Converting .MTS Videos from Panasonic Lumix Camera

[spellflower]

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?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You could try the following two methods involving free applications to get editable or playable video files from .MTS files.

• Transcoding .MTS files (AVCHD footage) to an editable format (.MOV)
  [*]Small tool to convert video containers without reencoding

 

[spellflower]

Thanks! I'll give those a shot.

 

[spellflower]

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?

 

[spellflower]

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.

 

[drambuie]

My Sony camcorder produces video files in the .m2ts format, which is supposedly identical to .mts. I discovered that, if the .m2ts files are renamed to .mpg, QT player 10.2 will open them. Then they can be exported as .mov files. The largest file I've converted so far is 150MB, and it saved as .mov in less than a minute on a 2012 iMac with a 3.4GHz i7 and a 1TB fusion drive.

 

[spellflower]

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

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Could you record a small sample file (1 or 2 seconds) of nothing important and upload it as compressed ZIP somewhere for someone else to download and try upon?

If you still have the files on the card and the folder structure is intact, try iMovie > File > Import from Camera.

 

[drambuie]

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

Maybe Panasonic uses a different .mts format than Sony. I just remembered that the camcorder's video files on SD media are .mts. It's the Sony Windows app that names them *.m2ts. Also, iMovie can import Sony video straight from my Sony camcorder, except for 1080 60p.

You are using QT 10.x? QT 7.x.x won't work with these files.

 

[Dave Braine]

According to this:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368236,00.asp
your camera records video as AVCHD(lite) at 720p30 and as Motion Jpeg. iMovie won't recognise the Motion Jpeg but should be able to import the AVCHD format.

Try what simsaladimbamba suggests. Failing that, try copying across to your Mac the ENTIRE folder structure from your camera card and then try Import>Camera Archive.

 

[spellflower]

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]

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

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.

 

[spellflower]

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.

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.

 

[Dave Braine]

iMovie plus Lion plus the RAM to run them, and pretty soon we're talking some real bucks.

Yeah, that's true.