MTS to MP4 conversion without re-encoding

[steven2583]

I took some video with my new JVC Everio. It produces files with an MTS extension. Running it in VCL and looking at the media information it says it's. Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (h264). I'm thinking since the internal format of the video is already MPEG-4 it shouldn't need to be re-encoded just it's container changed. I don't want to lose quality until I finish editing the whole clip. I usually use tmpGenc 4.0 but that wants to re-encode. I downloaded a few other programs off of the web and they all seem to want to re-encode it. Does anyone know an application that just converts the container to MP4 if the content is already MP4?

Another question. The JVC says that the file content is 60i and in VLC it says the Frame rate: 59.940059 When I look at the file in windows it says 29.97 and in TmpGenc. Any idea why why the frame rate is wrong? Should I change the frame rate in tmpGenc to 59.94 when it opens the file and gives it's fram rate?

[oreons]

Rename mts extension to mkv and try MkvToMp4

[steven2583]

That worked. Thank you. Any idea if there is a program that will now take all of these MP4s and automatically make on concatenate all of my little files?

[MilesAhead]

You could try using the latest stable version of AviDemux. Open it, change the container type to MP4. Then select a column of .mp4 sorted by name, drag and drop them on AviDemux. They must all be matching clips, such as frame size, audio type etc.. Set both Video and Audio to Copy then click the Diskette in the Toolbar to save the file.

If the codec is h264 it may pop up a MsgBox that h264 detected, should it use Safe Mode? Just click Yes and let it do its thing.

[steven2583]

I tried it. The files are not all in the same order I dragged the group of file. I hate to drag each one individually.

[edDV]

I took some video with my new JVC Everio. It produces files with an MTS extension. Running it in VCL and looking at the media information it says it's. Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (h264). I'm thinking since the internal format of the video is already MPEG-4 it shouldn't need to be re-encoded just it's container changed. I don't want to lose quality until I finish editing the whole clip. I usually use tmpGenc 4.0 but that wants to re-encode. I downloaded a few other programs off of the web and they all seem to want to re-encode it. Does anyone know an application that just converts the container to MP4 if the content is already MP4?

You need to separate the notions of video codec and container format.

MTS is an MPeg2 packetized transport stream (aka m2ts) container. This is the same container used for Blu-Ray and AVCHD camcorders. It is a random access version of the M2T (or TS) MPeg2 transport stream container used for digital broadcasting and also for the HDV camcorder format.

MP4 is an MPEG4 container which was extended from a Quicktime base.

Either can contain MPeg2 or h.264(MPEG-4 Part 10 aka AVC) video stream content plus audio, subtitle and metadata streams.

So when you say you want to convert MTS to MP4 without re-encoding, you are saying you want to change containers only.

Ref
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_container_formats

[steven2583]

Yes, that is correct. I have some Panasonic TV and they don't play MTS but they play MP4 through a DNLA server. Plus my editing software doesn't like MTS either.

[MilesAhead]

I tried it. The files are not all in the same order I dragged the group of file. I hate to drag each one individually.

Use a rename tool to name them sequentially, forcing the right order. No program is going to read your mind.

[steven2583]

They come out of my camera with names as 0000.mts, 0001.mts, 0002.mts.

[MilesAhead]

Set Explorer to Details View. Click the top of the name column until the 0000.mts file is on top. Press Control key and 'a' key (Control-a) to select them all. Drag them onto AviDemux with the left mouse button. It doesn't get much easier.

[brinman]

This seems to work great, but I'm curious about something. Why would the newly created .mp4 file show Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Original frame rate : 29.970 fps when viewed with mediainfo?

I used the default settings of mkv to mp4 and also tried various other settings, but still see this in media info.

Thanks

[watsonaka]

Rename mts extension to mkv and try MkvToMp4

I am pretty much a newbie to AVCHD. I hate to resurrect and old thread, but this is what I am doing. I was able to convert my .mts in MkvToMp4 successfully, whether I renamed it mkv or not. However the resulting file was a M4v not an MP4. I do realize they are quite similar, but can I just rename the M4v to MP4 or do I have to convert it with something like YAMB (which I couldn't get to work, kept getting "missing MP4Box, even after trying to install MP4Box and the GUI).

So 3 Questions...

1) Can I rename the M4v to MP4 or must I convert it (without re-encoding)
2) If I must convert it is there anything besides YAMB that will do it without encoding again.
3) I am still trying to get multiAVCHD to join clips without encoding (see that thread)

Additional info to anyone who cares... I am trying to join multiple (as in dozens) of MTS files together, then convert to MP4 all without re-encoding.

Thanks in advance to any who can help...

[Stears555]

Rename mts extension to mkv and try MkvToMp4

I am pretty much a newbie to AVCHD. I hate to resurrect and old thread, but this is what I am doing. I was able to convert my .mts in MkvToMp4 successfully, whether I renamed it mkv or not. However the resulting file was a M4v not an MP4. I do realize they are quite similar, but can I just rename the M4v to MP4 or do I have to convert it with something like YAMB (which I couldn't get to work, kept getting "missing MP4Box, even after trying to install MP4Box and the GUI).

So 3 Questions...

1) Can I rename the M4v to MP4 or must I convert it (without re-encoding)
2) If I must convert it is there anything besides YAMB that will do it without encoding again.
3) I am still trying to get multiAVCHD to join clips without encoding (see that thread)

Additional info to anyone who cares... I am trying to join multiple (as in dozens) of MTS files together, then convert to MP4 all without re-encoding.

Thanks in advance to any who can help...

Use video to video converter, it is the best software for that!

[julitomg]

Rename mts extension to mkv and try MkvToMp4

However the resulting file was a M4v not an MP4. I do realize they are quite similar, but can I just rename the M4v to MP4 or do I have to convert it with something

MkvToMP4 allows you to select either .mp4 OR m4v as the output format (Setup/Video)

[Stears555]

Rename mts extension to mkv and try MkvToMp4

However the resulting file was a M4v not an MP4. I do realize they are quite similar, but can I just rename the M4v to MP4 or do I have to convert it with something

MkvToMP4 allows you to select either .mp4 OR m4v as the output format (Setup/Video)

Video to video converter is the perfect tool.

[TorBru]

M4V is a container for MPEG4 Video and M4A is the audio version. MP4 is a container that contains M4V and M4A. If your M4V has audio, you can rename it to MP4. If no audio is present you should remux it to MP4.

[watsonaka]

MY ORIGINAL POST

Joining multiple AVCHD (MTS) to MP4 without re-encoding

Thanks to Baldrick, Stears555, julitomg and TorBru for their input. I am a newbie and needed a way to take multiple .mts files off my JVC camera and join them, then convert the resulting file to MP4 (all without re-encoding). I wanted to use only FREE software. I struggled with this for a day or so, but think I have done it. I know this is elementary to most, but I thought a few other newbies might find it useful.

You will need to Install both programs and setup your Input and Output Folders so you can easily find your videos.

Program 1 - Video to Video Converter (Free). Use this to Join all videos
1) Install the software and open the program
2) Select, Tools\Join... browse to the Input Folder and select all the files at once. When prompted select the last codec on the list “Direct Stream”, then select “Convert”
This creates one contingent MTS (with Sound)

Program 2 - MkvToMp4 (Free)
1) “Add” the new MTS file (I untick the audio track because I do not need it)
2) select Setup\Video, then MP4 at bottom, Click Start
My resulting MP4 is slightly smaller due to being muted.

If I have left out any steps, please advise. If there is a faster more efficient way to do this feel free to share. Thanks to all!

MY AMENDED POST

Per Stears555, this can be done with just Video to Video Converter as follows:

Video to Video Converter (Free). Use this to Join all videos
1) Install the software and open the program
2) Select, Tools\Join... browse to the Input Folder and select all the files at once. When prompted select the last codec on the list “Direct Stream”, then under "Output Container" on the right side, Change Source to .MP4. In my case (not needing Audio) de-select Audio
Then “Convert”
This creates one contingent MP4 (with NO Sound)

Thanks to Stears555 for this tip. It saves using the 2nd program to convert!

[TorBru]

If the sources have the same resolution and compression you could also have used FFmpeg+FFQueue (free software). Launch the concat tool (Tools->Merge multiple files...). Drag&drop your videos to the list (or click "Add.." to browse for files), use Up&Down to order the vids as needed and tick "Perform simple concatenation (remux content)". Click OK to put the job in the queue and Click Start (of if you have other stuff in the queue you can right-click the concat job to start the selected only) to begin.

If all goes well you should have a concatenated file in no time (or at least the time it takes to remux the streams)

[Stears555]

Joining multiple AVCHD (MTS) to MP4 without re-encoding

Thanks to Baldrick, Stears555, julitomg and TorBru for their input. I am a newbie and needed a way to take multiple .mts files off my JVC camera and join them, then convert the resulting file to MP4 (all without re-encoding). I wanted to use only FREE software. I struggled with this for a day or so, but think I have done it. I know this is elementary to most, but I thought a few other newbies might find it useful.

You will need to Install both programs and setup your Input and Output Folders so you can easily find your videos.

Program 1 - Video to Video Converter (Free). Use this to Join all videos
1) Install the software and open the program
2) Select, Tools\Join... browse to the Input Folder and select all the files at once. When prompted select the last codec on the list “Direct Stream”, then select “Convert”
This creates one contingent MTS (with Sound)

Program 2 - MkvToMp4 (Free)
1) “Add” the new MTS file (I untick the audio track because I do not need it)
2) select Setup\Video, then MP4 at bottom, Click Start
My resulting MP4 is slightly smaller due to being muted.

If I have left out any steps, please advise. If there is a faster more efficient way to do this feel free to share. Thanks to all!

With video to video converter you can change the container format (for example: mp4) under the "direct stream copy" mode too.

[TheMediaGuy]

I'm finally able to join my MTS files from my Panasonic HC-V700M Camcorder.

Note: The [Video To Video Converter] method sounds awesome - to do it in one step, but I got a tiny glitch at the join point when I tried it.
Using the FileJoiner makes it perfectly seamless; So unfortunately for now - I'll have to use a 2-step process to
1) Join the MTS files with FileJoiner ( http://www.igorware.com/file-joiner )
2) Convert to MP4 container. I haven't done this part yet - I'll be looking for a converter that can optionally re-encode the video properly while keeping the audio sync'd. I need to go from 59.94 fps in this camera to 29.97 and maybe downsize from 1080p to 720p as well once in a while.
I hope I can get proper results out of handbrake if it's all in one MTS file. I think I remember that I've had a few issues recently when I tried a similar re-encode with Handbrake.

[TorBru]

I'm still pretty sure that you could do the whole concat & convert to MP4 as one job with FFQueue as described above

[TheMediaGuy]

Unfortunately I don't have much time to work on video stuff, but when I have some time I'll try that. It sure would be nice to have a single step process.
Thanks for the info!