Mac Convert/Import Sony TG5V AVCHD MTS to AIC for FCE/iMovie

Sony HDR-TG5V High Definition Handycam camcorder with built-in GPS receiver and 10x optical zoom records 1920 x 1080 high definition videos to 16 GB built-in memory. However, editing your camcorder footage from TG5V on Mac computer is not as easy as we thought.

First of all, bundled software from Sony Picture Motion Browser software is only limited to Windows version. Final Cut Express 4.0 and iMovie 11 claims to give full support to AVCHD videos, however it’s not always true. We have received plenty of complaints from our customers about their frustrating experience of editing AVCHD video footage to FCE/iMovie. There is always some problem of importing process in the first beginning or about the unexpected crash issue, or the output files have some strange artifacts. Anyway, edit native AVCHD in FCE & iMovie is not that smooth.

Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac nearly developed by Aunsoft Studio for Mac users aims to help make camcorder video footage editable and playable on Mac OS X.

The guide will tell you how to convert Sony HDR-TG5V AVCHD videos to AIC for FCE/iMovie on Mac computer with Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac.

1. Capture/Import Sony TG5V AVCHD files to Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac.
There are two ways to import videos to Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac: you can directly capture video recordings from camcorder to the program or you can browser videos from your computer.

- Capture Sony TG5V AVCHD videos from camcorder.
Connect TG5V camcorder to computer via USB cable, and launch Aunsoft Final Mate for Mac from Application folder. With built-in wizard, you can easily to capture mts video footage from camcorder to the program. Select “Import” instead of Backup to quickly capture videos from camcorder. You can find imported videos under “Camcorder Tab” in the main interface of Final Mate.


- Import Sony TG5V mts videos from computer.
If you have already backup all your video recordings from TG5V to your computer, you can browse your video path and the software will automatically show your AVCHD clips in “Resource Tab”.

2. Merge Sony TG5V AVCHD files into one movie for conversion.
Click the drop-down button of “Add Movie” icon and choose “For Conversion” to create a blank movie.


Once you’ve imported your video footage, drag and drop the video clips from Camcorder Tab (imported from your camcorder) or Resource Tab (imported from your computer) to the blank movie in Movies Tab. In this way, all video clips will be merged as one single movie for conversion.


3. Convert Sony TG5V MTS files to Apple Intermediate Codec.
Click the Export button and choose “Export into Editor”. Follow QuickTime Movie Format > Apple Intermediate Codec (*.mov) to choose output format for editing in FCE/iMovie. Or you can also follow Final Cut Pro> Apple ProRes 422 HQ (*.mov) to choose export format for further editing in Final Cut Pro. Click OK to start converting TG5V MTS files to AIC.


When the conversion process is done, you can directly import the output AIC MOV files to Final Cut Express or iMovie for editing and make your movies.

You may also want to know how to convert AVCHD to Apple ProRes for FCP or merge AVCHD without re-encoding to preserve original quality.