Summary: Is it possible to directly bring the Canon XA251080-60p AVCHD footage into iMovie’11 for basic editing? No, it isn’t. iMovie doesn’t natively support XA25 NTSC/PAL 1080-60p footage at all. In this case, you will need to transcode XA25 60p AVCHD to Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC), the best suited editing codec for iMovie before post-production.
“We purchased a Canon XA25 a few weeks ago and have been testing it out. One of the first problems we encountered was how we bring the XA25 1080-60p AVCHD footage into iMovie’11. Apple clearly stated that iMovie doesn’t support XA25 NTSC/PAL 1080-60p footage. We know that there is an AVCHD plug-in for FCP X, but there’s no such a plug-in available for iMovie. If we want to import Canon XA25 60p MTS clips to iMovie for basic editing, what should we do? Any thoughts on this would be most welcome.”
The Canon XA25 professional camcorder is capable of capturing footage in both AVCHD (up to 28 Mbps) and MP4 (up to 35 Mbps) recording formats at up to 1080/60p resolution. If you have import issues while editing Canon XA25 60p video files in iMovie, we would suggest that you convert XA25 NTSC/PAL 60p clips to AIC for iMovie using Video Converter for Mac, which works well as a Mac Canon XA25 Video Converter.
Download a free trial of Video Converter for Mac
How to import Canon XA25 NTSC/PAL 1080-60p AVCHD to iMovie?
To be able to import Canon XA25 NTSC/PAL 1080-60p AVCHD to iMovie for editing, you will need to rewrap Canon XA25 60p AVCHD to AIC for iMovie. Please follow these steps:
1. Install and run Video Converter for Mac as a Canon XA25 Video Converter for Mac. The main interface appears as below:
2. Click on ‘Add File’ to add your XA25 60p MTS footage to the program.
3. Select output format for iMovie
To create editable files for iMovie, from the Format bar, choose ‘Apple InterMediateCodec (AIC) (*.mov) as output format from ‘iMovie and Final Cut Express’ column. Note that the AIC codec is also accepted by Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro (HD 4.5 through 5), but rarely used in Final Cut Pro as of Version 6 since it now uses the ProRes codecs instead of the Apple Intermediate Codec.
4. Click ‘Settings’ button and go to ‘Profile Settings’ window to custom video and audio settings. (for advanced users)
5. When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start transcoding Canon XA25 60p footage to AIC – the best suited editing format for using within Apple iMovie.
6. When the conversion process is done, click on ‘Open Folder’ button to get the generated AIC QuickTime files and open them in iMovie for further editing.
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