AVCHD - MTS video files edit: I did it!

[fritsmartfu]

My laptop is, I think, not a small one: an ASUS K70AB series with Athlon 64 QL65, 500 GB hard drive and 4 GB of memory. My camcorder is a Canon HG20 HD and I was very pleased with both until I wanted to edit my videos. Even with Openshot it seemed to be difficult, what is confirmed in dozens of forums. I have had extensive contact with a French Openshot expert, the friendly and very helpful Cenwen, who advised me to wait eventually for EKD 2.0 what will contain a AVCHD converter. EKD 2.0 is still not out and the former Ubuntu synaptic version is in French, but I do not understand French. Open Shot is fortunately included in Ubuntu synaptic now, but MTS files placed on the time-line to edit are still not good: the videos are "stuttering", run in, fits and starts, probably - somewhere - a lack of capacity and, perhaps, initiated by Ubuntu.

What is possible with Openshot is to put the MTS files on the time-line and to render the time-line content into many different video file formats. OpenShot will be used as a video converter only. I have tried it and the resulting MP4 did not stutter. The new MP4 file can be loaded into Openshot again, with all the possibilities of Openshot: smoothly flowing to manipulate and to edit. If multiple MTS files are placed on the time-line, those files become joined while rendering (converting). The extra converting phase cost extra time and (temporary) storage of course. The extra time seems (unmeasured) shorter than the time for indexing with Kino before, for my old digitised video camcorder tape files.

Probably this trick works for all variants AVCHD how could be opend with Openshot. I'm convinced about Openshots capabilities now and I will make my donation very soon!
Very much thanks to Cenwen too, of course!
If this tip - for some reason - do not belong to this forum, I hope that someone remove this tip to the right place.
Sorry for my poor English!

Fritsmartfu, Hungary.

[Cenwen]

Hi fritzmartfu

I have received your private mail and i have answered this morning about the availablelity of EKD. Tomorrow you could have this video convertissor available.
Effectively you can use Openshot like you have explained above and after reusing the files exported in another formats before. But it's not his principal utilisation, you should use a tool like EKD for convert your files. EKD is a great tool very useful and simple. I think that he is complementary at Openshot for some tasks for some situations like you.
Tomorrow you could installed it without problems in english;, available too in spanish.

[johntn]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ekd/

EnKoDuer

[Cenwen]

Yes and the documentation is available here : http://linuxevolution.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/documentation-papier-ekd-sortie/
For the moment, just in French but i have a lot of hopes that she will be available soon in English and perhaps in Spanish.
This software is great and very complementary to Openshot, it is a really tool box than a video lover should have with him.

[kate59588]

Congratulate you!!!

Share my experience with you.I am a mac user.I have a JVC Everio HD300 (AVCHD) camcorder,i am annoyed with the MTS files, for they counldn't be edit on Adobe Premiere but now i found out a fastest and easiest way to solve it-just use a professional HD Video converter which can convert MTS/TOD/MOD to wmv, mov, mp4, avi, etc. without any problem.The software seems to do a decent job. I've had good results converting the .mts files to .mov, with the settings h.264, 1200, 1280*720, 25fps, aac. The files look good on my Mac running Adobe Premiere, edit easily, and convert well to DVD format.
The powerful software named Pavtube HD Video Converter MAC.

[Cenwen]

Hi kate59588,
i'm happy for you. EKD is a great tool, complementary of Openshot and very powerful and easy to use. I know his creator and the development continue. Actually, his team has created a tool like launchpad for translate the software easily. And a team is trying to create for translate the documentation in English, perhaps by the same mean (more 214 pages see a little here : http://linuxevolution.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/documentation-papier-ekd-sortie/). And why not in others languages, sometimes we can dream a little.

[yao847zi]

Mts is an informal video format created by HD camcorders and always cant be open, played and edited. So, we usually need to convert mts to other popular formats first. Here u can try this MTS Converter which enables u convert mts to avi,mov, mp4, wmv so that u can edit it.
Good luck

[Cenwen]

Thanks for the trick.

Well it is a window software (same if i prefer a Linux software) but it should work with wine or a frontend like PlayonLinux, Q4wine, Vinegard.