Extract Audio from MTS to AIFF — Free Online Tool
Extract clean, uncompressed audio from AVCHD camcorder footage (.mts) and save it as an AIFF file — preserving full fidelity by converting the AC-3 or AAC audio track to 16-bit PCM, the lossless format natively supported by macOS and professional audio software.
to
FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
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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 store audio in a compressed lossy format — typically AC-3 (Dolby Digital) or AAC — inside an MPEG-2 Transport Stream container alongside H.264 video. During this conversion, FFmpeg discards the video stream entirely and decodes the compressed audio track to raw PCM samples, then packages those samples into an AIFF container using the pcm_s16be codec (16-bit big-endian signed PCM). This is a decode-then-re-encode operation on the audio, but since the output is uncompressed PCM, the AIFF file represents the full fidelity achievable from the source — no additional lossy compression is applied. The result is a lossless AIFF file whose audio quality is bounded only by the quality of the original MTS audio track.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg media processing tool. In this browser-based tool, FFmpeg runs via WebAssembly (ffmpeg.wasm) entirely in your browser — no data leaves your device. The same command works identically in a terminal if FFmpeg is installed on your desktop. |
-i input.mts
|
Specifies the input file — an MTS file from an AVCHD camcorder. FFmpeg reads the MPEG-2 Transport Stream container and identifies the H.264 video and AC-3 or AAC audio streams inside it. |
-vn
|
Disables video output entirely, telling FFmpeg to ignore the H.264 video stream in the MTS file. Since we only want the audio track extracted into AIFF, this prevents any video data from being processed or included in the output. |
-c:a pcm_s16be
|
Decodes the compressed audio (AC-3 or AAC) from the MTS file and re-encodes it as signed 16-bit big-endian PCM — the native uncompressed audio codec used by the AIFF format. Big-endian byte order is required for AIFF compatibility with macOS and Apple software. |
output.aiff
|
Defines the output filename and format. The .aiff extension tells FFmpeg to package the PCM audio into an Audio Interchange File Format container, which is the standard lossless audio format on macOS and widely supported by professional audio applications. |
Common Use Cases
- Importing interview or event audio recorded on a Sony or Panasonic AVCHD camcorder into Logic Pro or GarageBand for editing and mixing
- Archiving the audio from AVCHD family or documentary footage as a lossless AIFF master before sharing or transcoding to other formats
- Extracting location sound from MTS camcorder clips to sync with separately recorded video in Final Cut Pro on macOS
- Cleaning up AC-3 or AAC audio from camcorder recordings by lifting it into an uncompressed format for noise reduction in audio restoration tools like iZotope RX
- Preparing raw spoken-word recordings from an AVCHD camcorder for transcription or voice-over workflows that require uncompressed audio input
- Separating the audio track from large MTS video files to reduce the file size passed to an audio editor while keeping the original video untouched
Frequently Asked Questions
Not exactly — the AIFF output is an uncompressed, lossless representation of whatever audio data was encoded in the MTS file, but it cannot recover information that was discarded when the AC-3 or AAC audio was originally recorded by the camcorder. Think of it as losslessly preserving the lossy source: no further quality is lost during this conversion, but the audio ceiling is set by the original compressed recording. If your camcorder recorded AC-3 at 224 kbps or AAC at 128 kbps, that is the quality captured in the AIFF.
MTS stores audio in compressed formats like AC-3 or AAC, which can reduce audio data by a factor of 5–10x compared to raw PCM. AIFF with pcm_s16be is completely uncompressed, so a stereo 16-bit 48 kHz audio track takes approximately 5.6 MB per minute. A 10-minute MTS clip whose AC-3 audio track was only ~17 MB could produce an AIFF file of 50–60 MB or more. This is expected and normal — it reflects the removal of compression, not duplication of data.
AIFF technically supports multi-channel PCM audio, and FFmpeg can decode a 5.1 AC-3 track from an MTS file into a 6-channel AIFF file using pcm_s16be. However, many macOS applications and consumer tools expect stereo AIFF and may handle multichannel AIFF inconsistently. If your MTS file contains 5.1 audio and you need stereo output, you can add the -ac 2 flag to the FFmpeg command to downmix to stereo during conversion.
The default command uses pcm_s16be, which produces 16-bit audio. To get 24-bit output — preferred in professional audio workflows — change the codec flag to -c:a pcm_s24be. The full command would be: ffmpeg -i input.mts -vn -c:a pcm_s24be output.aiff. If your camcorder originally recorded at 16-bit (which most consumer AVCHD camcorders do), 24-bit output will not add real precision, but it is harmless and may be required by certain professional workflows.
Yes. On macOS or Linux you can run a shell loop: for f in *.mts; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a pcm_s16be "${f%.mts}.aiff"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.mts) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -vn -c:a pcm_s16be "%~nf.aiff". This is especially useful for processing a full card of AVCHD recordings at once, which is a common workflow when backing up camcorder footage.
MTS files may carry metadata in the MPEG-2 Transport Stream headers, and Sony and Panasonic camcorders sometimes embed recording timestamps. AIFF has limited metadata support compared to formats like FLAC or MP4, and FFmpeg typically does not map AVCHD-specific metadata into AIFF tags. You should not rely on the AIFF file to preserve camcorder metadata — if this information matters, keep the original MTS files as your archival master.
Technical Notes
AIFF stores audio using big-endian PCM, which is why FFmpeg selects the pcm_s16be codec (signed 16-bit big-endian) by default — this matches AIFF's native byte order as defined by Apple and ensures maximum compatibility with macOS applications including QuickTime Player, Logic Pro, and Final Cut Pro. AVCHD camcorders typically record at 48 kHz sample rate, and FFmpeg preserves this sample rate in the AIFF output without resampling unless you explicitly request a change. One important limitation: AIFF does not support multiple audio tracks, so if your MTS file contains multiple audio streams (a rare but possible configuration in broadcast AVCHD), only the first audio stream will be extracted. MTS files from AVCHD camcorders are also sometimes stored as part of a larger AVCHD directory structure (BDMV/STREAM/), and you may need to point FFmpeg directly at individual .mts files rather than the folder. Processing large MTS files in the browser via WebAssembly may be slower than native FFmpeg due to memory constraints, so for files over 1 GB the displayed FFmpeg command is the recommended approach for desktop use.