[Mac OS] How to Convert/Re-wrap AVCHD/MTS using a Freeware Application

[theSUBVERSIVE]

AVCHD is kind of a Video Editing nightmare and it's not so simple to find a way to convert it to a more video-editing-friendly format. There are a lot of paid applications, some of them with Trial versions - but who wants a watermarked video?

I couldn't find a topic like this out there explaining how to do this via Freeware, so that's why I decided to create this one.


[list]
[*][size=12pt][b]If you have the camera, you can import it directly through iMovie, but the problem is that iMovie doesn't recognize the 1080p 60 fps videos, so here it is what I found so far for 1080p60 videos.[/b][/size][/list][br][list][*][size=12pt][b]Re-wrapping seems to be the best way, because it's faster and you don't pass the video through a recompression.[/b][/size]

- RewrapAVCHD: it outputs a m4v video with AC3 audio
- Media Converter ([url=http://media-converter.sourceforge.net/]http://media-converter.sourceforge.net/[/url]) : it outputs MOV file with uncompressed audio
You have to add a preset “Re-wrap AVCHD for Quicktime with uncompressed audio”. The problem is that in Lion OS it shows a message:
[quote]You don't have permission to save the file “Media Converter” in the folder “ Application Support”[/quote]
To prevent it you have to go to Library>Application Suport>Get Info, unlock and change the Admin permission from Read Only to Read & Write and then install the new preset. After that you can restore to Read Only if you want.[/list]
[br][list][*][size=12pt][b]You can also converts it with:[/b][/size]

- Handbrake
- SmartConverter (via App Store)[/list]

Some users may want a direct conversion to ProRes format, but I didn't find a freeware for that, but you can still converts it to ProRes after this re-wrap/conversion step.

There are probably more options out there, so feel free to share it!

[Andrew Reid]

Thanks dude.

Also see here...

[url=http://www.eoshd.com/content/3576/re-wrap-avchd-clips-to-quicktime-in-no-time]http://www.eoshd.com/content/3576/re-wrap-avchd-clips-to-quicktime-in-no-time[/url]

[theSUBVERSIVE]

[quote author=Andrew Reid - EOSHD link=topic=248.msg1666#msg1666 date=1328567831]
Thanks dude.

Also see here...

[url=http://www.eoshd.com/content/3576/re-wrap-avchd-clips-to-quicktime-in-no-time]http://www.eoshd.com/content/3576/re-wrap-avchd-clips-to-quicktime-in-no-time[/url]
[/quote]

Thanks Andrew!

That's the one I had problem with and it seems that it has to do with Lion OS. I looked after the solution out there but there was no answer for the permission problem. So I posted how to "solve" that problem, there are probably other ways to do, but changing the permission was easy and within my knowledge... hehe...

[davybuoy]

This is exactly what I need, but I get this error message when conversion starts:

[mov @ 0x199f600] Application provided invalid, non monotonically increasing dts to muxer in stream 0: 1 >= 1
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted

Any ideas?

[dtr]

[quote author=davybuoy link=topic=248.msg1707#msg1707 date=1328736502]
This is exactly what I need, but I get this error message when conversion starts:

[mov @ 0x199f600] Application provided invalid, non monotonically increasing dts to muxer in stream 0: 1 >= 1
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted

Any ideas?
[/quote]
Same problem with Media Converter here. Any ideas?

[Walter H]

Not intending to be snarky or leave folks with a non-solution, but issues such as this are why I uninstalled Lion and returned to Snow Leopard. Seem to have been chronically bitten in inconvenient moments/ways.

Otherwise, yeah, Media Converter is my preferred "wrapper" for my Nex-5N AVCHD 2.0 files. From there I've also taken to using MPEG Streamclip for converting to ProRes422 outside of FCPX - loads faster and seemingly less cpu-intensive. Needed MC first for MPEG to recognize the 60p files. Willing to be corrected on this workflow tho - still figuring out best practices.

[dtr]

actually my problem with MC is on a snow leopard machine. didn't try my lion desktop yet. it's with a file recorded using the gh2's HBR mode (didn't touch any settings/hacks yet, just unpacked the little beast :]) 

[dtr]

same problem on lion:

[quote][mov @ 0x10182e600] Application provided invalid, non monotonically increasing dts to muxer in stream 0: 1 >= 1
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted
[/quote]

[Axel]

Not intending to be snarky or leave folks with a non-solution, but issues such as this are why I uninstalled Lion and returned to Snow Leopard. Seem to have been chronically bitten in inconvenient moments/ways.

Otherwise, yeah, Media Converter is my preferred "wrapper" for my Nex-5N AVCHD 2.0 files. From there I've also taken to using MPEG Streamclip for converting to ProRes422 outside of FCPX - loads faster and seemingly less cpu-intensive. Needed MC first for MPEG to recognize the 60p files. Willing to be corrected on this workflow tho - still figuring out best practices.

 

Mountain Lion costs 16 €, I'm not sure how many Dollars. Since the upgrade, AVCHD is played natively by QT-Player. If you *import* it into FCP X, which I recommend without optimized media (ProRes) checked in preferences, it will be wrapped fullyautomatically, secretly in the background. If you are unsure, if 1080 60p is accepted as such, look at the info window, I bet it is.

 

FCP X was terrible in Snowleo, it was better in Lion, now it's really good. Always wait two months before upgrading your OS for bug experiences of others. Never wait a year, or you can as well change to Windows.

 

FCP X isn't a very CPU-oriented software. It eats RAM to seamlessly skim over a giant event, it eats VRAM to perform in realtime. It is faster than Premiere on the same Mac and *almost* as stable.

 

If your Mac is fast enough, don't use ProRes as intermediate. If it has enough realtime-performance, disable background rendering. Use ProRes as online-codec, then use ProResHQ.

[peederj]

If your Mac is fast enough, don't use ProRes as intermediate. If it has enough realtime-performance, disable background rendering. Use ProRes as online-codec, then use ProResHQ.

 

I think you'll find this backwards. Your render format should be at least as good and ideally identical to your export format. Because FCPX will use your rendered frames in export if the formats are equal. That's why "Export Master File" works quickly if the project is fully rendered. If you are going to only export once, you don't need to bother with rendering, but I like to render and then export master file because changes are inevitably requested and that makes things a lot faster avoiding re-rendering. The rendering done for export sadly does not get cached for future exports otherwise (though you could I suppose drag in the export and blade it up as a cache).

 

If you aren't going to do any renders, or trash your renders, then it doesn't matter FCPX will always go back to the original media to render from. The "optimized media" is never rendered from only used for previews in the editor. You are correct on a fast machine you can skip optimized media entirely as I tend to.

 

So if you want ProRes HQ output use it for the project render format as well as exporting to it and then on to Compressor etc. for grid-accelerated transcoding to H.264 or whatever. But ProRes HQ should really just be considered an archival format at the moment...the best YouTube/Vimeo do right now is a miserable 5Mbps (10Mbps peak) H.264, and even Blu-ray is only 40Mbps, wiping out all detail the HQ could conceivably give you.

[Axel]

Reasonable. Also the part with the re-imported masters. I don't find it backward, I just wanted to contradict the 'can't edit with AVCHD.'

[Lee Nana]

hi guys, there still freeware supports to convert MTS video to other friendly formats such as MOV, MP4, AVI etc; Handbrake and Freemake are all good selection, completely free and no other cost. Handbrake has both windows and Mac version. all great for [url=http://www.abettersoft.com/how-to/convert-mts-to-mov-mac.html]converting MTS[/url] to mov/avi and other foramts