposed to be done by March 31 as a part of a larger project, so you can see I have almost run out of time.

Can someone recommend the best applications to use for converting the Canon clips, and editing them? Audio is vital; I do not need HD in the final product, but it should be in DVD format.

I have an accumulation of applications: iMovie of course, Final Cut Express, Roxio Toast Pro 11 Titanium, MacX DVD Video Converter Pro Pack, etc, but I am not really familiar with any of them. I haven't even installed the Roxio item yet on any computer.

Can anyone suggest an application I should focus on and try and master for this project?

eMacMan · Mar 25th, 2011, 10:37 AM

Is iMovie not doing it for you?

Macfury · Mar 25th, 2011, 10:50 AM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by eMacMan
	Is iMovie not doing it for you?

I find that program appallingly difficult to operate with any degree of quality results.

Dr T · Mar 25th, 2011, 07:47 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by eMacMan
	Is iMovie not doing it for you?

I have it in my accumulation, as I mention. but I have no experience with any of this stuff. I don't have time to master all of it to choose one, so I am asking for a recommendation.

So now there are two recommendations about iMovie. eMacMan in favour, and MacFury's against. Deadlock. Not even a chance of a coalition...

So I'm still stuck.

eMacMan · Mar 25th, 2011, 08:28 PM

Neither for nor against iMovie, just asking if you had tried it as it ships with most Macs.

Not at all sure how well it handles the file type you mentioned.

Dr T · Mar 25th, 2011, 09:02 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by eMacMan
	Neither for nor against iMovie, just asking if you had tried it as it ships with most Macs. Not at all sure how well it handles the file type you mentioned.

I have just tried the camera files in iMovie, and the latter does not recognize the file type at all. Nor does Final Cut Express.

Toast Titanium 10 recognizes the file type. But this application appears to be just conversion software.
MacX DVD Video Converter Pro Pack seem to recognize the file type. But what to convert it to?? This application does not even use the same file type names from one window to the next.

I need editing capability. The file type names across these various applications just do not match up at all.

That's as far as I have gotten.

Dr T · Mar 25th, 2011, 10:15 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by Macfury
	I find that program [iMovie] appallingly difficult to operate with any degree of quality results.

In that case, what is a more better application than iMovie?

I am looking to edit many short clips into one movie of about 8 minutes.

rpw1 · Mar 25th, 2011, 10:47 PM

Follow this link below and then edit in iMovie. It will handle what you need to do I think. Hope this will help.

How to Convert MTS to MOV on Mac (Snow Leopard included)

Dr T · Mar 25th, 2011, 11:32 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by rpw1
	Follow this link below and then edit in iMovie. It will handle what you need to do I think. Hope this will help. How to Convert MTS to MOV on Mac (Snow Leopard included)

Many thanks, this looks very promising, and I will pursue it immediately.

It looks like there is an option to extract the audio separately. That will make the editing much easier.

Abby · Mar 27th, 2011, 11:19 PM

Well, what format do you want to get at last?

	Quote:
	in DVD format.

, I sauppose it's in .VOB
.MTS is one of AVCHD extension, Read these before the converting: AVCHD - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
AVCHD Essentials: get, play, edit and convert AVCHD video on Mac
then choose the right program.
HTH