Convert MTS to MPEG — Free Online Tool
Convert AVCHD camcorder footage (.mts) to MPEG format, re-encoding the H.264 video stream to MPEG-2 and the AC-3/AAC audio to MP2. Ideal for preparing Sony or Panasonic camcorder recordings for legacy broadcast systems, DVD authoring pipelines, or older editing software that cannot handle H.264 transport streams.
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FFmpeg Command
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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
MTS files use the MPEG-2 Transport Stream container with H.264 video and typically AC-3 or AAC audio — a modern, high-efficiency codec combination designed for camcorders. MPEG output, by contrast, requires MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video with MP2 or MP3 audio. Because neither the video nor audio codec is compatible between these formats, this conversion performs a full transcode: the H.264 video is decoded frame-by-frame and re-encoded as MPEG-2 video using the mpeg2video encoder, while the audio is decoded and re-encoded as MP2 at 192k bitrate. The Transport Stream container structure (with its packetized elementary streams and PCR timestamps used for broadcast sync) is entirely discarded and replaced with the simpler MPEG program stream container. This means features like multiple audio tracks, which MTS supports for dual-language camcorder recordings, are reduced to a single audio track in the output.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg command-line tool, which handles all decoding, transcoding, and muxing for this MTS-to-MPEG conversion. |
-i input.mts
|
Specifies the input AVCHD file in MTS format — the MPEG-2 Transport Stream container from your Sony or Panasonic camcorder, containing H.264 video and AC-3 or AAC audio. |
-c:v mpeg2video
|
Tells FFmpeg to re-encode the video stream using the MPEG-2 video encoder, fully decoding the H.264 video from the MTS and compressing it to the legacy MPEG-2 standard required by the output format. |
-c:a mp2
|
Instructs FFmpeg to encode the audio as MP2 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer II), decoding the AC-3 or AAC audio from the camcorder recording and re-encoding it as the standard audio codec for MPEG program stream files. |
-q:v 2
|
Sets the MPEG-2 video quality to 2 on a scale of 1–31 (lower is higher quality), producing near-maximum quality output at the cost of larger file size — appropriate for preserving as much detail as possible from the original camcorder footage. |
-b:a 192k
|
Sets the MP2 audio bitrate to 192 kilobits per second, which is the standard bitrate for broadcast-quality MP2 audio and a common requirement for DVD-compatible MPEG-2 streams. |
output.mpeg
|
Defines the output filename with the .mpeg extension, which signals FFmpeg to write an MPEG program stream container — the standard encapsulation for MPEG-2 video and MP2 audio used by legacy players and broadcast systems. |
Common Use Cases
- Importing Sony or Panasonic camcorder footage into legacy non-linear editing software (such as older versions of Avid or Final Cut Pro) that cannot natively decode H.264 inside an MTS transport stream container.
- Preparing AVCHD camcorder recordings for DVD authoring workflows that require MPEG-2 video and MP2 audio as input to DVD multiplexers.
- Delivering video content to broadcast playout systems or transmission equipment that require standard MPEG-2 program stream files rather than H.264 transport streams.
- Archiving camcorder footage in a widely-readable MPEG-2 format for long-term playback compatibility on hardware DVD players and legacy media centers that cannot decode MTS or H.264.
- Converting wedding or event recordings shot on AVCHD camcorders to MPEG for clients who need to play them on older televisions with USB MPEG playback support.
- Transcoding MTS footage captured from a Panasonic or Sony camcorder into a format compatible with older video kiosk or digital signage systems that only support MPEG-2 playback.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, there will be some quality loss because this is a generation loss transcode — the H.264 video is fully decoded and re-encoded as MPEG-2, and MPEG-2 is a less efficient codec than H.264. To achieve equivalent visual quality, MPEG-2 typically requires roughly two to three times the bitrate of H.264. The default quality setting (-q:v 2) used by this tool is the highest quality end of the MPEG-2 scale, which minimizes visible degradation, but for footage with fine detail or fast motion you may notice some softening or blocking compared to the original MTS file.
The MPEG program stream format does not support multiple audio tracks — it is a single-program container designed for one video and one audio stream. Your MTS camcorder file may contain a second audio track (common on dual-channel microphone setups or dual-language recordings in AVCHD), but FFmpeg will mux only the first detected audio track into the MPEG output. If you need a specific audio track, you can add '-map 0:a:1' to the FFmpeg command before the output filename to select the second audio track instead.
Yes, many Sony and Panasonic AVCHD camcorders record AC-3 (Dolby Digital) audio inside MTS files. Since the MPEG format uses MP2 audio by default, the AC-3 stream is fully decoded and re-encoded as MP2 at 192k bitrate during this conversion. MP2 is a stereo codec without surround sound support, so if your original AC-3 audio was 5.1 surround, it will be downmixed to stereo in the MPEG output.
The video quality for MPEG-2 output is controlled by the '-q:v' flag, which accepts values from 1 (highest quality, largest file) to 31 (lowest quality, smallest file). The default in this tool is '-q:v 2', which produces near-maximum quality. To reduce file size at the cost of quality, try '-q:v 5' or '-q:v 8'. For example, the full command with a lower quality setting would be: ffmpeg -i input.mts -c:v mpeg2video -c:a mp2 -q:v 5 -b:a 192k output.mpeg.
Yes, on Linux or macOS you can use a shell loop: 'for f in *.mts; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v mpeg2video -c:a mp2 -q:v 2 -b:a 192k "${f%.mts}.mpeg"; done'. On Windows Command Prompt, use: 'for %f in (*.mts) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v mpeg2video -c:a mp2 -q:v 2 -b:a 192k "%~nf.mpeg"'. The in-browser tool processes one file at a time, so the FFmpeg command is the best option for bulk conversion of large camcorder card dumps.
No. MTS files from Sony and Panasonic camcorders often embed metadata such as recording timecode, GPS coordinates, and camera model information in the transport stream headers and SEI NAL units of the H.264 stream. The MPEG program stream format has no standardized equivalent for most of this metadata, and FFmpeg does not attempt to remap it during the transcode. If preserving this camcorder metadata is important, consider keeping the original MTS file as your archive master and using the MPEG output only for distribution or compatibility purposes.
Technical Notes
MPEG-2 video encoded with the mpeg2video encoder in FFmpeg uses intra (I), predictive (P), and bidirectional (B) frames, just as the original H.264 in the MTS file does, but MPEG-2's discrete cosine transform-based compression is significantly less efficient than H.264's advanced entropy coding and variable block-size motion compensation. The resulting MPEG file at '-q:v 2' will typically be 2–4x larger than the source MTS for equivalent visual quality — expect 1080i AVCHD footage to produce MPEG-2 output in the range of 15–25 Mbps at this quality level. The MPEG container (program stream, .mpeg) does not support subtitle streams, chapters, or multiple audio tracks, so any of these elements present in the MTS source are silently dropped. Interlaced video from camcorders (common in 1080i AVCHD) is preserved as interlaced MPEG-2 by default, which is correct for broadcast and DVD use but may cause combing artifacts on progressive displays if the file is played without deinterlacing. If you intend to play the output on a modern screen, adding '-vf yadif' to the command will deinterlace during the transcode.