Canon XA20 is specially targeted at experienced users, enthusiasts and professionals. It is able to shoot high quality Full HD 1920 × 1080 resolution movies at 60p, 60i, or cinematic 24p in AVCHD format. While, I can’t edit and even play the 1080 60p AVCHD MTS files with iMovie on my iMac. This is a disappointment with the Canon XA20 camera. How to successfully import Canon AVCHD from XA20 to iMovie?
It’s confirmed (at least till now) we can’t import the raw Full HD 60/50p video to iMovie for freely editing. Because 1080 50p and 60p are not standard video formats, they are unsupported by iMovie. iMovie can smoothly edit videos at 1080p 24/25/30, 1080i 50/60, 720p 24/25/30. So we have to change Canon XA201080 60p first. iMovie best supported format and codec is Apple Intermedaite codec MOV format, once you transcode Canon XA20 AVCHD to AIC in 25p/30p , you can play and edit Canon XA20 AVCHD in iMovie smoothly.
Brorsoft MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac is highly recommended, which enables you to quickly and easily transcode any AVCHD clip(from Sony, Canon, Panasonic) to AIC with best video/audio settings. Plus, with it, you can also transocde AVCHD recordings to Apple ProRes for FCP, DNxHD for Avid Media Composer, MEPG-2/MOV for Adobe Premiere Pro, etc. So far I never had any issue with it and it's pretty straight forward intuitive user friendly software. If you are facing the problem likewise, just download it and go through the tutorial below.
How to transcode Canon XA201080 60p AVCHD to AIC MOV on Mac?
Step 1. Run the best MTS Converter on Mac. Then add 1080p Full HD .MTS, .M2TS file to the program.
Tip: Check the box of "Merge into one file", you can batch convert several AVCHD files.
Step 2. Click “Format” and move your pointer to "iMovie and Final Cut Express" Category and choose "Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC) (*.mov)" format. It ensures the perfect editing with your AVCHD files in iMovie program.
Step 3. Freely set video resolution(1920×1080/1440×1080/1280×720/720×480), bitrate（from 1Mbps to 20Mbps）, frame rate (24p/25p/30p) by clicking "Settings".
Note: If your AVCHD file is 1080 50p, you need to set the frame rate as 25p while 1080 60p for 30p.
Step 4.Start the fast AVCHD to AIC conversion for iMovie via clicking Convert button.
After the conversion, click "open" to find the converted video. Then you can smoothly put the Canon XA20 1080 60P mts file to iMovie for editing with best quality.
Additional Tip:
Edit your raw MTS clips with this best AVCHD to AIC Converter for Mac:
By clicking “Edit” button, you can trim, crop the video, or add watermark and adjust effect, attach (*.srt, *.ass, *.ssa) to the videos which you will convert.
Trim – Choose to reserve the part you need. Just choose the chapter which you need to trim, to set “start time” or “end time”, type the portion which you want to save.
Crop – Remove black edges of your video or just get the scale of this video you want.
Effect – Adjust the effects by adjusting the parameters, such as:
1) Deinterlacing – If there are some stripes on the picture, you can check this option to make a better picture effect. (Checked by default)
2) If you want to get 3D effect, just enable this functions and do settings.
Subtitle - Add *.srt, *.ass, *.ssa to the videos which you will convert.
More tips:
Transcode Canon XA10 MTS to MPEG-2 for Premiere Pro CS5
How to import Canon XA20 MTS files into Premiere Pro
Importing XA10 AVCHD Footages to Final Cut Pro 7 on Mac OS X
Avid MXF to FCP - Can FCP import Avid MXF Files on Mac
Solution to Premiere Pro's problem with Canon XF100 MXF files
Best workflow for Nikon D4/D5100/D3200 MOV to Vegas Pro
Source:Does iMovie 11 support Canon XA20 AVCHD footage?
