How to convert AVCHD or .MTS format to mpeg or avi?

[legocitytruck]

How do I convert AVCHD or .MTS format to mpeg or avi format?

I have tried:
Squared5
Any Video Converter
AVS Video Converter
Aivdemux
and a few others

None of these have worked on multiple .MTS video files.

The video was taken in 720p format with a semi new Panasonic LUMIX DMC-ZS5.

My hope is to convert the video so that I can send it to my wife's parents and by double-clicking on the video icon, following download, it will play in Windows Media Player in high quality audio and video format.

Because I have wasted so many hours attempted to do this (I severely curse the day I purchased a camera that records in .MTS format, I should have done more research to avoid this horrible format) I'm willing to pay for download-able software that can make this seemingly impossible conversion but I'm worried that I will repeatedly buy software that doesn't work just like the products listed above.

Does anybody have any experience with this issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[drquest]

You could give Avidemux a try, it's open source: http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/

Also the Lumix cameras come with software that should let you copy/distribute the videos as well.

Personally I have Picasa3 loaded, and it can't read those file types by default, but if you install:

Haali Media Splitter and ffdshow, which are free downloads, you can then add them to Picasa and from there you can view them, upload them to Youtube or export them to Windows Media formats.

There's plenty of other commercial versions out there, but I like free myself.

Here's a snippet from the Wiki:

AVS Video Converter converts AVCHD into a number of different formats—mov, mpg, avi, mp4, flv, 3gp, rm.
Roxio Toast 10 Titanium on Mac OS X will convert AVCHD to most computer formats presently available.
HandBrake will convert AVCHD Lite format to MP4 and MKV(tested on OSX; other versions available), AVI and OGM are supported in versions before 0.9.4.
Total video converter is a converter for most video formats, including converting from AVCHD and burning AVCHD disc.
Badaboom is a media converter that uses NVIDIA GPUs to accelerate conversion of AVCHD to mobile devices.
Avidemux is a free open-source program that can be used to edit or convert AVCHD and AVCHD Lite files. It is also capable of demuxing and remuxing the audio and video streams into several different container formats including AVI, MP4, and MKV. (When converting AVCHD Lite .mts files from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, the framerate must be manually set to 29.97.)

 

[AkumaX]

sadly MTS is here to stay (it will only go away if Blu-Ray goes away)

Free/Open Source would be MeGUI (+ use K-Lite Mega Codec)

As for "paid" check out TMPGEnc Express 4

 

[tdawg]

Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD can handle AVCHD / .MTS files flawlessly. 30 day trial available and after that it's only $40 for a full-fledged non-linear video editor.

 

[Kaido]

VoltaicHD, $39:

http://www.shedworx.com/voltaichd

It's designed specifically to convert AVCHD into the file format of your choice. You can do batch processing as well, so after you pop in your memory card, you can have it convert all of the files automatically (like at night when you're sleeping).

 

[Gooberlx2]

You might try avidemux again. Playback will probably be "stuttery" inside the program. Don't worry about that.

If the files are encoding but playing weird (fast video), you'll to change the video framerate to NTSC/30fps. For some dumb reason, Panasonic is doubling the framerate to 60fps from the actual recording of 30fps. It does this via frame-duplication. Needless to say, this can introduce some complication to the whole thing.

I'm pretty sure Handbrake also worked for me.

<-- has a zs3

 

[legocitytruck]

Thanks for all the great responses, it's truly appreciated!

I am trying avidemux quickly again before starting the Sony trial/pay options.

I can easily open the original .MTS (is this format AVCHD or AVCHD lite?) video in avidemux. However, when I create a file to save the output too, it does not give me an extension or output file format to choose. After creating a name for the file, it takes about 15 minutes and creates a file that is about 1/15 of the original file size (seems awfully small) without any sort of extensions that can't be opened in Windows Media Player or even avidemux. Is there another way to force avidemus to create an output of proper size and file format?

 

[Gooberlx2]

The format from the Panasonic is AVCHD lite (since recording resolution is 720p, not 1080p).

You need to choose the container format, and I think you need to type the extension yourself when saving. Such examples are AVI (.avi), mp4/m4v (.mp4 or .m4v), matroska (.mkv), mpeg2 (.mpg), etc...

File size will be dictated by codecs, settings and output resolution you choose. There're a billion config options if you want to tweak output, compression, quality, etc...

Personally, I've had good results with the following:
format - mp4 (extension .m4v)
video - MPEG-4 AVC (which is x264), 2-pass average bitrate of 5000kbps
audio - AAC (faac) @ 160kbps
Don't forget to apply the 30fps to video like I mentioned before. Under video --> frame rate --> standard rate --> NTSC.

You'll still pretty substantial compression compared to the original video, and the quality should be pretty good.

another option:
Just upload the .mts straight to youtube and share with your folks and inlaws that way.

 

[legocitytruck]

Thank you for your feedback Gooberlx2.

By adding the .avi extension the encoding dialogue box states that the container is AVI.

However, when playing the output video in Windows Media Player, only the sound works and not the video. In the Avidemux left side panel, there are drop downs for Video, Audio, & Format. I have been leaving both Video & Audio set as copy while setting the Format drop down to AVI. By leaving the Video and Audio drop downs set as Copy, the buttons for Configure and Filter are greyed out. Please forgive my ignorance when it comes to video editing: should the drop downs for Video and Audio be changed to something other than Copy prior to saving an output file and encoding the new video?

 

[metalmania]

There is absolutely no need to use commercial software. The free MEGUI can do anything you want.
In fact, I use MeGUI to convert 1080P Canon AVCHD file to 720P XVID avi all the times.

 

[Gooberlx2]

legocity,

Check out my settings recommendations above. If you want to do avi, use AVI format, mpeg-4 asp (xvid) for video and mp3 (lame) for audio

 

[legocitytruck]

It worked! Thank you so much for your help Gooberlx2 and everyone else, my in-laws are going to be thrilled!