Convert MTS to OGA — Free Online Tool
Extract and convert audio from AVCHD camcorder footage (MTS) into OGA files encoded with the Vorbis codec — discarding the H.264 video stream and AC-3/AAC audio entirely in favor of an open, Ogg-encapsulated audio file ideal for archiving narration, ambient sound, or event recordings captured on Sony or Panasonic camcorders.
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FFmpeg Command
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Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
MTS files are AVCHD recordings stored in an MPEG-2 Transport Stream container, typically carrying H.264 video and either AC-3 or AAC audio. When converting to OGA, FFmpeg discards the video stream entirely — OGA is a purely audio container based on the Ogg format and cannot hold video. The AC-3 or AAC audio track is then decoded and re-encoded using the Vorbis codec (libvorbis), which is the standard lossy audio codec for the Ogg ecosystem. This is a full transcode of the audio, not a remux, meaning some generation loss occurs. The output is a self-contained .oga file with Vorbis audio, suitable for open-format audio distribution. Chapter markers from the original MTS file are not preserved since MTS does not support chapters, though OGA does support them natively.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg tool, which handles reading the AVCHD/MPEG-2 Transport Stream container, demuxing the H.264 and audio streams, and encoding the output OGA file. |
-i input.mts
|
Specifies the input MTS file — an AVCHD recording from a Sony or Panasonic camcorder containing an H.264 video stream and AC-3 or AAC audio inside an MPEG-2 Transport Stream container. |
-c:a libvorbis
|
Encodes the audio using the Vorbis codec (libvorbis), which is the standard lossy audio codec for the Ogg container family. The original AC-3 or AAC audio from the MTS file is fully decoded and re-encoded as Vorbis. |
-q:a 4
|
Sets the Vorbis variable-bitrate quality to 4 on a 0–10 scale, targeting approximately 128kbps — a balanced default that handles both speech and ambient audio from camcorder recordings with good fidelity and reasonable file size. |
output.oga
|
Defines the output file as an OGA file — an audio-only Ogg container holding the Vorbis-encoded audio extracted from the AVCHD footage. The video stream from the MTS file is implicitly discarded because OGA cannot hold video streams. |
Common Use Cases
- Extracting spoken commentary or interview audio from AVCHD footage shot on a Sony Handycam or Panasonic HC-series camcorder for use in a podcast or radio production workflow
- Archiving ambient soundscapes, nature recordings, or live event audio captured incidentally on a camcorder when the video content is not needed
- Converting camcorder audio to an open, patent-free format (Vorbis in Ogg) for distribution on platforms or devices that require non-proprietary audio codecs
- Stripping audio from MTS footage to create a clean narration or voiceover track for later re-mixing in an open-source audio editor like Audacity or Ardor
- Reducing storage footprint of large AVCHD recordings when only the audio content — such as a speech, ceremony, or musical performance — needs to be retained long-term
- Preparing camcorder-recorded audio for use in open-source game engines or applications that prefer Ogg Vorbis as their native audio format
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, there is some quality loss because this conversion involves decoding the original AC-3 or AAC audio from the MTS file and re-encoding it as Vorbis — a lossy-to-lossy transcode. The default quality setting (-q:a 4) produces good general-purpose audio at a variable bitrate, but any generational loss from re-encoding is unavoidable. If the source MTS used high-quality AAC or AC-3 at 192kbps or above, the output at q:a 4 will still sound transparent to most listeners for speech and ambient sound. For the highest fidelity, raise the quality value toward 9 or 10.
MTS files contain a full H.264 video stream, which typically accounts for 90–95% of the file's total size. When converting to OGA, FFmpeg discards the video entirely and retains only the audio track, re-encoded as Vorbis. A 1GB AVCHD recording with 60 minutes of footage might produce an OGA file of just 20–50MB depending on the audio quality setting. The reduction reflects the removal of video data, not any aggressive compression of the audio itself.
No. OGA (Ogg audio) does not support multiple audio tracks in a single file. MTS files can carry multiple audio streams — for example, a main mix and a secondary microphone channel — but the FFmpeg command as written will extract only the default audio track. If you need a specific track from a multi-track MTS file, you would add a stream selector like -map 0:a:1 to target the second audio stream before converting to OGA.
Yes. OGA supports FLAC (lossless) as well as Vorbis and Opus. To use FLAC, replace -c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 with -c:a flac in the FFmpeg command. This will produce a lossless audio file, though it will be significantly larger than the Vorbis output. FLAC in OGA is ideal when you want to preserve the audio from your camcorder footage without any further quality degradation, especially if you plan to edit or process the audio afterward.
Adjust the -q:a value, which controls Vorbis variable-bitrate quality on a scale from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest). The default is 4, which targets roughly 128kbps. For higher-quality output suitable for music or high-fidelity recordings from your camcorder, use -q:a 7 or -q:a 9. For smaller files where speech intelligibility is the only concern — such as event narration or interview audio — -q:a 2 or -q:a 3 is typically sufficient. Replace the number in the command: ffmpeg -i input.mts -c:a libvorbis -q:a 7 output.oga.
Yes. On Linux or macOS, you can loop over all MTS files in a directory with: for f in *.mts; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 "${f%.mts}.oga"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.mts) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 "%~nf.oga". This is especially useful when you have a full SD card of AVCHD clips and want to extract all the audio tracks at once.
Technical Notes
MTS files from AVCHD camcorders use a strict MPEG-2 Transport Stream structure with H.264 video and typically AC-3 (Dolby Digital) or AAC audio, often recorded at 48kHz sample rate. When converting to OGA, FFmpeg must fully decode the transport stream's audio PES packets before re-encoding as Vorbis — there is no shortcut remux path since AC-3 and AAC are not valid codecs inside an Ogg container. The Vorbis encoder (libvorbis) works natively at 48kHz, matching the camcorder's typical sample rate, so no sample rate conversion is needed by default. OGA does not support subtitles, so any closed-caption or teletext data embedded in the MTS transport stream is silently dropped. Metadata tags (title, artist, date) can be carried in the OGA file's Vorbis comment block and FFmpeg will attempt to map any metadata from the MTS file, though AVCHD recordings often carry minimal embedded metadata beyond technical stream parameters. Chapter markers are not present in MTS/AVCHD files, so despite OGA's native chapter support, no chapter data will appear in the output. Files over 1GB — common with longer AVCHD recordings at high bitrates — should be processed using the desktop FFmpeg command displayed on this page, as the browser-based tool supports files up to 1GB.