The MTS Format
I know, I know. You only work with DVCAM files from the field. That is, of course, if not film. You won’t deal with footage provided by clients, because it just looks so shitty. If you weren’t hired to shoot it yourself, then at the very least, you expect a RAID drive sent to you with all the HD footage already converted to ProRes so that you can edit with ease.
And you haven’t worked in 3 months.
The truth is—at least with my business—from time to time you are going to have clients that want you to include the footage they shot on their flipcam, their iPad, or (God help ’em) their Blackberry. Maybe they have a guy in the field with a consumer camera that just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Maybe they recorded a Skype call and just have to include it in the edit. *gasp!*
The point is, it’s gotta make it into your cut and your artistic integrity be damned.
You already know how to work with the AVCHD format, but every so often, you end up getting a file called .MTS over email or DropBox. I know it sucks. And fortunately, there are programs that can re-encode these files to a format that’s editable in Final Cut or Premiere. If you’re serious about editing, you already have MPEG Streamclip and Voltaic installed, just for these purposes.
But sometimes, even those apps won’t play nicely with the dreaded .MTS file. It’s happened to me, and even the snarky old pro geniuses over at Creative Cow didn’t seem to have a solution. So I worked one out, and I’m offering it here.
The Problem
What often happens with MTS files is that Voltaic and MPEG Streamclip either won’t open them or won’t export them. They will tell you that they can’t identify the first frame, or the frame rate itself. The net is the same: you got nothing. Normally, for me, the next option is to use the Adobe Media Encoder (AME). But what happens when you convert the file in AME and you end up with a beautiful video file with no audio? From reading various forums, I can tell you it happens all the time. Yes, VLC will play the file with audio, but your newly AME-converted Quicktime or mp4 is silent.
The Solution
We’ve ruled out MPEG Streamclip, Voltaic and AME as one-stop solutions. (And don’t even think about trying to do the stream/export from within VLC.) Here’s your last resort, in 4 easy steps:
Step 1:
Open your .MTS file in Adobe Media Encoder. Export as usual, using the codec of your choice. I recommend the highest h264 you can handle. (It doesn’t matter, you’re not going to use the h264 to edit anyway.) Do your export. Now you’ve got your video in a Quicktime-readable format that looks as shitty-beautiful as it did in VLC, just without audio. Keep reading.
Step 2:
Open your .MTS file again in VLC and run an internal audio recorder like Wire Tap Pro or Audio Hijack Pro. Play the video file within VLC and record the audio to something decent like AIFF or AAC audio. Don’t worry, the Amazon Kindle footage your client sent you won’t suffer at all in the audio encoding process. 🙂
Step 3:
Open up a program like iMovie or FCPX (I admit: at this point they are still more or less the same to me.) The reason I’m suggesting this is because you’re not going to keep your native files. There’s no point in starting up a whole new project in Final Cut Pro 7, resetting your scratch disks, etc. You want quick and dirty.
Import your silent, beautiful footage that you just exported from AME. Drag that into your timeline. Now import your new audio file that you recorded from within your Mac. Drag that into your timeline as well. Sync up your audio. If your files are too big to sync manually, I highly recommend PluralEyes.
Step 4:
Now it’s time to feel professional again. Export (or as FCPX likes to call it, “share”) your file with the ProRes422 codec. What you’re left with is a perfectly good video file that will work in a professional editing session. I can’t say it looks awesome, but that’s because your client shot the footage on their HD Flipshit or whatever. The process above is virtually lossless at this stage. Now you can edit those gorgeous shots in FCP7 or whatever you like.
In Conclusion
This entire process doesn’t taket that long. It depends on the length of your video, of course. God help you if you’ve got an entire :30-min interview in an MTS file.
There are plenty of “pros” out there who will tell you to never bother with anything captured by the client. I used to be one of them. But there are also a lot of pros out there watching marathon Game of Thrones episodes, because their former clients think they ought to know how to do this kind of thing. None of us like working with iPad footage, and you should discourage it whenever you can. Like you, I prefer the highest quality footage that I have shot myself.
But one thing I like even more is clients. I like to think that the reason they come back is because I make their lives easier, not harder. I hope this makes editors’ lives a little easier.
Note: my apologies to Windows users; I don’t know that all of these processes will work the same way for you. But most of the essentials are the same. I hope it’s still useful.
Just FWIW, Toast Titanium will convert .mts and .m2ts files directly to ProRes (or any codec you like) with working audio in a single step. I’ve just used it to convert a bunch of .mts Canon camera files. It’s obviously not free, but it’s not super-expensive either.
Hi – Thank you for explaining the problem with MTS files and decoding the sound. I’m not a professional video person juts “that guy” in a communication department that gets tagged with anything perceived to be technical.
In my 18 hours of research I found Adobe basically walks away from this issue and has no real answer. The best solution I tried was using the free program “Handbrake” to decode the video and audio in one pass. Not sure what the losses to the video/audio at a professional level are but for web development it works well.
Again, thanks for addressing this and confirming what I suspected and Adobe leaves unanswered.
@Gareth, Toast is a great program for what it does. I don’t use it for burning CDs and DVDs much, but I don’t use anything for optical media much anymore. 🙂 Thanks for pointing out that Toast can do a lot more when it comes to creating disk images and converting files.
@JCrowe, Handbrake is also a must-have, especially when you’re dealing with clients/colleagues who provide media in all different kinds of formats. Or God forbid they say, “Hey can you include this footage? All we have is a DVD.” *gasp!*
However, once you get to that rare point where a program like MPEG Streamclip won’t recognize the file, often due to timecode issues, you may be beyond what Toast and Handbrake can handle.
thank you for your smirky voice on this topic. I’m totally bush league, I admit, but after buying a Canon Vixia consumer camcorder, I’ve come to hate hate hate MTS.
For me, the magic comes from something not mentioned here: ClipWrap. I’m not really geeky enough (though I”m plenty geeky) to understand, but ClipWrap somehow takes MTS files out of their code enclosure (beware: bullshit techno jargon alert) and “re-wraps” the MTS files as MOV files, supposedly losing NO quality… and taking mere minutes.
I’ve been thoroughly impressed, but wish I understood better what was happening. (so I could stop growling like a terrier so much while it’s running) http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap
Tell me what you think…
@Giulia @Mick. Thanks for the input.
I find myself using Handbrake for all sorts of pre-editing issues. And ClipWrap looks like a great solution, if you need it. However, if you’re working with your own camera, then you have access to the entire AVCHD file system. I would recommend using Log and Transfer (if you’re on FCPS) or importing directly as ProRes 422 (if you’re on FCPX) directly from the card on your Vixia. No need to rewrap anything. In other words, don’t drag the files onto your computer before ingesting them into your editing software—leaving you with the .MTS files—instead, import directly from the camera/card.
The problem I’m referring to is one whereby a client or colleague will often send you those .MTS files and you have no access to the full file system on the camera.
Thanks for the link, too. I’m always interested in the newest, best solutions!
You must be JOKING!!!
It’s unworkable for one clip.
But I have over 400 clips on ONE card!
This is not a solution.
The solution it to boycott footage from these shit cameras!
And advertise this on the net!
The shithead Sony and others must be forced to deal with this issue!
There is no free Lunch. For high video quality, I use Aunsoft MTS Converter to convert my AVCHD footage.
Boy you just save my day, thanks so much. I ´ll try this right away
^^ Thanks so much guys I almost threw in the towel after media encoder made a sheep noise at me and said FAILED. You have been most helpful <3
FWIW, Premiere Pro CC seems to handle .mts just fine. Just exported a 40 minute single file as a lower-qual mp4 and it seems to have worked fine, sound and all.
I did not attempt any colour/sound/effect editing on the .mts in pp cc before exporting, however.
Thanks, Nik. I don’t use Premiere much at all. But one thing I have resorted to it for — and an area where friends have told me it shines — is when it comes to media handling. Evidently, you can import just about anything and start editing right away. After all, my solution (above) is resorting to Adobe Media Encoder.
This is not the case with FCPX. FCPX is still pretty finicky about formats. It’s not enough of a reason for me to make the big switch, but that’s a conversation for another day! 🙂
-JN
Nice wordplay with the ‘tude in editing land, well done.
Another workflow that I use as an FCP 7 user is 1) to use a thirdparty mts to mov converter (iskysoft.com has one, it was $40 a while back) but then 2) batch export them using MPEG Streamclip so I can export Pro Res files and work in FCP 7. This original post is a while back, so perhaps there’s even better work in Adobe? Apparently, you could use the Aunsoft app, according to Shirley Smith, above, and quite possibly others. . From a glance at Aunsoft I am guessing it’s mov are h264 but that is a only a guess. Anyone know if Adobe’s encoder can reliably now im[port mts and export synched Pro Res?
And
I teach video production classes at a high school in northern Colorado. We use Canon Vixia camcorders for our intro class. I’m probably overlooking something here, but iMovie actually imports and converts all our mts files without any hassle at all. We then bring the files into Premiere Pro CS6 and edit. It’s a one-step process that has worked almost without exception.
Thanks, Brendan.
I have a Vixia camera as well. And yes, you’re right. Whether you’re using iMovie or FCP it’s always best to import directly from the editing software, which is built to recognize the AVCHD file architecture. As an alternative to making a copy of the entire card, sometimes I use FCPX (you could use iMovie as well) as a one-stop solution to import the files from the Vixia and convert them to ProRes Quicktime files for storage/later use.
But the above solutions are for when someone (a client, perhaps) pulls the MTS files directly off the card and gives them to you for editing–in doing so, breaking the AVCHD file structure.
JN
Hi, thanks for a fun article – there’s too much format snobbery around! It’s all down to the pixels in the end, not the method you used. Yes MTS *is* a compressed format, but a high data-rate MTS shot by a skilled shooter through a good quality lens will look good, and crappy cameras are better than you’d like them to be (if you’ve shelled out for expensive kit) in good light! I tend to convert to AIC or ProRes for editing; editing compressed formats like MTS or mp4 can lead to glitches, and my computer can’t decompress some of them quick enough to play real-time.
I’ve just used Handbrakem (free) to convert an MTS from a Canon HG10 to mp4 (JVT/AVC Coding): I’m pleased with the results, though it doesn’t have rewrapping options that I can see, nor can I convert to “pro” formats.
I couldn’t find any free software for Mac so I use ClipWrap for batch MTS conversion – either re-wrap or conversion to an edit-friendly file. And QuickTime Pro is a mega-useful cheap converter and low-tech editor (but won’t work with MTS)
For those who say “MTS is crap”…
Theoretically, if I had already transcoded my m2ts files to both 422 and 422 Proxy for editing/outputting in FCP7, would you recommend simply using an internal audio recorder to capture the sound and then sync in FCP7?