=> Auto-updated Homebrew! Updated 2 taps (homebrew/core and homebrew/cask).

One of the tools I installed was exiftool: $ brew install exiftool Updating Homebrew. I installed a couple of tools to help with the evaluation and verify the final conversion. I went through a number of conversion options that made me revisit my requirements throughout the process and make compromises along the way.

Conversion must be able to batch or automate.

Conversion must preserve as much meta data as possible.

Conversion must not transcode the original file.

This helped me come up with some of my requirements: I spent time researching AVCHD conversion and turned up many programs that will do the conversion. You must open the package and move the contents out of the container. Native software applications don’t have the ability to unpack the file in place. The files are considered packages and can be opened only by right clicking on the file and showing the package contents. The AVCHD standard is cumbersome to deal with on a Mac. My goal was to be able to view my files on Amazon Prime Photo and have them correctly show up in the timeline.

I learned way more about the AVCHD, mp4, mkv containers than I planned, and I now can format and reformat dates in about 10 different ways. Converting my home movies from my old Sony HDR-SR1 to a modern format was definitely one of them. I think I put off some of my digital tasks because I knew they would be challenging and time consuming to research and test.

Avc to mp4 converter