Haven’t figured out a program to read .cpi files on Mac? If so, you are in the right place. This post provides workarounds to open .cpi file on Mac by transcoding CPI video to QuickTime MOV format.
How can I open a CPI file on Mac?
“Hi, there, I have several video files with a “.cpi” extension which I am not able to neither open nor view on my MacBook Pro. What do I need to do to open these video files? Can you please tell me step by step so I can actually watch the CPI videos on my Mac? Thanks a lot.”
CPI is clip information file created by various high definition (HD) digital video camcorders, which contains metadata describing an AVCHD video stream, such as the frame rate, frames per second, and aspect ratio. The .cpi file is used to describe an .MTS video stream and only contains metadata required for streaming AVCHD video files. The .mts video file contains the real video clip.
If your Mac computer cannot determine which program to open .cpi file, it means that you don’t have the related software which can open file extension CPI, here provides the workarounds to open .cpi file on Mac. All you need to do is convert CPI files to a format that is compatible with your Mac OS, such as QuickTime movie format. Read on to find a quick guide on how to convert CPI files to QuickTime MOV for playing or editing on Mac.
How to convert CPI files for editing in iMovie, FCE, FCP, Avid or playing with QuickTime Player, VLC Player on Mac?
Here’s what you need
This CPI Video Converter for Mac is able to batch convert MTS CPI files from AVCHD video cameras to ProRes .mov, AIC .mov, DNxHD .mov, QuickTime MOV, and MP4 files for editing in FCP (X), iMovie, Final Cut Express, Avid… and for playing with QuickTime player, VLC Media Player, etc. on Mac platform flawlessly.
The steps:
Step 1: Open up HD Video Converter for Mac as a CPI Converter for Mac. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load your source media.
Note that .CPI is AVCHD Video Clip Information File. The AVCHD directory contains a folder for clipinfo which contains one .cpi file for each .mts file in the stream folder. cpi (clip info) contains various contains metadata describing an AVCHD video stream, such as the frame rate, frames per second, and aspect ratio. The video and audio is stored in the mts/m2ts (Transport Stream) files. To convert CPI files, actually, you need to add mts/m2ts clips into this program for conversion.
Step 2: From ‘Profile’ list, choose output format
1) To convert CPI files for editing in iMovie and Final Cut Express, choose ‘Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC)(*.mov)’ as output format under ‘iMovie and Final Cut Express’ column.
2) To transcode CPI files for use in FCP (X), select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format under ‘Final Cut Pro’ catalogue.
3) To encode CPI files for working with Avid, choose ‘DNxHD (*.mov)’ as target from ‘Avid Media Composer’ option.
4) To transfer CPI files for playing on Mac, you can select ‘HD MOV Video (*.mov)’ or ‘HD H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC Video (*.mp4) as output format under ‘HD Video’ column.
Important: If you’ve loaded a number of video clips to do batch conversion, please do remember ticking off ‘Apply to All’ option before you start.
Step 3: Custom video and audio settings (optional)
If necessary, you can click ‘Settings’ button and go to ‘Profiles Settings’ panel to modify video and audio settings like video encoder, resolution, video bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio encoder, sample rate, audio bit rate, and audio channels. 3D settings are also available.
Step 4: Begin CPI AVCHD video conversion on Mac
When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start CPI Video conversion. Once the conversion process is complete, you can click ‘Open Folder’ button to get the generated files for editing or playing on Mac with optimum performance.
Tips:
If you don’t want to wait for the entire conversion process, you can tick off ‘Showdown computer when conversion completed’ and go away to do other things.
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