Windoze software question

[Hawkmoon]

I am reluctantly taking a plunge into playing with an actual video camcorder, rather than the rudimentary video mode built into my digital camera. Turns out that JVC (and some other camcorder companies) use an .MTS file format, which is not compatible with Windows Movie Maker or with a number of other pieces of software. There are freeware video file converters out there but, if possible, I would prefer to avoid downloading and installing half a dozen clunky programs to find one that's easy to use, works, and doesn't screw up my computer.

Do any of you compooter gurus have a recommendation for a free, easy-to-use converter that will run under both Windows XP and Windows 7?

[Brad Johnson]

Some mfg include software/app with their equipment that will do the conversion.  They don't give you the option of selecting an opional file save format?

Brad

[lee n. field]

I'd look at ffmpeg.  I know there's a Windows front end for it, somewhere.


----edit to add----

MTS is "MPEG transport stream" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG_transport_stream, which Wikipedia says ffmpeg supports.

Windows binaries here.

Winffmpeg http://winff.org/html_new/

[Hawkmoon]

Some mfg include software/app with their equipment that will do the conversion.  They don't give you the option of selecting an opional file save format?

Brad

Nope. There was no software CD with the camcorder. There is supposed to be software included that allows for direct upload to Youtube, but it must be either in firmware or on the included flashcard -- which can't be read by my card reader. On-line reviews of the software all agree that (a) it's useless, and (b) it doesn't convert to any useful format. It just does some VERY basic editing.

Reading the JVC web site itself, it very much appears they are only aware of Apple computers and don't recognize that there's anything else out there.

[GigaBuist]

VLC should be able to handle it.  Free, open source, and there's a Win32 version.  That's often my go to for things like this, but I've never tried MTS.

Something a bit more straight forward (VLC is a monster that does everything) might be Windows Media Essentials.  They have a package that'll do stuff like this.  Why Movie Maker doesn't have that built in I don't know.

[Hawkmoon]

Grrrrr.

Found one that looked promising, and was supposed to be freeware. Turns out, the download was free, but if you want to actually USE the software you have to pay.

Another one looked promising, but the install routine insists on installing a Yahoo browser bar and making Yahoo the default search engine. That's a deal breaker right there -- I don't install software that wants to tell me how to use MY computer.

Still looking.

I did find the JVC software. It is built into the camera and has to be installed onto a computer using the USB umbilical cord. It is now installed, and it is fully as useless as the reviews suggested it would be. No conversions available to any alternate formats. It allows cropping, and copying video clips onto a computer in the native .MTS format. So I need a converter.

[Phantom Warrior]

Do you want to convert it or just play it?  Wikipedia says VLC will play it.

https://videolan.org/vlc/

Like GiagBuist said, VLC is like the Swiss Army knife of media players.  Works on pretty much everything.

[Hawkmoon]

Do you want to convert it or just play it?  Wikipedia says VLC will play it.

I want to convert the files so I can edit them in Windows Movie maker.

[Phyphor]

VLC should be able to convert them just fine.

Media -> Convert/Save -> Add button -> Convert / Save button at the bottom

Enter the output filename in the resulting box and pick the format you want at the bottom (You might have to try different ones to see which one works best, both in actually working with Movie Maker AND quality-wise. )

[Hawkmoon]

VLC should be able to convert them just fine.

Media -> Convert/Save -> Add button -> Convert / Save button at the bottom

Enter the output filename in the resulting box and pick the format you want at the bottom (You might have to try different ones to see which one works best, both in actually working with Movie Maker AND quality-wise. )

I followed Phantom Warrior's link above and read the specs. VLC supports .WMV as an input format, but does not support .MTS as an input format. And the web site doesn't tell me what formats are supported as output formats. I need to go from .MTS to .WMV.

I'm disgusted. I may have to buy a shareware program, and hope it does what it claims. There was a time when I was usually optimistic about shareware programs, but those days are long gone. These days I am generally highly skeptical about shareware.

[Phyphor]

I followed Phantom Warrior's link above and read the specs. VLC supports .WMV as an input format, but does not support .MTS as an input format. And the web site doesn't tell me what formats are supported as output formats. I need to go from .MTS to .WMV.

I'm disgusted. I may have to buy a shareware program, and hope it does what it claims. There was a time when I was usually optimistic about shareware programs, but those days are long gone. These days I am generally highly skeptical about shareware.

VLC does support it but not well (I did a quick google,)

However, you might try this: http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/download.html

[Hawkmoon]

However, you might try this: http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/download.html

Looked interesting, but after downloading it I found it supports .WMV as input, but not as output.

[Phyphor]

I thought movie maker could read AVIs?
Convert from MTS to AVI.

[Hawkmoon]

I thought movie maker could read AVIs?
Convert from MTS to AVI.

Dunno.

I'm not a geek -- I know just enough to get myself in trouble if I try anything that's not crystal clear and well-proven.

Looks like you are correct:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308464

Supported formats for importing content

    Video files: .asf, .avi, .wmv
    Movie files: MPEG1, .mpeg, .mpg, .m1v, .mp2
    Audio files: .wav, .snd, .au, .aif, .aifc, .aiff
    Windows Media files: .asf, .wm, .wma, .wmv
    Still images: .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe, .jfif, .gif
    MP3 format audio: .mp3

[Hawkmoon]

I finally found one that works. It's a bit clunky and appears to be a subset of a larger, shareware program with a different name. This one doesn't convert into "plain vanilla" .WMV format, but it offers .WMV optimized for several platforms. I picked one, converted a sample video from the camcorder, and it opened in Movie Maker. So I guess I have a solution.

The program I found is cleverly named "Free MTS Converter." Imagine that.