Simple way to convert mts?

[SpyJoe]

Is there a simple way to convert 1440x1080p mts to something that can be played from an external hard drive on a TV? I think it can playback divx/xvid and mpeg files. So far I have only found complicated instructions on how to do this. I tried converting mts to avi (huffyuv) using Premiere cs4, but the output file is 10 times bigger than the original file... What settings should I use in premiere to make the output file good quality and decent file size? Or is there another simple way to do this using other software?

[jagabo]

What hard drive media player do you have?

[Soopafresh]

Instead of Huffyuv, choose Xvid at 720x400 dimensions if you have a standard definition TV.

[DarrellS]

Some media players will play .mts files if you change the file extension to .mpeg or .mpg.

[jagabo]

Most players won't play anything high def though. That's why I asked him to specify what player he's using.

[SpyJoe]

The hard drive is ATMT HV355 250GB. It's capable of playing MPEG2, Divx and Xvid... It does work if I change extension to .mpg, but I still wanted to convert the video to get smaller size and merge some clips together...

I will try Xvid codec at 720x400 when I get home in a few hours and post the results here...

The TV the video will be watched on is capable of Full HD 1080p. Will the the quality be bad? I was hoping the quality would be okay...

[jagabo]

Xvid AVI at 720x400 will almost certainly work. If you do a decent conversion it won't look much worse than a standard definition DVD. You could also try 720x576 25 fps with 16:9 aspect ratio flags -- if the player supports aspect ratio flags in Xvid AVI.

When you said "It does work if I change extension to .mpg" did you mean that particular 1440x1080 MTS file played properly? Or were you referring to some standard definition MTS file? If your player doesn't support high def sources consider the Western Digital Media Player:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-1080P-Media-Player/dp/B001ILFDCK/

[SpyJoe]

I have just tried Xvid and my output video is jumpy and pixelated. Maybe it's coz I don't know what settings to choose there. I have found one guide and followed it, but my results r still ugly. However the size of the output file was twice smaller than the original, which is good...

Here is the guide that I followed:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/xvid-vdub-final.htm

If someone could help me out with what settings to choose, that would be very appreciated. Thank you...

P.S. Yeah the hard drive plays these files (1440x1080) when I change the extension to .mpg

[DarrellS]

I assume the reason that you want to make the files smaller is because this player will not accept an external hard drive or USB device? Maybe you could upgrade the built in HDD to a 1TB drive. 250GB is pretty small for a storage drive.

[SpyJoe]

The hard drive is not mine. I'm trying to help my friend. And he's not planning on buying anything new soon...

Any ideas on why the output video might be jumpy?

I have K-Lite full codec pack installed. PC specs r high (4gb ddr3 ram, radeon hd4870, quad q9550). Do I need to install any other software?

[jagabo]

I don't use AutoGK but I suspect you used too low a bitrate. The guide specifies 570 kbps which will be way too low for a 1440x1050 AVI. Even if you reduced the frame size to 720x400 it will be pretty low. I know AutoGK has a single pass constant quality option (it's tricky to get at, you'll have to search a little). Try using that with a quality of 75 percent or so.

Regarding jerkiness, it's hard to say what might be causing that. It could be bad parsing of the source, playback problems, wrong frame rates settings in the encoder, interlace/deinterlace issues, etc.

[SpyJoe]

I managed to find a very easy solution to my problem and it works great. Found it here:

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic347139.html

Quality is good enough. Doesn't take long and size is twice smaller than original file...

Problem solved, thank u everyone!

[DarrellS]

I was going to mention that Soopafresh had a few programs to do this but couldn't find the links.