Part 1. What is AVCHD Lite? How to play AVCHD Lite video on Mac?

For the users of Panasonic Lumix line digital cameras like DMC-FT1, DMC-FZ35 and DMC-FZ38, AVCHD Lite should be a familiar phrase. The name was used first in marketing literature for the Panasonic DMC-ZS3 digital cameras, announced in January 2009. AVCHD Lite is a subset of AVCHD format, which identifies devices that are capable of 720p/30fps recording only. Comparing with Full HD, the 720p/30fps video is recorded in the normal AVCHD 720p/60 format, but every other frame is duplicated, resulting in thirty actual frames per second. A good news for Mac guys is that Apple has made it clear that iMovie 09’ is able to edit the AVCHD Lite video. Yet the AVCHD Lite video turns out to be incompatible with QuickTime Player. Surely you may play it with Mplayer or VLC player, but guys like me would rather use QuickTime Player watching everything. In order to play the AVCHD Lite video files generated by the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 smoothly on Mac, the AVCHD Lite must be converted to QuickTime compatible format, like MOV, MP4, etc.

Part 2. How do I convert the AVCHD Lite for playing with QuickTime Player on Mac?

If you want to convert the AVCHD Lite to QuickTime for playing, then Pavtube Video Converter for Mac is an option for you. You can convert from AVCHD to any Quicktime format using this powerful video conversion tool. A Video 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 QuickTime with Pavtube Video Converter for Mac.



Step One. Free download, install and launch the Mac Video Converter.

Once you run it, click “Add” to load the source AVCHD Lite MTS files.

Step Two. Select QuickTime (*.mov ) or H.264 Video (*.mp4) as output format for QuickTime

Click on the drop-down list of “Format”, and follow “Common Video”> “MOV-QuickTime (*.mov)” or “Common  Video” > “H.264 Video (*.mp4)”. To retain the HD video quality, you can select “HD Video”> “H.264 HD Video (*.mp4)”.  

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, so before your adjustment, read the following info attentively.

To play HD video on Mac, a large amount of data must be processed by your computer. A powerful system will deliver the best playback quality. Recommended hardware configurations for H.264 HD playback on Macintosh:

For 1280×720 (720p) video at 24-30 frames per second:

* 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster Macintosh computer

* At least 256MB of RAM

* 64 MB or greater video card

Step 4: Click “Convert” button to start converting AVCHD Lite to QuickTime 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 QuickTime MOV/ MP4 files effortlessly. Now you have converted AVCHD Lite video to QuickTime player compatible format successfully with this powerful AVCHD Lite converter. Afterwards, just import the output files to QuickTime Player effortlessly. Have fun.