Welcome yatsen!

Believe me, professional software from a few years ago had trouble with these codecs as well. Don't sweat it.

What I'd recommend, is for you to actually transcode the files into a more usable format. I'd recommend using ?url="http://www.mediacoderhq.com/"?Media Coder?/url? simply because it can transcode virtually anything. MPEG Stremclip is a good bet too, depending on the file type.

But really, look into a transcoder like Media Coder, and try it out using different export formats. If you're using iMovie, then it would make sense to convert your files to MOVs, and if using Windows Movie Maker, maybe try AVIs, or WMV if you're not concerned about quality. Using MPEG as the codec is always a good bet too.

Hope this all makes sense! If this all sounds new to you, then make sure to come back with more questions! You could always check out more codec centered forums as well. If you know exactly what I've been talking about here, then good luck with the editing! 😀

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http://vimeo.com/corax

Thanks for the suggestions.

I downloaded both windows media maker and Mediacoder, and was unable to successfully convert the files.

Does hi-def make a huge difference in file compatibility? If it is much easier to edit files for non-high def videos, I think I might just return my camcorder for a non-HD one. Or should I seek a camcorder that specifically makes AVI files?

For a firstimer HD seems to be more trouble than its worth especially for youtube. I don't even need to edit my videos, just split them. But just that has proven to be a real ordeal.

Just uploading the video to youtube takes several hours because even a 10 min video is several GBs.

IS this unique to hi-def camcorders? If I change camcorders would the files be much smaller and easier to edit?

yatsen,

High def is not the problem. What's the problem, is the different codecs that were developed to handle this newer standard, and many programs really aren't up to date on them, and there's no standard across camera makers.

What container (ie. file type, like avi, mov...) and codec (ie. what the video is actually encoded as; independent from the container, like your AVCHD files in an mts container) did you try exporting as? When I converted mine to use in Movie Maker, I exported as MPEGs within an AVI. Seemed to work fine.

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http://vimeo.com/corax

In your original post, you are talking about two different things: splitting original files, or editing video. If you need to just do the splitting of the original files, without making any changes to them, the software that came with your camcorder should be able to do that.

Now, if you need to edit your HD video (and by edit, I don't mean just simply cutting existing shots and splicing them together; I mean transitions, colour timing, titles/subtitles, etc), any current NLE will do this. The cheapest one for Windows that I could find that works directly on AVCHD files was Pinnacle Studio HD, for $50. This allows you to open AVCHD files, cut, splice, apply effects and transitions, and do any other basic editing, and export the final product to any format of your choice, from Blu-ray compatible AVCHD DVDs (in HD), to standard-def DVDs, SVCD, VCD, to iPod, Wii, PS3, X-Box, down to any flavour of AVI, WMV, FLV, as well as 3GP for viewing on the tiny cellphone screens. I think it also has a feature for direct upload to YouTube. Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD has similar features and price ($50).

On Mac, you don't need to buy anything, since every new Mac comes with the iLife suite, including iMovie, whch allows you to do all the necessary editing, conversions, as well as direct exporting/uploading to YouTube.

As for difference between codecs and containers, just a bit of a clarification: AVCHD is not a codec. It is in fact a set of specifications that defines how audio and HD video are supposed to be encoded into files, as well as how those files are supposed to be structured within a directory structure. MTS, AVI, MOV, MKV are all containers. Inside those containers, you can have audio and video, encoded using almost any currently available codec (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, Cinepac, Sorensen, H.264 or others for video, and MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, AC3, DTS, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC or others for audio). Your editing software needs to be able to do two things in order to properly read a video file. First, it needs to be able to recognise a container itself (AVI, MOV, MTS, etc), so that it can figure out how are audio and video multiplexed inside that container; second, it needs to support the audio and video formats used for encoding the audio and video streams. AVCHD camcorders of today capture video using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video compression, and either Dolby AC-3, or PCM audio compression. Windows PCs of today (with Vista and newer) support these codecs out of the box. So, the only problem your software needs to resolve is figuring out how to open that MTS container. For those who can't open MTS container in their software of choice, there are tools that can re-wrap audio and video files contained inside MTS into another container, such as AVI (Windows) or MOV (QuickTime). That means that the actual audio and video streams are NOT changed (there is no de-compression and re-compression involved); the only thing that changes is the actual container that is holding them, as well as the way how they are muxed (multiplexed) together. A popular tool for re-wrapping (on the Mac) is ClipWrap.

Oops! Colour me wrong, thanks for the correction Vasic.

Speaking of rewrapping, yatsen, MediaCoder can rewrap pretty easily. Just select "copy video", but choose a new container, in the Video Settings tab.

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http://vimeo.com/corax

Try this

http://www.avchdvideoconverter.net/split-avchd.html

Myfilm"Shadow of Crime"
Trailer:
http://www.vimeo.com/4103913
Where to buy:Shadow of crime
https://www.createspace.com/288191

I use the Video Converter and I like it quite a bit.
http://www.ilikemall.com/how-to/convert-avi-to-mov-mac.html
It comes with editing fuction including trim, crop, watermake, rotate, etc.
easy to operate and output with original quality.