How to convert Sony HDR-PJ50 AVCHD Lite videos to iMovie compatible formats?
For the users of Sony HDR-PJ50 do you want to convert AVCHD Lite videos to iMovie?Apple has made it clear that iMovie 09’ is able to edit the AVCHD Lite video, but I hang out the video editing forums, questions like “I wasn’t able to import AVCHD Lite to iMovie…” come up from time to time. For those who have got into trouble when load the AVCHD Lite MTS video to iMovie 08’ (or even 09’), the following guide might be a trick to solve the problem. you can convert these footage to iMovie compatible formats like MOV or DV.

How do I convert the AVCHD Lite for editing in iMovie 08’ on Mac:
If you want to convert the AVCHD Lite to QuickTime MOV for playing and editing, or convert the MTS footage to DV for iMovie editing then Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac is an option for you. You can convert from AVCHD to various video and audio formats using this powerful video conversion tool. A Mac HD Converter free trial version is available, only watermark of Pavtub logo will appear on the screen of converted videos.
You may refer to below guide how to convert the AVCHD Lite to MOV/DV with Pavtube MTS Converter for Mac.
Step One. Free download, install and launch the Mac HD Video Converter
Once you run it, click “Add” to load the source AVCHD Lite MTS files.

Step Two. Select DV (*.dv) or QuickTime (*.mov) or as output format for iMovie.
Click on the drop-down list of “Format”, and follow “DV”> “Apple DV NTSC(*.dv)” or “Common Video”> “MOV-QuickTime (*.mov)”.
Step Three. Click “Settings” button to adjust video and audio parameters
Notice that which parameter to select has close relationship with the hardware configurations of your computer. For DV format, you may use default video and audio parameters, or adjust the Frame rate to 29.97, and bitrate higher for better quality, as it shows below:

If you would not like to degrade the AVCHD quality, you may retain the HD video quality by selecting “HD Video”> “H.264 HD Video (*.mov)” in Step 2 and then apply the following settings:
Video Codec H.264, Size: 1280*720p, Bitrate: 8000kbps, Frame Rate: 30/29.97,
Audio Codec: AAC, Sampling rate: 48khz, Bitrate: 320kbps, Channels: 6.

Step 4: Click “Convert” button to start converting Sony HDR-PJ50 AVCHD Lite to iMovie compatible format.
After the above steps are done, you can click “Convert” button to start conversion.

And you can click “Open” button to get the generated files for iMovie. Afterwards, just import the output files to iMovie. Have fun.