Importing/converting library of MTS video files without losing metadata - how?

[djplong]

I'm consolidating decades of pictures from a variety of sources into iCloud. Migrating from a mostly Windows PC environment (with iPhones and iPads) to macOS - just bought an M1 MacBook Air as my wife's PC died.

Importing pictures has been going very smoothly. My wife and I love the way Photos organizes media, how you can search on a map or grouped by date.

The challenge: We used two old Sony cameras for HD video up until a couple of years ago (my wife now shoots everything on her iPhone which automatically goes to iCloud, so we're good there). These created MTS files and I can't just drag them to Photos from the external disk I prepped for this purpose. I can't convert these files (yet) on my PC as Handbrake doesn't include the metadata when converting from AVCHD/MTS to MP4 or QT. I have a few hundred of these files to convert and import but CANNOT lose the metadata - at least not the original creation date (which seems to be in the 'date modified' field for some reason). Many of these even have geotags on them. It's CRITICAL that this information be maintained in the conversion/import process.

Everything I've looked up so far doesn't keep the metadata pure or, at best, has an unusable-for-my-wife command line interface.

Thanks in advance for any guidance here!

 

[guzhogi]

Haven't tried it myself so can't guarantee, but have you tried VLC?

 

[HDFan]

I have a few hundred of these files to convert and import but CANNOT lose the metadata - at least not the original creation date (which seems to be in the 'date modified' field for some reason). Many of these even have geotags on them. It's CRITICAL that this information be maintained in the conversion/import process.

You may have to make a choice: import into photos after converting (and lose the metadata), play the original file using a different indexing player (such as Plex, Infuse) or a single player such as VLC. Not many programs will play from icloud, most require that the video files are local.

Make sure you have a 3-2-1 backup strategy in place as iCloud is not a backup service, and you don't want to lose your photos.

 

[jlc1978]

Have you tried iVIPro:

iVI Video Converter Adds Video to iTunes iPhone iPad Apple TV or Plex

The iVI Video Converter makes adding and viewing any video on any Apple devices or the Plex media server simple. iVI Pro can also add movie and TV show posters and other information to the video to make it look fantastic.

southpolesoftware.com

 

[stevejob]

I had the same problem as you. I ended up writing a script for it: https://github.com/SteveHan-233/MTS-mp4-converter-Apple-Photos
Essentially it goes through your photos and executes these commands:

ffmpeg -i NAME.MTS -c:v libx265 -preset fast -crf 28 -tag:v hvc1 -c:a eac3 -b:a 224k output.mp4

exiftool -tagsFromFile "NAME.MTS" -time:all "output.mp4"

which converts the photos and copies over the timestamps