Handycam camcorders compatible with both PC and Mac?

[Stephen Locke]

I own a Sony HDR-XR550V 240GB hardrive camcorder. I am unable to
play or edit these movies on a Mac. I made the Sony Camcorder purchase based on this statement;

"Handycam camcorders are compatible with both PC and Mac® computers. Mac users can transfer AVCHD content and edit video clips in HD quality using iMovie® software (sold separately)."

found here.

I have iMovie and my attempts to import movies to this application are unsuccessful.

The software provided by Sony is PC compatible only and will enable me to use it on my HP Laptop however I would prefer to edit movies on the Mac.

My Mac will recognize the Sony HDR-XR550V and I am able to transfer the files off the hard-drive but the files will not open using my existing Mac applications.

Are any of you familiar with this problem and do you have a solution for editing Sony Camcorder movies on a Mac?

Thank you!

 

[Stephen Locke]

PowerPC Macs don’t support AVCHD editing.

More research online produces these answers to my own question.

I have a PowerPC Mac.

PowerPC Macs don’t support AVCHD editing. However, you can use one of a handful of utilities to convert AVCHD files to a format compatible with iMovie ’09 on a PowerPC. One such utility is ShedWorx’s $35 VoltaicHD. Just copy a .mts file (the file format AVCHD camcorders use) to your computer, bring it into VoltaicHD, choose an export file format within VoltaicHD’s preferences area, and click on Start. Conversion can be slow—tens of minutes for a minute of video. Roxio’s $100 Toast Titanium 10 can also convert AVCHD files to other video formats. And the free HandBrake can convert .mts files to MPEG-4 and H.264 files.

Additional Information
Sony HDR Content..........Power Mac G51 Intel-based Mac
HD mode - (AVCHD Only) No...................Yes
SD mode - (MPEG-2 Only) Yes..................Yes

In addition to my Mac tower which is Power PC
I have a Powerbook Laptop which is Intel Based, as such
it is importing just fine from the Sony Camcorder.

Moral of the story, My big Power Mac G5 Quad is now obsolete.

.