Summary: If you are shooting with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 camcorder, you may want to know the way to import and edit GH2 AVCHD files on Mac iMovie, FCE, FCP X and Avid. This post displays a how-to guide on this.
The DMC-GH2 is a digital camera in Panasonic’s Lumix family with Full HD video recording capability, which is perfect for shooting video and delivers exceptional performance in a sleek, compact profile. You can record video footage with stunning image quality and variable frame rates to a SDHC or SDXC flash memory card in M-JPEG or AVCHD format.
It’s easy to shoot footage in AVCHD format either in Full HD 1080p at 60i/24p or HD 720p at 60p, but when you tried to edit GH2 AVCHD MTS clips on a Mac computer, you may have issues one or another, that’s why lots of people consider it as a pain to work with AVCHD files on Mac. Most NLE applications do not have native support for AVCHD footage, so if you want to use GH2 AVCHD files on Mac iMovie, FCE, FCP X, and Avid smoothly without glitches, you’d better transcode them to an intermediate format that is compatible with your editing program before editing. In the content below, we would like to introduce a way to convert GH2 AVCHD footage for editing on Mac with decent quality. Before we start, let’s learn the details of videography capability of Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2.
Video recording modes of Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 Motion Picture Recording 4:3 Motion JPEG: [4:3] QVGA : 320 x 240, 30fps / VGA : 640 x 480, 30fps Motion Picture Recording 16:9 Motion JPEG: [16:9] WVGA : 848 x 480, 30fps Motion Image (HD Movie) Motion JPEG: [HD] 1280 x 720, 30fps Motion Image (AVCHD) NTSC [Full HD] 1920×1080, 24p (24H:24Mbps,24L:17Mbps) [Full HD] 1920×1080, 60i (sensor output is 60p) (FSH:17Mbps, FH:13Mbps/AVCHD) [HD] 1280 x 720, 60p (sensor output is 60p) (SH:17Mbps, H:13Mbps/AVCHD)
How to convert Lumix GH2 AVCHD files for editing on Mac iMovie, FCE, FCP X and Avid?
Software requirement
Video Converter for Mac
It is good at transforming Panasonic GH2 MTS clips to AIC, ProRes and DNxHD encoded MOV files for editing in iMovie, FCE, FCP X and Avid with optimum performance.
Download a demo of Video Converter for Mac
The steps:
Step 1: Open up Video Converter for Mac as a Panasonic GH2 Video Converter for Mac. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load your source media.
Step 2: From ‘Profile’ list, choose output format
1) To convert GH2 AVCHD 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 GH2 AVCHD footage for use in FCP (X), select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format under ‘Final Cut Pro’ catalogue.
3) To encode GH2 MTS files for working with Avid, choose ‘DNxHD (*.mov)’ as target from ‘Avid Media Composer’ option.
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 Lumix GH2 AVCHD video to MOV conversion on Mac
When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start format conversion. Once the conversion process is complete, you can click ‘Open Folder’ button to get the generated files for editing 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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