Convert MOV to MTS — Free Online Tool
Convert MOV files to MTS (AVCHD) format using H.264 video and AAC audio — the same codec pairing used natively by Sony and Panasonic camcorders. This tool re-encodes your QuickTime footage into an MPEG-2 Transport Stream container, making it compatible with broadcast workflows, NLEs that expect camcorder-originated AVCHD files, and legacy hardware that reads MTS directly.
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FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
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Settings
Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
MOV is Apple's QuickTime container, which can hold a wide variety of codecs including ProRes, H.264, HEVC, and even lossless formats. MTS uses the MPEG-2 Transport Stream container — the same format written to flash memory by AVCHD camcorders — with H.264 video and AAC or AC-3 audio. Because MOV files commonly use H.264 already, you might expect a simple remux, but the two containers have fundamentally different internal structures: MOV uses a QuickTime atom-based layout while MTS uses fixed 188-byte transport stream packets. FFmpeg must therefore fully rewrap the stream and re-encode or transcode the audio to fit the MTS container's requirements. MOV-specific metadata such as chapter markers and transparency tracks is dropped, as MTS does not support these features.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg binary. This is the same open-source engine running inside this browser tool via WebAssembly (FFmpeg.wasm), so the command you see here will produce identical output when run locally on your desktop. |
-i input.mov
|
Specifies the input file as a MOV (QuickTime) container. FFmpeg will demux the QuickTime atoms to extract the raw video, audio, and any metadata streams before re-packaging them for the MTS output. |
-c:v libx264
|
Encodes the video stream using the libx264 encoder, producing H.264/AVC video inside the MTS container. This matches the native video codec of the AVCHD standard used by Sony and Panasonic camcorders, ensuring broad hardware and software compatibility. |
-c:a aac
|
Transcodes the audio stream to AAC, regardless of what audio codec the source MOV used (which could be PCM, ALAC, MP3, or others). AAC is a valid and widely supported audio format within the AVCHD/MTS specification. |
-crf 23
|
Sets the Constant Rate Factor for H.264 encoding to 23, which is libx264's default quality level and provides a good balance between file size and visual quality for AVCHD footage. Lower values (e.g., 18) produce higher quality MTS files at the cost of larger file sizes. |
-b:a 128k
|
Sets the AAC audio bitrate to 128 kilobits per second. This is standard for stereo audio in AVCHD recordings and is sufficient for most camcorder-originated content. Increase to 192k or 256k if the source MOV contains high-quality or multi-channel audio you want to preserve more faithfully. |
output.mts
|
Defines the output filename with the .mts extension, which tells FFmpeg to wrap the encoded streams in an MPEG-2 Transport Stream container conforming to the AVCHD format. This file can be read directly by AVCHD-compatible devices, NLEs, and media players. |
Common Use Cases
- Importing iPhone or professional camera MOV footage into a camcorder-based AVCHD editing project where the NLE expects MTS-formatted clips
- Archiving edited MOV timelines to MTS for playback on Sony or Panasonic Blu-ray players and TVs that have built-in AVCHD readers
- Preparing video content for broadcast ingest systems that require MPEG Transport Stream delivery rather than QuickTime-wrapped files
- Converting MOV recordings to MTS so they can be copied back onto AVCHD memory card structures for camcorder compatibility
- Standardizing a mixed library of MOV and MTS clips from different cameras into a single MTS format before offline editing
- Producing MTS files from Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve MOV exports for use with legacy Sony Vegas or Pinnacle Studio projects that natively handle AVCHD
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, some quality loss is inherent because MTS is a lossy-only format and the conversion always involves re-encoding. If your source MOV is already H.264, the video will be decoded and re-encoded to H.264 again inside the MTS container, which is a generation loss. Using a lower CRF value (such as 18) will minimize visible degradation, but it cannot be entirely eliminated the way a lossless remux would. If your source MOV contains ProRes or another high-quality codec, the quality difference at CRF 23 is typically imperceptible for most viewing purposes.
Both are lost. MTS is based on the MPEG-2 Transport Stream specification and does not support chapter markers or alpha/transparency tracks — features that MOV natively accommodates. If your MOV file contains a chapter track (common in iTunes-style videos) or a transparent overlay created in Motion or After Effects, those elements will be silently dropped during conversion. The video frames will render with transparency composited against black by default.
MTS does support multiple audio tracks, and FFmpeg will attempt to map them from the source MOV. However, the default FFmpeg command targets a single audio stream. To include additional tracks, you would need to add explicit stream mapping flags such as '-map 0:v -map 0:a:0 -map 0:a:1' before the output filename. Keep in mind that each additional audio track will be independently transcoded to AAC at the specified bitrate.
File size changes are expected and depend on several factors. The MPEG Transport Stream container adds overhead through its fixed 188-byte packet structure and Program Association/Map Tables not present in MOV. More significantly, if your source MOV used a codec like ProRes (which is much higher bitrate than H.264 at CRF 23), the MTS output will be substantially smaller. Conversely, if your MOV was already highly compressed H.264, the re-encoding at CRF 23 may produce a similar or slightly larger file due to transport stream overhead.
Change the '-crf 23' value in the command. CRF (Constant Rate Factor) controls quality for H.264 encoding: lower numbers mean higher quality and larger files, while higher numbers compress more aggressively. For archival or broadcast use, CRF 18 is considered near-visually-lossless. For web-quality or smaller file sizes, CRF 28-30 is acceptable. The valid range for libx264 is 0 (lossless encoding, though MTS is a lossy format) to 51 (lowest quality). For example: 'ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 18 -b:a 192k output.mts'.
Yes, on the command line you can use a shell loop to process multiple files. On Linux or macOS: 'for f in *.mov; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 128k "${f%.mov}.mts"; done'. On Windows Command Prompt: 'for %f in (*.mov) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 128k "%~nf.mts"'. This browser-based tool processes one file at a time, so the FFmpeg command is especially useful for batch jobs involving many files or files larger than 1GB.
Technical Notes
MTS files conform to the AVCHD specification, which mandates H.264 (AVC) video encoded within an MPEG-2 Transport Stream container using 188-byte packets. The default conversion command uses libx264 at CRF 23, which produces H.264 Baseline or Main Profile video — standard for AVCHD compatibility. Audio is transcoded to AAC at 128k, which is compliant with the AVCHD spec (AC-3 is also valid AVCHD audio, but AAC is the safer default for broad device support). Notable limitations of the MTS format in this context: no support for transparency or alpha channels, no chapter metadata, and no support for lossless codecs (FLAC or PNG streams present in a MOV source cannot be mapped to MTS). Subtitles can technically be carried in a transport stream but depend heavily on the subtitle type and downstream player support. The transport stream overhead also means MTS files are slightly less storage-efficient than equivalent MP4 or MOV containers at the same encoding parameters. If the source MOV was recorded with -movflags +faststart for web streaming, that atom arrangement has no equivalent in MTS, which uses its own transport stream synchronization mechanism.