Converting .MTS Videos from Panasonic Lumix Camera

I own a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 camera that I bought about 3 years ago.

It uses a special format for videos, and came with special software to convert them, but that software only runs on PCs.

I know there are a lot of 3rd party software programs out there that can handle this.

I tried one called iSkySoft, which had a free trial, but the sound was terribly out of sync.

So who else has a Panasonic and a Mac? What software is worth the money?

Thanks! I'll give those a shot.

I tried downloading the "small tool" but when I tried to open it, Stuffit Expander said the file "does not appear to be compressed or encoded." and couldn't do anything with it.

Suggestions?

Okay, I got the small tool- for some reason, Chrome couldn't download it, but Firefox could.
Unfortunately, it has the same problem as the other programs I've tried (iSkySoft and ClipWrap)- the sound is out of sync with the picture.

I also tried the ReWrap method, but when I drag a file onto the icon, nothing happens. Well, almost nothing- ReWrap briefly appears in the upper left where the name of the active application appears, but then it goes back to Chrome after a second.

Is there no way to convert these files into something useful that preserves the sound/picture sync? I'd be willing to pay for something that does! I can't believe this is so hard! My old Canon just put the movies into iPhoto. I don't see any advantage to having compressed files that I can't do anything with.

I tried renaming one of my .MTS files .mpg, but Quicktime said could not be opened.

Thanks- I have iMovie '08, and it doesn't recognize .MTS/AVCHD.

Someone on another forum suggested trying to play the converted files that were out of sync on a different computer, and as it turns out, they played fine. Apparently, it's just something about my 2008 MacBook that can't play the MP4 conversions in sync. Actually, VLC did play them in sync, but the picture was distorted.

Anyway, since I can play the .MTS files on VLC, and the converted MP4 files are fine when I upload them, I'm good.

Dave Braine said:

In that case, I would suggest upgrading to iMovie11(it's only a few $s). It's far far better than iMovie8 and it recognises .mts/AVCHD, so should import from your camera. However, you will need to be running Lion to do that.

Click to expand...

iMovie might not be much cash, but iMovie plus Lion plus the RAM to run them, and pretty soon we're talking some real bucks.

Handbrake is doing a pretty good job, and VLC plays my files, so I'm getting by.