I have just sent this email to several people that are after months are still beating their heads against the wall trying to create HD video productions.

HD – MTS video is great for camera work but as a distribution method it has very limited application. I have yet to find a good MTS editor that works, and even if I did I do not have a Blue ray recorder and I only know one person with a Blue-ray player.  Distribution of these files on the Internet or through Youtube is problematic as the upload time for a completed presentation is long and the people that can play back your upload is limited to those people with very High Speed Internet connections and relatively new and powerful machines. Most stock Vista machines choke on HD files. The day might come when this type of video can be broadly distributed but we definitely are not there yet. It took me six very frustrating months to figure this out. Due to these reasons I adapted DVD standard 720x480 as my production format of choice as it can be played on the majority of machines as an MPEG file. It can also be used to create a DVD presentation as there are still a lot of people who own DVD players who do not possess a computer and uploaded files to Youtube play relatively well on both satellite and cable although the quality of the playback is considerably reduced as compared to a DVD. Since I am in the business of creating output which I sell to customers these are the realities I have to deal with and DVD 720x480 meets my present needs.

2009.09.01 Creating DVD compliant MPEG2 files from MTS

I have now been using our Cannon HF10 – 100 cameras for almost a year now and I am able to produce good final edits of the .mts files to DVD compatible .mpg files. We continue to produce our final product as DVD compatible files as I live in a poor rural area and I know of only one person that has a Blueray player. Also many older PC's choke on the HD files so in order to get the best compatibility with the broad range of users I service,  DVD is the standard of choice. I archive all my .mts files for future use as some day HD will be used by virtually everyone. In the interim I will continue producing DVD compatible files for some time to come and this tutorial is dedicated to that task.

I have tested countless editors that claim to be able to edit .mts and have found few that work. Some like AVS4You and TMPG4.0 were so crippled with copy protection that they were rendered useless. Others like the software that came with the camera just crashed. Some software would not run on Vista but did work on XP. After months of experimentation I have developed a system that works for my needs on my machines and it is this process that I will outline here. I have three machines two AMD dual core Athlon and one quad core Phenom. All are running with the XP operating system with 4 gigs of memory. We tried Vista for an extended period and after months of frustration returned to XP.

For many years now we have used TMPGenc2.5 for video editing and after trying many other pieces of software we have returned to this tried and proven program. We are presently using 2.524.63.181 core version 2.04.169. In the beginning we had thought that this software would not load .mts files as that file type is not offered in the file requester and we thought we were going to have to give up using our favorite piece of software. After much frustration with other programs one day I tried to load a .mts file by entering *.mts in the file requester and the file loaded! I was really happy upon discovering this because I know I can produce virtually any kind of video I want with TMPGenc2.5.  There is a trial version that you can try for 14 days but I highly recommend purchasing the full version for $37 which is a bargain considering that I have used this software daily for over 10 years now.

For Download:   http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/download/tp.html

The other piece of software we use constantly is Gold Wave 4.26. There are newer versions but I do not like them as well as the older 4.26. Again the file requester does not recognise .mts and it is necessary to put *.mts in the file requester to load an .mts file. Goldwave separates the sound track from the video and allows you to easily create a .wav file for editing.  It is important that you do not use "cut, delete, or paste" functions and instead use "Insert silence and Paste mix" so as to preserve the exact sync of you sound and video. 

I am still using version 426 which I prefer to the newer version.  The author claims that the newer version has many new features but the selection mouse interface I do not care for and the old version seems to meet all my needs.  Here is a link to ver4.26 or you can go to the Gold Wave site and download the new version.  I am sure it would work just as well for this application.  Note the new version also requires entering *.mts as it also does not recognize .mts files.  

For Download:   http://www.goldwave.com/release426.ph

I have recently been in contact with Chris Craig the author of Gold Wave and I mentioned that I preferred the clip selection method in 426 better that 520. He informed me that: “There is a setting for the left/right selection method in the new version under "Options | Windows" in the Miscellaneous area”. I am giving 520 another try but the icons for the various options are so small I have trouble finding the function I am looking for and having two windows to operate the program I do not like as well as a single window. Maybe I am just too familiar with the old version.

Okay here is how I do it to create a DVD compatible edited clip with edited sound.

First I take the sound track from the camera video with Gold Wave. This step can be skipped if the sound from the camera is not going to be needed. In Gold wave open the .mts file by selecting File/Open and typing *.mts in the file requester. Listen to the file and edit it being careful not to change the length of the file. Save the file to the .wav format in the same directory as the original .mts file.

Recently I discovered that you can just drop the icon of the .mts file on  the GoldWave program icon and it loads!

Encoding the 720x480 MPEG2 DVD file

If you are using a newly installed TMPGenc2.5 the program always starts up with a "Wizard" there is a check box to disable the Wizard and you should do this as it provides a lot of confusion and no advantage for this type of project.  On the main program screen in TMPGenc2.5 select “Video source / Browse” button and use the "Look in" box at the top to browse to your .mts files location then enter *.mts in the "File name" box and press return.  You will be presented with a list of the .MTS files in the folder.  Select the .mts file to work on.  Select “Audio source/Browse” button and load the .wav file created in the previous step with Gold Wave. 

Before making any settings you MUST have the file to be encoded loaded and showing on screen.

Okay we are going to create a NTSC compatible DVD .mpg so at the bottom of the screen you will see a load button click on it and you will be presented with a group of .mcf  files. These are templates for various video types and you will select “DVD(NTSC).mfc. This is a format that can be used to create a DVD.

Formating the output for DVD

Now select the “Settings” button and select the “ Advanced” tab. There is a dropdown selector titled “Video Arrange Method” from which you should select “Full Screen ( keep aspect ratio) “. Now check the box next to “Clip Frame” and double click on the words “Clip Frame” and you will be presented with the clip frame editor. Check mark the box “Resized image is used to display preview” and then click the “Default” button. Okay you are now seeing your .mts video displayed letter boxed on a 720x480 DVD compatible screen. If you want the final video to be non letter boxed you will have to crop a total of 440 pixels from the left and right sides of the video until the aspect of the .mts is the same as your 720x480 output. Of course you could crop the video to anything you desire at this point even eliminating some of the top and bottom also. When the video in the window is what you desire click the “OK” button and you will be returned to the “Advanced Setting” tab.

Editing start frame and end frame

You might want to edit the start and ends of your video clip. To do this check the box next to “Source range” box and double click on the words "Source range". You can now slide the slider to the position in the clip where you want your edited clip to start and click on the “Set Start Frame” button. Do the same for the end frame.

There are many other editing features in TMPGenc2.5 such as color correction which is the best color correction editor for video I know of but for the sake of simplicity in this tutorial I will only cover the options “Clip Frame” and “Source Range” which are the two functions you will require most often.

Encoding the MPEG2 DVD compliant file

You are now ready to encode your edited clip click the “OK” button at the bottom of the “MPEG Settings” window and you are returned to the main screen. At this point you might want to use the “File/Preview” option to preview your output. An output path and filename are automatically created for you but it is probably not what you want so edit the out path and file name to what you desire and click the “Start” button at the top of the screen and a 720x480 .mpg file will be created.

Sometimes I want to take my clips to other software for creating titles, fades and other special effects. I use MGI Video Wave 4.1 for this purpose. The newer versions of this software since Roxio took over the company I cannot recommend. In order to minimize losses in the editing process I encode the clips to uncompressed AVI's for this purpose using the TMPGenc2.5  “File/ Output to File/AVI file” option.

Repeat this process for each of your .mts clips and when all clips have been converted to DVD compliant mpegs you are ready to join the clips together.

Join Clips into a production

This is also done in TMPGenc2.5 by selecting “File/MPEG Tools” this will bring up the MPEG Tools window from which you should select “Merge & Cut”. Use the “Add” button to create a list of the clips in your production. Each one of the clips can be previewed and further edited with sound preview by double clicking on the file name in the edit list. When the edit list is complete edit the output file name and be sure to add the extension .mpg to the output filename. Select “Run” and the clips will be combined to the output file. It is important to note that the files are not being re encoded which would involve a significant loss in quality. They are just being copied and joined together in a single mpeg file. 

Editing the sound track

Okay you have your clips combined into a production with a rough sound track from the camera but now you want to edit the sound track for your final production.  First we will load the sound track into Gold Wave by loading the file produced above.  In Gold wave you will be able to listen to the track and remove unwanted sounds by "Inserting Silence".  You will also be able to insert narrative by creating a new sound using "File/New" and invoking the "Window/Companion/Device Control" so as to make a recording of voice copy the recording and doing a "Paste Mix" not "Paste" as this would change the length of the sound track.  You could also add background music by loading the music file,  copy the sound,  and doing again a "Paste Mix".  Okay you have your sound track as you want it save it to a wave file.  I usually save the .wav file to the same name as my .mpg file which makes it easier to identify what belongs to what. 

We now open TMPGenc2.5 and select “File New”. It is interesting to note than when working with TMPGenc2.5 if you are working on a file and close the program when you start a new session the program opens with the file and settings from your last session. This is a really nice feature as often after reviewing the output you will decide to go back and re encode your last session to make corrections. In this case to encode a sound track you will need to clear your last session so that is why it is necessary to select “File/ New”. For doing the sound track we want to leave the “Video source” box blank and go to “Audio source” and use the “Browse” button to load the .wav file created in the last step. Once loaded you can select the “Start” button and the program will create a .mp2 file from your .wav file. Which is a MPEG2 compatible audio file. You now open “File/MPEG tools” and when it opens it defaults to “Simple Multiplex” which is what you want. First load your .mpg by clicking on the “Browse” button next to “Video Input” and then load the .mp2 file created in the last step give the output a distinct new file name being sure to include the .mpg extension and select “Run”. This will create a new MPEG with your edited sound track. It is important to note that the MPEG is not being re encoded which would involve a considerable loss in quality.