Video conversion programs
Discussion
We've recently bought a HD Panasonic video camera which records in Sony/Panasonic's "MTS" propriety video format. I'm looking for a good free (or cheap) program and/or codec to convert these files to standard MPEG4 (or MPEG2 would do) format. All of the free ones I've tried so far give absolutely terrible quality output, and the trials of the ones you pay for haven't exactly been perfect.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Anyone have any suggestions?
Not tried the MTS format, but miro will convert pretty much anything. It's very good, easy to use, and best of all it's open source 
http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/
http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/
Some of these tools will work, but they're likely to be slooooow in handling MTS files; they always benefit from an application that can leverage the GPU.
Personal preference isn't free, but it can make extensive use of the Cuda architecture and can do real-time encoding even on my netbook (NVidia/ION based netbooks seem pretty rare?).
Personal preference isn't free, but it can make extensive use of the Cuda architecture and can do real-time encoding even on my netbook (NVidia/ION based netbooks seem pretty rare?).
Interesting. I play MTS files without conversion using Windows Media Centre and Xbox combo for telly in lounge. For upload and iphone I use the default conversion settings in Handbrake for ipad. Cant say I have noticed a problem with quality but then again the screen size is tiny compared to plasma in lounge.
Are the MTS files from a HD video camera, i.e. AVCHD files? I'm fairly sure AVCHD is H.264 video and AC3 audio in a container. If your device can play an MKV file (most devices that can play DIVX are) you could save a huge amount of time by using tsMuxeR to demux the MTS file into an H.264 stream and an AC3 stream. Then use MKVMerge to mux the streams into an MKV file thus no re-coding and quality issues.
EDIT: Sorry.. this doesn't answer your question!
Are the MTS files from a HD video camera, i.e. AVCHD files? I'm fairly sure AVCHD is H.264 video and AC3 audio in a container. If your device can play an MKV file (most devices that can play DIVX are) you could save a huge amount of time by using tsMuxeR to demux the MTS file into an H.264 stream and an AC3 stream. Then use MKVMerge to mux the streams into an MKV file thus no re-coding and quality issues.
EDIT: Sorry.. this doesn't answer your question!
It's not playing them that's the problem, plenty of things will do that. It's editing them.
The camera's native resolution is 1020p. Not sure about the exact details of the file format, I don't really know a great deal about video formats. The files come off the camera as .mts or .mt2s depending on whether I pull the files straight off the card, or use Panasonic's software to download them.
When I use handbrake to convert them to mp4 or mp2, there are huge horizontal lines running through the entire image.
The camera's native resolution is 1020p. Not sure about the exact details of the file format, I don't really know a great deal about video formats. The files come off the camera as .mts or .mt2s depending on whether I pull the files straight off the card, or use Panasonic's software to download them.
When I use handbrake to convert them to mp4 or mp2, there are huge horizontal lines running through the entire image.
Pass. I've not seen that before. I just click convert and away it goes using files from Sony and Panasonic Camera. Has the 'puter with Handbrake got enough grunt and disk space?
Found this on handbrake FAQ
Decomb / Deinterlace
A slider bar toggles between controls for the decomb filter and the deinterlacing filter. Both filters handle deinterlacing, and only can be used at a time.
Decomb
If you see combing or mouse teeth (horizontal lines) in the preview images, you should apply deinterlacing.
But deinterlacing is slow and reduces picture quality. And a lot of the time it isn't necessary. And it's not always easy to know a video is interlaced just from looking at previews. And then you waste a bunch of time deinterlacing frames in interlaced video that don't even show combing, slowing down your encode.
Wouldn't it be nice you could tell HandBrake to just deinterlace a frame if it's interlaced?
That's what Decomb does. It should be safe to leave it on all the time with a setting of Default. By selecting Custom, a text field will appear where you can directly set the decomb filter parameters.
Deinterlace
If you see combing or teeth (horizontal lines) in the preview images, choose a method from the Deinterlace pop-up menu. If that makes the lines go away, keep it enabled. For a fuller explanation, see the Deinterlacing Guide.
Be aware that there is no difference in the previews no matter which deinterlacing method you choose. Single frame previews can only be filtered by "Fast." Even though you can't tell a difference from what happens to the still previews, fast deinterlacing seriously reduces picture quality compared to the slow methods, while the slow deinterlacing methods will seriously reduce your encoding speeds compared to the fast method.
If you don't see horizontal lines, and enabling deinterlacing doesn't seem to improve the picture in the previews, disable it. You're better off leaving it disabled except when it's absolutely needed, because it will slow down encoding times and reduce picture quality for any frame that is not interlaced.
"Fast deinterlacing" is the FFmpeg project's internal deinterlacer, avpicture_deinterlace. "Slow" and "Slower" are yadif, from the MPlayer project.
Found this on handbrake FAQ
Decomb / Deinterlace
A slider bar toggles between controls for the decomb filter and the deinterlacing filter. Both filters handle deinterlacing, and only can be used at a time.
Decomb
If you see combing or mouse teeth (horizontal lines) in the preview images, you should apply deinterlacing.
But deinterlacing is slow and reduces picture quality. And a lot of the time it isn't necessary. And it's not always easy to know a video is interlaced just from looking at previews. And then you waste a bunch of time deinterlacing frames in interlaced video that don't even show combing, slowing down your encode.
Wouldn't it be nice you could tell HandBrake to just deinterlace a frame if it's interlaced?
That's what Decomb does. It should be safe to leave it on all the time with a setting of Default. By selecting Custom, a text field will appear where you can directly set the decomb filter parameters.
Deinterlace
If you see combing or teeth (horizontal lines) in the preview images, choose a method from the Deinterlace pop-up menu. If that makes the lines go away, keep it enabled. For a fuller explanation, see the Deinterlacing Guide.
Be aware that there is no difference in the previews no matter which deinterlacing method you choose. Single frame previews can only be filtered by "Fast." Even though you can't tell a difference from what happens to the still previews, fast deinterlacing seriously reduces picture quality compared to the slow methods, while the slow deinterlacing methods will seriously reduce your encoding speeds compared to the fast method.
If you don't see horizontal lines, and enabling deinterlacing doesn't seem to improve the picture in the previews, disable it. You're better off leaving it disabled except when it's absolutely needed, because it will slow down encoding times and reduce picture quality for any frame that is not interlaced.
"Fast deinterlacing" is the FFmpeg project's internal deinterlacer, avpicture_deinterlace. "Slow" and "Slower" are yadif, from the MPlayer project.
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff