[ Thanks to dmbkiwi
for this link. ]
“So linux to the rescue. I do all my video editing in kdenlive,
so the attempt at using iMovie was a bit of an experiment. With
linux, I just connect my camera, and add the .MTS files to the
project. From there, they can be dragged on to the time line and
away you go. No fuss, no convoluted import process which does a
conversion of the file to an intermediate codec causing a loss of
quality.“What this demonstrates to me is the benefit that Linux has
derived from using a modular software stack where it can. kdenlive
can read and edit AVCHD files because ffmpeg can read them and the
MLT framework integrates with ffmpeg to decode and encode video
files.”