Merge/Convert MTS Files to AIC - Import Sony HDC-CX700 AVCHD to Final Cut Express

Sony HDR-CX700V offers Full HD 60p and 28Mbps recording, as well as a traditional 60i record mode. If you use Sony HDR- CX700V recording 1080/60p 28Mbps AVCHD .mts files. You may want to make some basic editing/playing like edit on editing software, merge, split/cut, or add background music, or play on Quicktime Media Player, WD TV, Apple TV, DUNE HD Player, iPad , Android phone , at the same time retain its original 1080/60p 28Mbps video quality at best with Dolby Digital stereo audio.

For edit Sony CX700 1080/60p AVCHD footages on Mac, you will use Final Cut Express, iMovie. But when you log & transfer and import the CX700 1080/60p .mts, you may face incompatibility with Mac programs. It is really a distracting and annoying thing for Mac users.

To solve these problems, I recommend a professional program named Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac. This professional Final Mate for Mac can join, split and convert Sony AVCHD footages to Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) for streaming to Final Cut Express/iMovie . No doubt, Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC), one of the codec in less compression and higher data rate/higher quality files will guarantee the high quality of editing on FCE 4 and iMovie without rendering.

Here is the step-by-step guide for you to import, merge and convert Sony HDC-CX700 MTS to AIC for Final Cut Express on iMac/MacBook Pro with Mac OS X like Snow Leopard.

Step 1. Capture videos from camcorder or local machine.
Run Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac, connect Sony HDC-CX700 AVCHD camcorder to Mac via USB cable. You will face the pop-up message asking you to use camcorder wizard or not. Follow the wizard to import the .mts files without looking into the camcorder folders.
To load video from local machine, just go to the Resource tab and add folder path.



Step 2. Merge Sony HDC-CX700 AVCHD files into one for converison.
Soon after the files are imported, select the files, drag and drop the clips to the movie tab as a single movie for conversion.

 

Step 3. Convert Sony CX700 MTS files to AIC MOV.
Click the Export button and go to the Export into Editor. Go to QuickTime Movie Format > Apple Intermediate Codec (*.mov) for Final Cut Express. Click OK to start joining and converting MTS files to AIC MOV for Final Cut Express.



When the steps are done, you can log and import the AIC MOV to FCE 4 for editing.

Tips:
1. If you want export to join/merge or split/cut Sony CX700 MTS without re-encoding, you can create a movie for Lossless Output.

2. In fact, the Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC) will not cause much image quality loss like someone feared. The transcoded video looks quite acceptable in iMovie as well as Final Cut. It’s sure quite a good day to edit. But there is one big draw back unavoidably. When you transcode into Apple's intermediate Codec, the AVCHD size become even bigger. Much bigger. And accordingly it will take much more spaces of you Mac. Take iMovie 8 for example, the transcoded AVCHD video will actually take up about ten times more space than it normally would on your camcorder. A 2-minute, 200MB AVCHD file can take up as much as 2GB when transcoded to AIC.