Data transfer problem from Panasonic Camcorder to Mac

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Data transfer problem from Panasonic Camcorder to Mac

I was an iMovie 9 lover...who has recently updated to iMovie 10...I have a Panasonic HC W580M camcorder which iMovie 10 recognises and will upload files to. However, I then can't access the raw files to rename and sort and save in Folders on my Mac or external hard drive (like I used to be able to in the 'Movie Events' folder that iMovie 9 would create automatically). When I try to copy my videos from the SD card to my Mac it only gives me a Quicktime file called AVCHD that I can seemingly do nothing with.

So what I really want it to be able to transfer raw files, rename and then import to iMovie 10 as needed.

Does anyone know how to solve this problem...someone suggested downloading an HD writer but I'm unsure which one i need to download? And then...how to prevent this happening again (I gather now from reading that I should've chosen iFrame/mp4 format on my camcorder, but this only provides quality up to 720p.

Any advice greatly appreciated

Posted on Sep 15, 2019 7:25 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Sep 16, 2019 12:00 AM in response to misstallpoppy

As I understand it you have managed to download the video files from your camcorder into iMovie, where you can play them, and now the problem is that you want to get them onto your Mac to organize them before reimporting them into iMovie? Is that correct?

If so, within iMovie you can select a clip in the media browser or timeline and do a File/Reveal in Finder. An Original Media folder will pop up with the selected clip highlighted. You can move or copy-drag it out of the folder onto your desktop. If you move it out, as opposed to copying it, it will be removed from any projects that might be referring to the clip. On the other hand, if you copy-drag it out (drag while holding down the Option key) a duplicate will be created on your desktop and the original will remain in iMovie.

Alternatively, you can use the Image Capture app on your Mac to import the video clips directly to your desktop.

Another way is to import the clips into the Photos app where they can be accessed by iMovie from the Photos item in the sidebar of an iMovie project. You can also export them from the Photos app to your desktop.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Sep 20, 2019 7:39 AM in response to misstallpoppy

I think that unless you import each clip individually into iMovie, they will import into one event. I don't see any way to split them into separate events unless you do it manually. Here's a link that explains how to do that:

https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/mov74d7d370c

So I'm thinking that you can import the clips into one master event. Then create a few blank events and drag each clip from the master event into one of the separately created events.

You can copy-drag files as a batch from the Original Media Folder in iMovie, or individually into separate folders on your Mac.

I don't know why Image Capture doesn't import your AVCHD clips. I don't have an AVCHD camcorder so can't do my own test. Have you tried importing into the Photos app?

-- Rich

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Answer 3

Sep 17, 2019 8:06 PM in response to Rich839

Rich thank you so much, you've been so helpful. Unfortunately Image Capture doesn't recognise my camcorder (it recognises that it's there but only offers a BACKUPAM.HST file as per below.

Is this because I recorded in AVCHD format (which is what was recommended to me) and not iFrame? ... Panasonic send me what they say is an HD writer to convert original files, but they keep sending me a windows download which obv will not work. So I can use the Reveal in Finder option and then create my own folders from that. Which then has created another question...they all are dumped in one Library folder which makes it difficult to see which I've copied and which I haven't...

The other issue I'm finding is that .mov files that I take on my iPhone can easily be copied over with Image Capture, so I still can rename and file like I used to be able to with iMovie 09, but instead of imovie 10 importing these under different events based on the date they were created or the name of the folder they're in (which I do as 2019_01_15 for example as per below) and in the right calendar year, it looks like I have to manually create a new event for each event/date...so essentially doubling up the work? Any tips on this one?

Kind regards

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Data transfer problem from Panasonic Camcorder to Mac

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