Sony released the first camcorder in 1983, and its name was Betamovie BMC-100P. When these devices were first made, there were no USB ports or handheld devices, and motion pictures were still recorded on cassette tapes. Sony’s slogan to this camcorder was “Inside This Camera Is a VCR”. Kodak, JVC and Sony went on to improve the Camcorder in the 80s, and they have continued to advance over the years. In the present day, there are many big companies making camcorders, like Canon, Blackmagic, GoPro, DJI, Panasonic and even Sony itself. In the present day, camcorders can shoot video at 4K resolutions, and the video formats can vary depending on the manufacturer of the camera. We will introduce M2TS and MTS video formats in this article.

Part 1: Something about M2TS and MTS

MTS video is a standard used by many High Definition camcorders from Sony and Panasonic. M2TS video is a Blu-ray BDAV video file, which is representative of Blu-ray Disc Audio-Video. In most cases, MTS video files are most likely AVCHD files, although it can also be MadTracker Sample file which are audio files that serve as samples of instruments or other sounds. AVCHD video files are saved in the HD MPEG Transport Stream video format and are compatible Blu-ray, supporting both 720p and 1080i videos. In the case of M2TS, the files are often associated with MODD files from Sony camcorders. Both MTS and M2TS video formats are uncompressed and they are of high quality. Although Sony includes software for users to open and play these videos, they are not natively supported by operating system applications with the exception of Windows Media Player. Therefore it is necessary to convert the videos to more common ones, like MOV which reserves video quality while compressing the videos. There are many video converters that can do the conversion job and some of them are listed below.

Part 2: Convert M2TS to MOV with Leawo Video Converter

As one of the best video converters, Leawo Video Converter can easily handle most audio and video files without hurdles. First and most important is that over 180 video and audio formats are supported, which basically means you are empowered to convert almost all video and audio types. Second and also important is the fact that lossless conversion is guaranteed, as you can easily retain 100% of the original quality when you do a conversion job. The third is the conversion speed, which is about 6x faster conversion after all nobody wants to wait a long time for a conversion job to finish. It comes packed with advanced, but easy to use editing tools for output which include trimming, watermarking, noise removal and the very impressive 2D to 3D video conversion. Both Windows and Mac OS are supported, and the download links are below.

Step 1: Import the M2TS video file(s). The first interface you will see will show you the 8 modules of the converter, on both Windows and Mac OS. Click “Video Converter”, and either drag the video file(s) into the main program, or click “Add Video”. You can also have a preview of the videos as soon as you import them.

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Step 2: Subtitles and audio tracks. Since most M2TS videos come from camcorders, they do not have subtitles, hence you can import and save them to your video before conversion. Click the “Subtitle” drop down menu, then click “Add Subtitles” to import the .srt files.

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Step 3: Set MOV video as output. From where you can see your imported videos, click “MP4 Video” (Please note that this button changes depending on the profile selected). Click “Change” and under the “Common Video” tab, select MOV video. “Edit” will take you to the manual settings, where you can customize the codecs, output quality, the resolution, etc. for both audio and video files. When you are done, click “OK”.

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Step 4: Convert the video(s). When you click the green “Convert” button, a menu will show on the right. Set the output directory, then click “Convert” to begin encoding and wait for the process to finish.

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Optional step:  Video editing. After finishing with the profile settings, you are taken back to the previous menu. Click the edit video icon to enter the menu, which is right on each imported video file. There are many ways to personalize and customize video, like converting your videos from 2D to 3D. Click “OK” once you are done.

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Part 3: Convert M2TS to MOV with MPEG Streamclip

MPEG Streamclip is a free video converter that can play and convert MPEG, QuickTime, transport systems and iPod. It also supports a handful of other video formats like DV, AVI and M2T, but unfortunately, M2TS video is not supported. There is also DVB support, and you can find a wide choice of settings to let you adjust video quality, bitrates and encoding levels. For files larger than 4GB, you will have to cut them into smaller segments, and the user interface is slightly unintuitive. It is available for both Windows and Mac OS, and for the Mac OS version, QuickTime is required for the software to work. Follow the steps below for video conversion.

Step 1: Import your file. To import a file in Streamclip click “File, then click “Open Files”, select the video file you would like to view or edit, then click “Open”. Please note that although M2T is supported, M2TS is not supported.
Step 2: Next, you need to select which part of the video file you have opened you wish to export from Streamclip, in other words converting the file. Click “Export DV” and set your output format, in this case MOV video. Click “OK” once done.
Step 3: Convert your video. Once you select the desired file location, click “OK” again and a progress bar should appear. When the video is done the file will appear in the location selected. 

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Part 4: Convert M2TS to MOV with CloudConvert

CloudConvert is one of the best internet converters that can also support video files of various formats, which fortunately include both M2TS and MOV video. Although you do not need to install any software, you need a strong and steady internet connection for this conversion job. M2TS videos are usually of high quality and in most cases uncompressed, and free users of CloudConvert should take note that they are limited to 25 conversion minutes per day with a 1GB maximum file size cap. For larger files, users have to pay a monthly fee which can be expensive. To start converting with CloudConvert, visit their website and follow the steps below.

Step 1: Click the “Select Files” button. This will open a window from where you can conveniently locate the M2TS video file(s). Please note that you cannot drag the file(s) into this website.
Step 2: Once you have uploaded your video, click the spanner icon to set your conversion options. This includes video codec and transpose, audio codec and bitrate, subtitles and more options. Set MOV as the output format, and when you have finished, click “Okay”.
Step 3: Once you have finished step 2, click “Start Conversion” which will begin uploading your video file(s). When it has finished it will convert automatically and you can click the green “Download” button to save the file(s) to your hard drive.

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Part 5: Convert M2TS to MOV with FreeFileConvert

FreeFileConvert is another internet converter that can also handle video files. You will get the same benefits and disadvantages of using internet converters with this service as well. While CloudConverter has a 1GB cap, FreeFileConvert has a 300MB cap per day, which may not even be ideal for large video files, for example MOD and MTS video. Users should also take note that M2TS video is currently not supported by this online converter. You can still use this online converter for other supported formats, and the steps are shown below.

Step 1: Click the “Convert” drop down menu on the website and select “Video Converter” from the list.
Step 2: Under “Input file”, click “Choose File” to upload the video file(s). Under “Output file” click the drop down menu and select MOV video. Please note that M2TS video is not supported for input.
Step 3: Click “Convert” to begin uploading your video which will depend on your internet speed. Once it finishes converting online, the page will refresh and the download link will appear. Click the corresponding button to save your video file to your local disk.

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Conclusion

Leawo Video Converter is undoubtably the best software program to use in this case, as shown by this reveal. It supports more video formats than any other software or services, and at the same time it preserves original video quality at 100%. Other bonus features of Leawo Video Converter are a user friendly interface, and 11 language languages are supported. Try Leawo Video Converter today.