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How to Play AVCHD (.mts / .mt2s) on Mac OS X?

D

d2catman

macrumors newbie
Jun 8, 2010
2
0
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 & VoltaicHD (AVCHD)

Magrathea said:
If you have a newish MAC you can easily play MTS files:
Players:

Movist - http://code.google.com/p/movist/downloads/list FREE
VLC Player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html
Toast 10 - $80
Voltaic - $35

and you can even browse thumbnails of them in finder with:
HD quicklook $7 http://www.shedworx.com/hdquicklook

so don't tell me you can't play em on a mac. Yes, if you edit them you must convert them:

FCP - log and transfer
iMovie - plug in camera and you're ready to roll
Clipwrap - turns em into simple H.264 files
Voltaic - Converts them to H.264 or other codecs

but you can most definitely play them first if you desire.
and probably a few more ....
Click to expand...


Quoted for truth. Add to that... native AVCHD support in Premiere and the recent upgrade to VoltaicHD for AVCHD output (so you can now trim, join and output AVCHD lossless). I've never used either though.

Personally, I've used Movist (decent enough, but not the best playback on my brand new i7 MBP), and ClipWrap (use it!):
http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/avchd-hd-video-workflow-on-mac-os-x

ClipWrap is only $50, it's lossless (you can rewrap without altering video quality), its super fast since it is not transcoding (something like 10 to 12 seconds to wrap 1 minute of AVCHD footage), and it doesn't bloat file sizes very much (I find an average of about 14%). Example, original = 510 MB, 2.5 minute AVCHD... 27 seconds to wrap into 597 MB MOV. I rewrapped over 17 GB (189 files) in under 15 minutes. Bam! Plays back perfectly in QuickTime with the with open source Perian installed.

In comparison, transcoding in VoltaicHD is something like 4 to 5 minutes to convert 1 minute of AVCHD footage and can be up to 10 or 11 times the original file size. Nasty!
 
C

cmlifevideo

macrumors newbie
Sep 16, 2010
1
0
AVCHD files on Mac OSX

I'm having the same problem, anyone have any links to free converter software?
 
geerlingguy

geerlingguy

macrumors 6502a
Feb 11, 2003
562
6
St. Louis, USA
I'm using Handbrake to do the converting, and VLC to play the files natively. It works pretty well, just takes forever, on my Intel iMac.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
S

Sketchpad212

macrumors newbie
Nov 5, 2010
2
0
OS vs Manufacturer

RicAlonso said:
This is not an OS issue. AVCHD was created by Sony and Panasonic. They tend to make Windows based computers.

Sony has a Windows based editor which supposedly lets you edit natively. That has not been my experience, even on a powerful PC.

One of the problems of native AVCHD editing has nothing to do with the OS. It has to do with processing power. Most computers today, even with 3ghz dual cores, cannot do it properly. So it has to be converted to something that the computers can work with.

Eventually we'll all have 16 core 4 ghz Intel Quatrapinion (silly) Macs with 64 GB of RAM. Then we'll be able to edit AVCHD. Of course by then someone will come out with Ultra HD cameras and the cycle begins once more. :eek:
Click to expand...

AVCHD is not a unique codec, it is the most used codec in solid state recording. A PC with Win. Vista or Seven plays AVCHD natively off the card and does not need any add ons, flip or conversion. The 'industry standard...' editing computer not being able to interpret this file without importing it into expensive software is an OS problem and a software selling strategy all in one. I don't use FCP to manage my archive, I do it myself, so now I manage my archive on a PC so I can view my thumbnails and determine if it is the content I am looking for.
 
S

Sketchpad212

macrumors newbie
Nov 5, 2010
2
0
Conversion = loss

I don't like to convert the MTS files because you don't retain the quality. I prefer to convert and compress once.
 
petvas

petvas

macrumors 603
Jul 20, 2006
5,479
1,808
Munich, Germany
Sketchpad212 said:
I don't like to convert the MTS files because you don't retain the quality. I prefer to convert and compress once.
Click to expand...

For those of you that think that there is no way to edit AVCHD files directly on the Mac, please note that this is not true. Adobe Premiere Pro can directly edit AVCHD with no conversion. I use it all the time. It is a professional tool for video editing but works much better than Final Cut Pro. On a PC Adobe Premiere works exactly the same.
 
S

shorafix

macrumors member
May 15, 2008
40
3
Frankfurt, Germany
Try out Adobe Premiere Elements

Premiere Pro CS5 is awesome. However, hobbyists should try out Adobe Premiere Elements 9 for Mac. It actually works fine with native AVCHD, though don't expect a Macbook Air - even the latest one - to do the job as long as you use 24 Mbit/s footage.
 
R

rgoth

macrumors newbie
Nov 9, 2009
2
0
Import on Macbook not Imac

Can some one explain why I can plug my VIXIA HF M30 into my macbook and import MTS movies into iMovie (these files convert to MOV files. I try this on my iMac and the camera is not recognized I have the same software on both machines and the same OS (OS version 10.6.5 and iLife 09). The iMac only recognizes the camera as an external hard drive that will allow me to copy MTS files and play them in VLC but will not recognize the camera in iMovie leaving me to convert the movies with some other software. My macbook works fine and fairly fast to import/convert files. Every thing I read says that iMovie does not edit or play raw MTS. DO I lose a lot of quality when they convert to MOV files. I would be interested to know how to get my iMac to work as it is newer, faster and more convenient to use then my macbook for editing video. Thanks.
 
aarond12

aarond12

macrumors 65816
May 20, 2002
1,145
107
Dallas, TX USA
If you use the "Bob" deinterlacer in VLC, the interlaced files from your camera will appear in progressive mode (i.e., 1080i -> 1080p). It does a great job but takes a LOT of CPU power.
 
W

WhoPhD

macrumors member
Feb 4, 2004
42
0
Aarond12, I recommend the "YADIFx2" deinterlacer in VLC. Similar in purpose to "bob", but the difference is that "bob" throws out half the vertical detail in each frame. That's why you might notice the "bobbing" result it produces.

Instead, yadif x2 gets you full detail in every frame, whenever it exists (eg, no vertical motion).

Sketchpad212 said:
I don't like to convert the MTS files because you don't retain the quality. I prefer to convert and compress once.
Click to expand...

ClipWrap gets around this though. You get the same H.264 data out of the camera, and into any QuickTime app.

Have you ever used the "passthrough" feature in QuickTime's MP4 exporter, to get encoded MPEG tracks from a MOV and into an MP4 container? Exactly the same principle as that.

Or, indeed, same principle as opening *any* kind of video at all that is supported by QuickTime, and saving as MOV self-contained. The same data is simply passed-through and repackaged into a MOV container (the king of container formats).

CK.
 
E

Eastend

macrumors 6502
Aug 1, 2004
378
8
Nara, Japan
Somebody mentioned handbrake, it worked and converted the file. VLC brings up the file, but it hangs every second or so, it will not work on a 2010 MacPro Quad. Playback of the converted file works fine on my Quad, however the person next to me has an older Windows Quad and it sometimes hangs on it. After the file is converted it works great if you have Quicktime Pro and convert the handbrake file to a movie file, then it can be burned into a DVD or simply playback in Quicktime.
 
M

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Jun 7, 2011
5,997
1,101
Eastend said:
Somebody mentioned handbrake, it worked and converted the file. VLC brings up the file, but it hangs every second or so, it will not work on a 2010 MacPro Quad. Playback of the converted file works fine on my Quad, however the person next to me has an older Windows Quad and it sometimes hangs on it. After the file is converted it works great if you have Quicktime Pro and convert the handbrake file to a movie file, then it can be burned into a DVD or simply playback in Quicktime.
Click to expand...

Do you really need full conversion, or, would a simple remux (via ClipWrap or iVI) suffice?
 
F

floh

macrumors 6502
Nov 28, 2011
460
2
Stuttgart, Germany
Menneisyys2 said:
Do you really need full conversion, or, would a simple remux (via ClipWrap or iVI) suffice?
Click to expand...

I don't think people realize that re-encoding things will come with a loss in quality and should be avoided if possible.

Because so many people need it, I actually wrote a little free GUI a few months ago that will remux many streams into more usable containers. It can also convert the .mts files contained within most AVCHD containers into .mov for example.

But you should be aware that if you are converting .mts files and throwing away the rest of your AVCHD stream, you will lose all metadata information (like camera model, timecode, ...). If you still have the whole AVCHD folder structure, you should get a more advanced converter (no, ClipWrap doesn't do that either, but e.g. Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro X will on import, I'm sure there are "pure" AVCHD remuxers out there).
 
M

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Jun 7, 2011
5,997
1,101
floh said:
I don't think people realize that re-encoding things will come with a loss in quality and should be avoided if possible.

Because so many people need it, I actually wrote a little free GUI a few months ago that will remux many streams into more usable containers. It can also convert the .mts files contained within most AVCHD containers into .mov for example.

But you should be aware that if you are converting .mts files and throwing away the rest of your AVCHD stream, you will lose all metadata information (like camera model, timecode, ...). If you still have the whole AVCHD folder structure, you should get a more advanced converter (no, ClipWrap doesn't do that either, but e.g. Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro X will on import, I'm sure there are "pure" AVCHD remuxers out there).
Click to expand...

Yup, keeeping the metadata (which is outside the MTS file) is essential, particularly if you have GPS (and, probably, other sensors like compass) in your camera. It's in those files that this kind of metadata is stored, not in the MTS itself.
 
F

floh

macrumors 6502
Nov 28, 2011
460
2
Stuttgart, Germany
Menneisyys2 said:
Yup, keeeping the metadata (which is outside the MTS file) is essential
Click to expand...

So, just out of interest (I will keep using FCPX anyways...), does anyone know a standalone tool that will remux AVCHD folder structures (not just the MTS stream files) and keep the metadata? Can Quicktime do this, now that it can actually play back AVCHD in Mountain Lion?

Because I was thinking about adding that to my converter tool, but it's probably a lot of work and I'd be glad if it already exists...
 
M

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Jun 7, 2011
5,997
1,101
floh said:
So, just out of interest (I will keep using FCPX anyways...), does anyone know a standalone tool that will remux AVCHD folder structures (not just the MTS stream files) and keep the metadata?
Click to expand...

Regarding parsing the location (sensor) metadata, I only know of manufacturer-specific tools, for example, AVCHD2SRT. It's used for creating a frame-specific (timed) SRT subtitle file off existing AVCHD videos HERE. Note that the discussion HERE not only discusses it, but also the practical questions of everything related.

(I've also discussed non-AVCHD sensor metadata parsing, saving etc. in my article series of iOS / Android / Windows Phone programming and metadata recording while shooting video / using them later when uploading these videos to services like that of Ubipix; see https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1517256/ (1st article) and THIS (2nd article) for more info if interested.)
 
E

Eastend

macrumors 6502
Aug 1, 2004
378
8
Nara, Japan
floh said:
I don't think people realize that re-encoding things will come with a loss in quality and should be avoided if possible.

You are correct the file had a slight loss in quality, your GUI should come in handy, but I hope I never have anymore of these strange files to work with again. It was only a 31 second clip and I needed it, from now on I'll try your GUI, thanks.
Click to expand...
 
NinjaPuff

NinjaPuff

macrumors newbie
Sep 20, 2013
1
0
Hello!

So, I've had this problem of poor quality MTS files playing on my retina Macbook pro (Mid 2012). They were choppy and just didn't look as good as I was expecting from this new camcorder (A JVC handheld camcorder) I got last year (on either Quicktime or VLC). It looked great on my windows 10 bootcamp (just using the standard video playing app that came stock on windows 10), but if I uploaded it to youtube or my google drive from windows, the quality sank again.

At the very least, "Free AVCHD to Mov on Mac" works pretty well. I can't say it is the same quality as how the MTS videos look on my windows bootcamp, but it is definitely sharper and at a way better frame rate than the straight up MTS.

Just to give a sense of what I was doing before and what I did now... I would take the SD card and transfer the files from the SD card to my computer... and the quality just wasn't what I was expecting. Sometimes I would open the AVCHD file itself, and quicktime would open (and I'd save it from there), but the quality of the videos there was also lackluster.

Now that I use "Free AVCHD to Mov", it's much better. I use the "Move, Rewrap Mov AAC" and "Mov, rewrap move pcm" output formats and they seem to work pretty well. I would put the MTS file there and use one of those outputs, and so far so good.

I am honestly not very tech or video savvy, I'm just doing some trial and error. I just found this tip buried earlier in this thread and I wanted to share my success (well, partial success so far... hopefully I can put these higher quality videos on youtube/google drive so I would have them on the cloud).

Thanks for all the of the suggestions on this thread, I've tried a few but not all of the suggested solutions. I'll give more details about what I did, the exact retina macbook pro I'm using, the camcorder I'm using, the version of "Free to AVCHD to Mov" I'm using, etc.
 
T

Tummy

macrumors regular
Feb 1, 2008
165
91
Now that the major editing software supports MTS files (Adobe Premire and Final Cut), i've not had to convert before editing the video for the last couple years.

Earlier I used a program called ClipWrap which worked very well to convert into a viewable format. There is a trial version and the paid version is about $50.
http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap
 
joema2

joema2

macrumors 68000
Sep 3, 2013
1,645
864
Tummy said:
Now that the major editing software supports MTS files (Adobe Premire and Final Cut), i've not had to convert before editing the video for the last couple years....
Click to expand...

Likewise I have never had a problem importing AVCHD from a variety of cameras into either FCPX or Premiere CC or iMovie. It is not generally necessary to pre-convert using a utility. I just now did a test using my Canon HF-G30 set to 1080p/29.97 and AVCHD, and iMovie 10.1.1 imported it just fine and it looks great.

I have ClipWrap and the more sophisticated EditReady from the same company. Unlike a lot of internet-advertised utilities from unknown suppliers, these are professional tools and work superbly: http://www.divergentmedia.com/editready

I have heard the free utility ReWrapAVCHD works well but I have not tried it: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39800/rewrapavchd

Finder on OS X presents the AVCHD media as a single monolithic file bundle. This is because AVCHD is designed to stay together and the internal .MTS files should not be removed from the folder tree. Double-clicking on the AVCHD bundle will launch Quicktime Player which in a clunky fashion shows the thumbnails you can individually play.

If you have a high-performance editor like FCPX the best way to handle that content is simply import everything and not try to pick through clips at the Finder level. FCPX's skimmer is faster at browsing through video content than any other method. iMovie seems very fast also, but I haven't used it much.

In other cases it can be useful to re-wrap AVCHD to .MP4 files and browse through them at the Finder level. I would personally recommend ClipWrap or EditReady for this, however several people have said ReWrapAVCHD works OK.
 
H

HDFan

Contributor
Jun 30, 2007
6,607
2,853
For my ripped Blu-Ray .m2ts's when I'm not using Plex on my Mac I use MPlayer OS X Extended. Viewing the same .mt2s file on both Roxio Video Player 1.0.3 and MPlayer Rev 15 1511 there are some differences.

Roxio allows you to fast forward using a slider. MPlayer uses control keys with 10 second, 1 minute, and 10 minute granularities.

Roxio sees only one audio track where MPlayer sees two. I assume that Roxio is playing the PCM track and isn't seeing the DTS/MA track.

MPlayer is the more powerful tool. Originally a command line tool it now has a graphical front end. On the command line you can do things such as take a 5.1 soundtrack and convert it to a 2 channel track so you can listen via headphones.

Roxio costs. MPlayer just asks for a donation.

As my 3 4K cameras save to mpeg-4 or quicktime I can't try on a camera generated video file.

Website isn't responding right now: http://mplayerosx.ch.

I just found another site mPlayerX.org but a Intego virus scan reports that the download is infected. Not sure I understand the difference between the sites. I think one site is MPlayerX OS X Extended and the infected site is MPlayer, and that the Extended version is the version you want.
 
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