Best way to Convert AVCHD (.MTS) >> H.264 SD (MP4)?

[JOHNTOUPS]

Can anyone tell me how to keep the best quality (for DVD purposes) when using TMPEGEnc 4.0?

Quality is poor when my .mts fiel is converted to mp4 file.
Should I convert the file to another format?

Thanks!

[Soopafresh]

Upload a bit of the bad looking video <5MB

[JOHNTOUPS]

It's not terrible, but looks nothing like the original. Here's just a small clip.

dvd.mp4

[Soopafresh]

Here's an example of converting MTS to Mpeg2


The AVCHD source

00003_cut2.mts

The MPEG2 Result

00003_cut2.m2v

[JOHNTOUPS]

Looks good. How are you converting it to a m2v file? I must be doing something different by converting to mp4.

Which mpeg option are you selecting as the output?

[jagabo]

Looks good. How are you converting it to a m2v file? I must be doing something different by converting to mp4.

For one thing he's using a much larger frame size, 720x480. Your MP4 clip was only 352x288. When both are blown up to full screen size his will be much sharper.

Secondly, he's using a much higher bitrate. AVC is more efficient than MPEG2 but you're still using too little bitrate for your material.

It's hard to tell from the small sample, but it looks like it was originally interlaced video and has been deinterlaced by a not so good method.

[Soopafresh]

Not too many modifications - Just the stuff in green has been modified from the default settings



and





MP4 Rules

With MP4, you normally DON'T want to interlace if your output is MP4 h264. To maintain the proper aspect ratio, you want to resize to 720x400, 640x352, or 480x272

If you're encoding to MP4 AVC, try these settings as an example



Which gives you

00003_cut2.mp4

[JOHNTOUPS]

Thank you for the help! Those different options worked nice.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but by using the output "HDV Format MPEG File" I may get the best picture, but it will create a larger file size?

[Soopafresh]

HDV format MPEG2 will give you a big picture, but you won't be able to play it on a DVD player.

[JOHNTOUPS]

"HDV-HD2 Format" created a file which I saved as (.mpg) - I was then able to burn to a DVD using ConvertXtoDVD.

Picture plays great.

[JOHNTOUPS]

Can someone explain what is "Motion search precision" listed in TMPGenc? Thanks!

[jagabo]

Can someone explain what is "Motion search precision" listed in TMPGenc? Thanks!

One of the techniques used to reduce the amount of information stored for each frame is to locate blocks of pixels that have moved. Rather than encoding the entire block the encoder can just tell the decoder to move the block from the old location to the new one. Motion Search Precision controls how far the encoder looks for movement. The farther the encoder has to look, the longer it will take. This is the setting that has the largest effect on encoding time. And the slowest settings usually make only a tiny improvement in file size or video quality (compared to the medium settings).

[JOHNTOUPS]

Thank you for the explanation! If I'm reading this correctly, the "low" setting in TMPGEnc will be poorest quality, but fastest.....While the "Highest" setting will be the best quality, but slowest?

[jagabo]

Thank you for the explanation! If I'm reading this correctly, the "low" setting in TMPGEnc will be poorest quality, but fastest.....While the "Highest" setting will be the best quality, but slowest?

Yes. You get the biggest improvements going from Lowest to Low or Motion Estimate Search to Normal. Above that takes much longer for very little improvement.

[denya]

I have installed the tmpgenc 4.0.
installed the klite codec (though under 2. Choose H.264 >> CoreAVC didnt exist for me. I could not choose coreavc, only ffdshow) CoreAVC is installed on my computer.

when I start tmpgenc 4.0 and add a mts file(from panasonic sd5 cam) it says under Audio:"There is no audio data"
I can encode to a mpg file and I get a good quality movie, but without sound.

I can play the raw mts file in media player classic and i get sound (picture a bit distorted)

Can someone please help me with the sound part, I really do not want to split up the movie to audio and movie file before I start with tmpgenc. I want this to be a one click encode job.

[Soopafresh]

Try this method. Feed the .AVS file to tmpgencxpress

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic346331.html

The audio also has good sync:

00072.mp4

[tdavid232]

boltjames, check your private message inbox. If anyone else is experiencing this, I can send you the two config files for TMPGEnc 4 to fix you up. Just send me a private message

Hi ran007!

I saw you posted that you got a solution for encoding files to MPEG-4 AVC, which are bigger than 720x576. Could you share this solution please?

I have been researching 12 hours a day for the last 2 weeks, for the ideal solution to taking a PAL DV footage from a camcorder and converting it into WMV, MPG, MP4, and MP4 for Ipod. TMPGenc Xpress seems to be ideal, as it's quality and speed are better than the rest.

My biggest problems are;
1. I figured that I should convert my original PAL DV to 768x576 square pixels and deinterlaced. I applied a little stretch, so it fills the screen and doesn't leave those nasty black masks on top and bottom. But I need this converted into MP4 and TMPGEnc doesn't allow you anything bigger than 720x576. Mov is out of the question, as the result it produces is horrible and huge, compared to the 1 pass constant quantization MP4. How can I solve this?

2. Ipod and Iphone. They drive me up the wall!!! Why doesn't TMPGEnc have presets for these? I haven't been able to produce a file from TMPGEnc that played on an Iphone or Ipod. So I resorted to using Quicktime Pro, but I hate the fact that you cannot adjust settings in it when exporting to Ipod or Iphone. Who has a good solution for something like this???

Thanks
David

[tdavid232]

I just did a quick test. Can anybody confirm that any of these play on an Ipod or Iphone?

http://www.4shared.com/dir/7075088/9a463a15/sharing.html

Thanks
David

[fpiedebois]

Hi,

Does anybody can tell me if the conversion for AVCHD video from Panasonic are alright with the software iVerio http://www.convertmod.com

Cause I d like to buy a Panasonic AVCHD cam and I don't know if it works well with Final Cut or if videos need to be converted with iVerio for example or any converter else.

thanks for your reply.

Alain

[Created78]

In case anyone is still interested, I just noticed that AVCHD Lite .mts files from my DMC-ZS3 can be edited, transcoded, or losslessly remuxed into several different container formats using the latest version of Avidemux. However, it was necessary to manually reset the frame rate to 29.97.

[cbstryker]

Badaboom - Very fast encoding (GPU based), although I found it to not be 100% reliable, no batch encoding.

MediaCoder - Not a clean interface, but does almost everything and can do GPU encoding too, and batch encoding.

[jimwelch1957]

All I want to do is take my AVCHD lite, mts files, and get them on you tube.

Can anyone suggest how to do this.

[Created78]

Unedited AVCHD Lite (.MTS) files from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 can be uploaded directly to youtube. No conversion is necessary unless you want to trim or edit the clip.

[jimwelch1957]

But wouldn't the file be huge? I thought one of the things converting did was to reduce the size of the file.

[Created78]

AVCHD Lite uses the H.264 compression standard, which provides one of the best quality to size ratios available. You won't be able to make the file much smaller without a significant loss of quality, but if you want to upload a long clip over a slow internet connection, then it may be worth compressing it. I'd recommend using Avidemux since it is free, open source, and relatively easy to use. When opening an .mts file in Avidemux, it will say "This looks like mpeg. Do you want to index it?" Click "Yes." Then it will ask whether you want to use a special mode for H.264 B-frames. If your video is from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, click "No", since the ZS3 doesn't use B-frames. (I assume the newer ZS7 is the same way.) When the file is open, click on the "video" menu and select "Frame rate...", and change the frame rate from 59.940 to 29.97. (Although the DMC-ZS3 is advertised as recording 60fps, it really only records at 30fps; the PHOTOfunSTUDIO software that comes with the camera just inserts extra frames.) Next, look for the "Video", "Audio", and "Format" drop-down menus on the left side of the Avidemux window. For video, choose "MPEG-4 AVC (x264)"; for audio, choose "AAC (Faac)"; and for format choose "MP4". The "Configure" buttons under Video and Audio will let you change the compression settings to get a smaller/larger (lower quality/higher quality) file, but I'd recommend trying the default settings first. Under the "File" menu, click "Save" --> "Save video..." and give it a name with the .mp4 filename extension (e.g. "video.mp4").

[twister6]

How do you guys setup Avidemux for Canon Vixia HF M30? I had the recording mode at 60i. When opened the file in Avidemux where a default fram rate of 29.99 was selected, it was chopping and playing slow. While trying different rates, I selected 24 and MP4/AAC as output options, but it wasn't able to save. Do I need to install additional codex for that? Any other suggestion for M30 and configuration? Also, would AVI format be better than MP4? I don't need to burn pro DVDs, just want to play it on my DVD player which can read all the file formats. Thanks!

[bluelinou]

Created78

Thank you for your info, I followed the steps you outlined and it works like a charm. The only question I would have at this time is whether or not this can be set up in a batch mode (for several files) as opposed to going through all these steps for each file you want to convert? Thanks.

[OuterPerimeter]

You can use VLC Media Player (multi-platform, so it works on OS X, Windows, Linux, etc.) to view .MTS files. It's one of the best media player's I've used, provides its own DVD codec (so you can play DVDs on your laptop without purchasing a separate codec), and it's free.

http://www.videolan.org/

Enjoy...

OP

[donlphi]

I know this is an old thread, but I recently had my first confrontation with a .MTS file. I converted it with Handbrake and it worked great. So if you are a Mac user, this is a FREE one step work around (unless you've never downloaded Handbrake before).

EDIT: By the way, the nice thing about Handbrake (besides the fact that it's free and awesome) is it's ability to setup batch conversions by setting up the queue.

[sfshr9]

http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/

Excellent and totally free with absolutely no ads or other undesireable hassles of any sort.
Straightforward installation wizard.

Besides converting you can cut, JOIN, rotate, and much, much more.

I've tried everything that's free that sounded like it might work and this is by far the best I've found and the ONLY one that let's me retain the 1920 x 1080 resolution I bought my Lumix DMC-ZS10 for in the first place.

You can use the address I provided or, if you're (unjustifiably) nervous, download from CNET and then allow the software to prompt you to accept the free update to v. 2.4.0. - that's the version that allows you to JOIN your movies - AWESOME!

I also recommend Faststone Image Viewer (also available from CNET)
- It has a default setting that auto-rotates photos and is MUCH better than the truly weird viewer provided by Panasonic's PhotoFun 6.1 HD Lite software that shipped with my Lumix.