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Converting .mts files to a FinalCut compatible format?

D

DaSal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 19, 2008
308
247
The Netherlands
So my brother got married recently, and asked me to make a nice movie of his wedding day. He put the .mts files from his camera's hard drive on a USB drive and send it to me so I could edit them, however, it turns out FinalCut doesn't read .mts files.

I've been looking for a way to convert them to another file format (preferably without altering the resolution, and without losing too much quality), but all the applications I tried that advertised being able to do it, well, they can't.

Does anybody know of an application that can do this for me?

Thanks! :D
 
I don't know why this continues to be a problem for so many people. Perhaps the implementation of the AVCHD codec varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. I just went to Apples' Final Cut help pages and found the answer quickly, after spending WEEKS reading discussion posts all over the place. This was for a Canon VIXIA HFS11 camera. We have had no problems, following the instructions on the Final Cut help pages.
 
Oh. The current FC Studio supports this transfer best. I think Express also does, but I have Studio. iMac early 2009, OS X 10.6.3.
The absence of a firewire port on the Canon really threw me; I regard it as a stupid omission, but maybe AVCHD does not support it. So the connection is indeed via USB2, plugged directly into the computer preferably. The files in AVCHD are INCREDIBLY compressed, like 13:1 or more, so while the transfer to FC is quick, decompressing takes a while. Have a beer or 2 while you wait. I think it took around a minute per GB decompressed, as my 25 minute file, 1.48GB compressed took around 25 minutes to become a monstrous 25GB or so decompressed file. I choked when I saw that, but did my edit and deleted the files once I'd burned the DVDs. Now I am thinking about external RAID, or at least an external firewire connected drive dedicated to video. Good Luck.
 
NotBrian? said:
I don't know why this continues to be a problem for so many people. Perhaps the implementation of the AVCHD codec varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. I just went to Apples' Final Cut help pages and found the answer quickly, after spending WEEKS reading discussion posts all over the place. This was for a Canon VIXIA HFS11 camera. We have had no problems, following the instructions on the Final Cut help pages.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, once you extract the mts files from the cameras folder content via a drag an drop to another location, the Apple tools get all confused and can't import those copied files. That sounds like what has happened to the OP. Now he has to use some other tool to fix that mistake.

The proper way to make a copy is to copy the entire folder hierarchy of the camera to a folder on the other device. Darn, I just saw a video of this the other day. Wish I could remember where.
 
Did you try Adobe Premiere Pro CS5? You can download a fully functioning trial from their site, giving you 30days to play!

Export to FCP..
Screen_shot_2010-06-02_at_06.26.05-20100602-062624.jpg


or any of those formats with various settings..

Screen_shot_2010-06-02_at_06.19.09-20100602-062335.jpg
 
Will iMovie '10 support MTS files?

Does FCP 7 support MTS files? Will FCP 8 support it? (when does FCP 8 come out?)

Do I need to use Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 to read MTS files?

PS: I have a Panasonic HDC 1080/60p TM-700 camcorder and am looking into setting up a Mac Pro workstation. Which version of Apple's Mac Pro's should I use if I only use video editing for family/children events? Is my MBP 2.8 GHz Core2Duo 4 GB RAM good enough?
 
what happens with AVCHD (mts files) is that in order for final cut pro to recognize it in log and transfer, you have to keep the whole contents of the card. not just the mts file. You have to keep the contents exactly the way they are on the card/camera.
 
puckhead193 said:
what happens with AVCHD (mts files) is that in order for final cut pro to recognize it in log and transfer, you have to keep the whole contents of the card. not just the mts file. You have to keep the contents exactly the way they are on the card/camera.
Click to expand...

Second that, FCP and iMovie needs the other data files to import the .mts files. What I do is back up the entire file structure of my SD card in folders, similar to what you would do with a tape.

Though lets hope the next FCP will support native AVCHD
 
DaSal said:
So my brother got married recently, and asked me to make a nice movie of his wedding day. He put the .mts files from his camera's hard drive on a USB drive and send it to me so I could edit them, however, it turns out FinalCut doesn't read .mts files.

I've been looking for a way to convert them to another file format (preferably without altering the resolution, and without losing too much quality), but all the applications I tried that advertised being able to do it, well, they can't.

Does anybody know of an application that can do this for me?

Thanks! :D
Click to expand...

How have we gotten so many answers without anyone mentioning ClipWrap? I have 3 years worth of MTS files, and the original disk structures are long gone. I suspect the OP has the same problem. ClipWrap should be able to rewrap the native H.264 from the AVCHD MPEG2 transport stream container to an Apple-friendly MOV or MP4 container for iMovie or FCE.
 
I'm using Handbrake to do the converting, and VLC to play the files natively. It works pretty well, just takes forever, on my Intel iMac. The output file can easily be imported into FCX of FCP.
 
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