Extract Audio from M2TS to AIFF — Free Online Tool
Extract audio from M2TS Blu-ray and AVCHD files and save it as an uncompressed AIFF file using PCM 16-bit big-endian encoding. This tool is ideal for preserving pristine audio quality from high-definition Blu-ray sources without any lossy compression artifacts.
to
FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
Drop your M2TS file here
or click to browse
Free — no uploads, no signups. Your files never leave your browser.
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
M2TS files are MPEG-2 Transport Stream containers typically carrying multiplexed video (H.264 or H.265) and audio streams — often encoded as AAC, AC-3, DTS, or TrueHD on Blu-ray discs. This conversion strips all video streams entirely and decodes the first audio stream found in the M2TS container, then re-encodes it into uncompressed PCM 16-bit big-endian audio (pcm_s16be) wrapped in an AIFF container. Unlike a simple remux, actual audio decoding and re-encoding to PCM always occurs here, since M2TS audio codecs like AC-3, DTS, or AAC are compressed formats — none of them can be directly placed into an AIFF container without decoding. The result is a lossless, uncompressed AIFF file compatible with macOS audio tools and professional DAWs.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg command-line tool. On this page, the equivalent WebAssembly version (FFmpeg.wasm) runs entirely inside your browser, so no file data leaves your device. |
-i input.m2ts
|
Specifies the input file — an M2TS container, which is the BDAV MPEG-2 Transport Stream format used by Blu-ray discs and AVCHD camcorders. FFmpeg will parse all multiplexed streams inside it, including video, audio, and any subtitle tracks. |
-vn
|
Disables video output entirely, telling FFmpeg to ignore all video streams found in the M2TS file. This is essential for audio extraction — without it, FFmpeg would attempt to include the H.264 or H.265 video stream in the output, which AIFF cannot contain. |
-c:a pcm_s16be
|
Sets the audio codec to PCM 16-bit signed big-endian, which is the native uncompressed PCM format for AIFF files developed by Apple. This decodes whatever compressed audio format exists in the M2TS (such as AAC, AC-3, or DTS) and converts it to raw, uncompressed PCM samples stored in big-endian byte order. |
output.aiff
|
Specifies the output filename with the .aiff extension. FFmpeg uses this extension to determine that the output container should be Apple's Audio Interchange File Format, which wraps the pcm_s16be audio stream in an AIFF-compatible structure readable by macOS, Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and most professional DAWs. |
Common Use Cases
- Extracting the uncompressed audio track from a Blu-ray disc rip (M2TS file) to import into a professional DAW like Logic Pro or Pro Tools for audio mastering or restoration
- Pulling clean concert audio from an AVCHD camcorder recording saved as M2TS, where the video is not needed but the audio quality must be preserved without further lossy compression
- Archiving the audio from a Blu-ray film or documentary in an uncompressed AIFF format for long-term storage on macOS systems without any generation loss
- Isolating dialogue or soundtrack audio from an M2TS broadcast capture to use as source material for video editing projects on Final Cut Pro, which handles AIFF natively
- Converting AVCHD camcorder M2TS recordings to AIFF so audio engineers can analyze or synchronize them with external high-quality audio recorders in post-production
- Extracting audio from a Blu-ray menu or interstitial M2TS clip to repurpose as sound effects or music beds in a macOS-based production workflow
Frequently Asked Questions
There is one decoding step involved: the compressed audio inside the M2TS (such as AAC, AC-3, or DTS) is decoded to raw PCM and then stored uncompressed as AIFF. This decode introduces a negligible theoretical generation loss from the original compressed format, but the resulting AIFF is fully uncompressed and will not degrade further in any subsequent processing. If the M2TS source contains a lossless track like TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio, the decoded AIFF will faithfully represent that lossless source. You cannot recover quality that was lost when the original M2TS was encoded, but you will not lose any additional quality beyond that.
M2TS files store audio in compressed formats — AAC, AC-3, and DTS can reduce audio size by 70–90% compared to uncompressed PCM. AIFF with pcm_s16be codec stores every audio sample as raw 16-bit data with no compression whatsoever, which is why a 1-hour stereo AIFF file at 44.1 kHz consumes roughly 600 MB. Additionally, the M2TS file contained compressed video that is being discarded, so the size comparison can be counterintuitive — the AIFF audio-only file can actually be larger than the original multi-gigabyte M2TS because that file's size was dominated by compressed video, not audio.
By default, FFmpeg selects the first audio stream it finds in the M2TS container, which is typically the primary language track or the default-flagged stream. M2TS files from Blu-ray discs commonly contain multiple audio tracks (e.g., a TrueHD track alongside a Dolby Digital compatibility track, or multiple language dubs). If you need a specific track rather than the default, you can modify the FFmpeg command to add '-map 0:a:1' (for the second audio track, zero-indexed) before the output filename to explicitly target it.
Yes — AIFF supports several PCM variants and the codec in the command can be changed to match your needs. Replace 'pcm_s16be' with 'pcm_s24be' for 24-bit audio (recommended if your M2TS source contains a lossless Blu-ray track like TrueHD or DTS-HD MA, which are often mastered at 24-bit), or 'pcm_s32be' for 32-bit integer PCM. The full modified command would be: ffmpeg -i input.m2ts -vn -c:a pcm_s24be output.aiff. Using 24-bit preserves the full dynamic range of high-resolution Blu-ray audio sources without truncating to 16-bit.
The single-file command shown on this page processes one file at a time, but on the command line you can batch process using a shell loop. On Linux or macOS, run: for f in *.m2ts; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a pcm_s16be "${f%.m2ts}.aiff"; done — this iterates over all M2TS files in the current directory and creates a matching AIFF for each. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.m2ts) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -vn -c:a pcm_s16be "%~nf.aiff". The browser-based tool on this page processes one file per session.
AIFF has limited metadata support compared to formats like FLAC or MP4, and M2TS files typically carry very minimal audio-level metadata anyway since disc-based Blu-ray metadata is managed at the playlist level rather than embedded in the stream. Standard ID3-style tags (title, artist, album) are not reliably carried from M2TS to AIFF by FFmpeg. Chapter markers from M2TS are also not preserved, as AIFF does not support chapter structures. If metadata preservation is critical, consider FLAC as an alternative output format, which has robust tagging support.
Technical Notes
AIFF's pcm_s16be codec stores audio as 16-bit signed integers in big-endian byte order, which is Apple's native PCM specification dating back to the Motorola 68000 architecture. M2TS audio codecs on Blu-ray discs span a wide range — consumer AVCHD camcorders typically use AAC or Linear PCM, while commercial Blu-ray discs carry Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital (AC-3), or DTS as primary tracks. FFmpeg will decode whichever codec is present and resample/convert to 16-bit PCM as needed, meaning high-bit-depth lossless sources (24-bit TrueHD) will be downsampled to 16-bit in this default command. The sample rate of the source is preserved — 48 kHz Blu-ray audio remains 48 kHz in the AIFF output, which is fully valid for AIFF but differs from the 44.1 kHz standard used in CD audio. AIFF does not support multichannel audio beyond stereo in most applications, so if your M2TS contains 5.1 or 7.1 surround audio, the channels will be included in the AIFF stream but playback depends on the downstream application's multichannel AIFF support. Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro handle multichannel AIFF correctly, while simpler macOS audio players may downmix or only play the first two channels.