editing .mts video

[Dee[_6_]]

I have XP SP3 (not Media Center) and I'd like to edit several .mts video files.
Movie Maker 5.1 can't open that format. I'd rather not convert the video, if
possible.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to do this?

Thanks.

[Paul]

Dee wrote:
> I have XP SP3 (not Media Center) and I'd like to edit several .mts video files.
> Movie Maker 5.1 can't open that format. I'd rather not convert the video, if
> possible.
>
> Does anyone have any recommendations on how to do this?
>
> Thanks.

Wikipedia says it is a container format (like AVI or Apple Quicktime MOV
or Matroska MKV is a container format). It can be sourced a couple of
ways, from BluRay discs, or from an AVCHD camera. Different CODECs are
involved with the source (not that this matters all that much).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.m2ts

You should do a site search against videohelp.com. In your
favorite search engine, try

site:videohelp.com mts editor

and you can find a link like this.

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/355482-Cheap-or-free-MTS-editor

"I'm trying out Sony Vegas Pro 12 I believe it is on a friends
computer. So far it's fairly easy to use.. I imported MTS files,
I added a title and a logo and a transition and fade in and out."

For disposition to optical media, that is "Authoring" and
at one time, authoring BluRay looked pretty bleak. I don't
know if that has changed or not. So you might end up
buying one tool to edit the chapters, and another tool
to assemble them if you plan on distributing for playback
on standalone players. And if you intended to distribute
some other way, staying in MTS might be a liability.

If you intended to stay in that format for the entire
project, you'd probably want a "frame accurate editor".
Editors can work on video two ways. They could do operations
at the end of a GOP, on an i-frame. Whereas with a "frame
accurate editor", it can edit on any arbitrary frame
(in the middle of a GOP). And implicit in this (the part
you really want), is that the video doesn't need to be
re-compressed later. That's if you were snipping or joining.
Even a special effect might be a joining and not need re-compression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_pictures

You will probably end up paying money for an editor,
but the nice thing is, trial versions are available
for a limited time period. Some will apply a watermark
to the output, so you can't get a "free lunch", but at
least you'll be able to see whether they can open
and save the video, and you'll also see whether there
is a six hour delay while it recompresses, or it is
done in mere minutes.

If you need the names of some video editors, videohelp.com
has a page for that, but you can also find them on
Wikipedia. The videohelp list is pretty thin.

http://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/video-editors-h264-avc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software

Now, one of them I just looked at, could *import* MTS,
but not *export* it. Which makes the tool rather
useless for your purpose. And also implies it isn't interested
in doing frame accurate edits either (recompress to new format).

This is an example of a more expensive product. So
now we're headed out of the "$99 editor" range.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan11/articles/grass-valley-edius-6.htm

I think I'd just give Sony Vegas a try first, as it's more
likely to be affordable. There is probably more than one
"trim level" of Vegas, requiring a selection before you
trial one of them.

Paul

[Dee[_6_]]

Paul > wrote in :

> Dee wrote:
>> I have XP SP3 (not Media Center) and I'd like to edit several
>> .mts video files. Movie Maker 5.1 can't open that format. I'd
>> rather not convert the video, if possible.
>>
>> Does anyone have any recommendations on how to do this?
>>
>> Thanks.
>
> Wikipedia says it is a container format (like AVI or Apple
> Quicktime MOV or Matroska MKV is a container format). It can be
> sourced a couple of ways, from BluRay discs, or from an AVCHD
> camera. Different CODECs are involved with the source (not that
> this matters all that much).
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.m2ts
>
> You should do a site search against videohelp.com. In your
> favorite search engine, try
>
> site:videohelp.com mts editor
>
> and you can find a link like this.
>
> http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/355482-Cheap-or-free-MTS-editor
>
> "I'm trying out Sony Vegas Pro 12 I believe it is on a friends
> computer. So far it's fairly easy to use.. I imported MTS
> files, I added a title and a logo and a transition and fade
> in and out."
>
> For disposition to optical media, that is "Authoring" and
> at one time, authoring BluRay looked pretty bleak. I don't
> know if that has changed or not. So you might end up
> buying one tool to edit the chapters, and another tool
> to assemble them if you plan on distributing for playback
> on standalone players. And if you intended to distribute
> some other way, staying in MTS might be a liability.
>
> If you intended to stay in that format for the entire
> project, you'd probably want a "frame accurate editor".
> Editors can work on video two ways. They could do operations
> at the end of a GOP, on an i-frame. Whereas with a "frame
> accurate editor", it can edit on any arbitrary frame
> (in the middle of a GOP). And implicit in this (the part
> you really want), is that the video doesn't need to be
> re-compressed later. That's if you were snipping or joining.
> Even a special effect might be a joining and not need
> re-compression.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_pictures
>
> You will probably end up paying money for an editor,
> but the nice thing is, trial versions are available
> for a limited time period. Some will apply a watermark
> to the output, so you can't get a "free lunch", but at
> least you'll be able to see whether they can open
> and save the video, and you'll also see whether there
> is a six hour delay while it recompresses, or it is
> done in mere minutes.
>
> If you need the names of some video editors, videohelp.com
> has a page for that, but you can also find them on
> Wikipedia. The videohelp list is pretty thin.
>
> http://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/video-editors-h264-avc
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software
>
> Now, one of them I just looked at, could *import* MTS,
> but not *export* it. Which makes the tool rather
> useless for your purpose. And also implies it isn't interested
> in doing frame accurate edits either (recompress to new format).
>
> This is an example of a more expensive product. So
> now we're headed out of the "$99 editor" range.
>
> http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan11/articles/grass-valley-edius-6
> .htm
>
> I think I'd just give Sony Vegas a try first, as it's more
> likely to be affordable. There is probably more than one
> "trim level" of Vegas, requiring a selection before you
> trial one of them.
>
> Paul

Thanks for your response. It looks like Sony Vegas requires a
minimum of Win 7. It's also $600, but that's a moot point ;-) Grass
Valley Edius also requires at least Win 7.

All I want to do is clip a minute or so from the beginning of a video
and a minute or so from the end. Nothing fancy.

Dee

[Paul]

Dee wrote:

>
> Thanks for your response. It looks like Sony Vegas requires a
> minimum of Win 7. It's also $600, but that's a moot point ;-) Grass
> Valley Edius also requires at least Win 7.
>
> All I want to do is clip a minute or so from the beginning of a video
> and a minute or so from the end. Nothing fancy.
>
> Dee

Go through the list for the "clip and snip". Make
sure the product description, matches the scenarios
in the Wikipedia MTS/M2TS article (off a BluRay, or
from an AVCHD camera). Technically, the content could
be quite different from those. For some cameras,
the camera comes with its own software to handle
the format.

http://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/video-editors-h264-avc

As for Vegas, it's a family of software, ranging from sub-$100
to the expensive one you found. I'm not a movie person, but I
know that a few people use this stuff. You will need to read
the product descriptions carefully, then see if a trial
version is available for testing. And while testing you
can see if it is "frame accurate, no compression", "clip
to the nearest GOP", or "makes a big mess and recompresses everything".

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegassoftware

Paul

[Bill in Co]

Dee wrote:
> Paul > wrote in :
>
>> Dee wrote:
>>> I have XP SP3 (not Media Center) and I'd like to edit several
>>> .mts video files. Movie Maker 5.1 can't open that format. I'd
>>> rather not convert the video, if possible.
>>>
>>> Does anyone have any recommendations on how to do this?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>
>> Wikipedia says it is a container format (like AVI or Apple
>> Quicktime MOV or Matroska MKV is a container format). It can be
>> sourced a couple of ways, from BluRay discs, or from an AVCHD
>> camera. Different CODECs are involved with the source (not that
>> this matters all that much).
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.m2ts
>>
>> You should do a site search against videohelp.com. In your
>> favorite search engine, try
>>
>> site:videohelp.com mts editor
>>
>> and you can find a link like this.
>>
>> http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/355482-Cheap-or-free-MTS-editor
>>
>> "I'm trying out Sony Vegas Pro 12 I believe it is on a friends
>> computer. So far it's fairly easy to use.. I imported MTS
>> files, I added a title and a logo and a transition and fade
>> in and out."
>>
>> For disposition to optical media, that is "Authoring" and
>> at one time, authoring BluRay looked pretty bleak. I don't
>> know if that has changed or not. So you might end up
>> buying one tool to edit the chapters, and another tool
>> to assemble them if you plan on distributing for playback
>> on standalone players. And if you intended to distribute
>> some other way, staying in MTS might be a liability.
>>
>> If you intended to stay in that format for the entire
>> project, you'd probably want a "frame accurate editor".
>> Editors can work on video two ways. They could do operations
>> at the end of a GOP, on an i-frame. Whereas with a "frame
>> accurate editor", it can edit on any arbitrary frame
>> (in the middle of a GOP). And implicit in this (the part
>> you really want), is that the video doesn't need to be
>> re-compressed later. That's if you were snipping or joining.
>> Even a special effect might be a joining and not need
>> re-compression.
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_pictures
>>
>> You will probably end up paying money for an editor,
>> but the nice thing is, trial versions are available
>> for a limited time period. Some will apply a watermark
>> to the output, so you can't get a "free lunch", but at
>> least you'll be able to see whether they can open
>> and save the video, and you'll also see whether there
>> is a six hour delay while it recompresses, or it is
>> done in mere minutes.
>>
>> If you need the names of some video editors, videohelp.com
>> has a page for that, but you can also find them on
>> Wikipedia. The videohelp list is pretty thin.
>>
>> http://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/video-editors-h264-avc
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software
>>
>> Now, one of them I just looked at, could *import* MTS,
>> but not *export* it. Which makes the tool rather
>> useless for your purpose. And also implies it isn't interested
>> in doing frame accurate edits either (recompress to new format).
>>
>> This is an example of a more expensive product. So
>> now we're headed out of the "$99 editor" range.
>>
>> http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan11/articles/grass-valley-edius-6
>> .htm
>>
>> I think I'd just give Sony Vegas a try first, as it's more
>> likely to be affordable. There is probably more than one
>> "trim level" of Vegas, requiring a selection before you
>> trial one of them.
>>
>> Paul
>
> Thanks for your response. It looks like Sony Vegas requires a
> minimum of Win 7. It's also $600, but that's a moot point ;-) Grass
> Valley Edius also requires at least Win 7.
>
> All I want to do is clip a minute or so from the beginning of a video
> and a minute or so from the end. Nothing fancy.
>
> Dee

If that's all you need, you'd probably just need a video cutter, and not a
full featured video editor.

I put mts video cutter into Google, and saw a few possibilities (several
free) that you might want to check out. e.g: TS Sniper, Free Video Cutter,
AVCHD MTS Cutter, etc). Alternatively, you could expand your search to a
MTS video editor, but those won't be free (although there seem to be some
that are more affordable than Sony, but not as full featured, say like from
Wondershare, or whatever).

And as Paul said, videohelp.com is a great reference website on all things
video. I don't have any experience with MTS or camera video, so I can't
tell you more on that (I just do simple edits on h264 mp4 videos, etc).

[Bill in Co]

Addendum:

Possibly add SolveigMM Video Splitter to the list of potential candidates.
I've used it on mp4 files (.h264) to good advantage. It's not very
expensive, either ($50), and you can try out the demo or trial.

http://www.solveigmm.com/en/products/video-splitter/

[Dee[_6_]]

"Bill in Co" > wrote in
:

> If that's all you need, you'd probably just need a video cutter,
> and not a full featured video editor.
>
> I put mts video cutter into Google, and saw a few possibilities
> (several free) that you might want to check out. e.g: TS Sniper,
> Free Video Cutter, AVCHD MTS Cutter, etc). Alternatively, you
> could expand your search to a MTS video editor, but those won't be
> free (although there seem to be some that are more affordable than
> Sony, but not as full featured, say like from Wondershare, or
> whatever).
>
> And as Paul said, videohelp.com is a great reference website on
> all things video. I don't have any experience with MTS or camera
> video, so I can't tell you more on that (I just do simple edits on
> h264 mp4 videos, etc).

I didn't know there was such a thing as a video cutter. I will check
these out. Thanks!

Dee

[Bill in Co]

Dee wrote:
> "Bill in Co" > wrote in
> :
>
>> If that's all you need, you'd probably just need a video cutter,
>> and not a full featured video editor.
>>
>> I put mts video cutter into Google, and saw a few possibilities
>> (several free) that you might want to check out. e.g: TS Sniper,
>> Free Video Cutter, AVCHD MTS Cutter, etc). Alternatively, you
>> could expand your search to a MTS video editor, but those won't be
>> free (although there seem to be some that are more affordable than
>> Sony, but not as full featured, say like from Wondershare, or
>> whatever).
>>
>> And as Paul said, videohelp.com is a great reference website on
>> all things video. I don't have any experience with MTS or camera
>> video, so I can't tell you more on that (I just do simple edits on
>> h264 mp4 videos, etc).
>
> I didn't know there was such a thing as a video cutter. I will check
> these out. Thanks!
>
> Dee

Also known as video splitters (might help you in some searches).

Also, be sure to check out SolveigMM Video Splitter, which I think I
mentioned last time. Although it's not free, it's quite affordable, and
I'm betting it might be a better option than the freebies. I've used it
with good success on MP4 files to cut and trim them.