Convert MTS TO MOV -Transfer AVCHD files to Final Cut Express 4

Basically, the AVCHD Camcorders shoot footages in AVC/ H.264 MTS format, which is not editable in most non-linear editing software.  Videographers would see FCP or FCS as useful tool for audio and video editing, for amateurs who prefer to do some simple editing to their AVCHD  footages, FCE (Final Cut Express) is a better choice. This guide is written for Mac users that meet difficulties in importing AVCHD  MTS footages to FCE. Why should the MTS files can not be loaded in FCE while Apple made it clearly that the Final Cut Express 4 work with AVCHD files? Surely FCE4 handles AVCHD footages shot in 1280*720 and 1440*1080. So when your footages are shot in 1920*1080, you need to  transfer MTS files to MOV for  FCE.

Download the trail version of  Pavtube MTS to Final Cut Express Converter from here if you would like to give it a shoot. The trial version converts videos with watermark on the screen and you are not advised to test with smaller video files in order to save time.

Step one. Run Pavtube MTS to Final Cut Express Converter .

Click ‘Add’ button, browse to the AVCHD MTS footages and load them to the MTS files converter. You can check the files and take thumbnails in Preview window.

Step two. Select the items to be converted, and click on ‘Format’ bar to specify output format.

FCE compatible formats such as MP4, MOV, MPG, DV, AVI can be found in the profile list. For instance, you could follow HD Video-> MOV HD Video (*.mov).

Step three. Click the ‘Settings’ button and set proper video/ audio parameters.

My advice is to set the video size, bitrate and fame rate to be exactly as the footages so that you will suffer least quality degradation. For example, when the video is shot at 1920*1080, 5mbps, 30fps, you could set Size-1920*1080, Bitrate-original, Frame rate-30. If you would like to use default settings, simply skip this step.

Step four. Click the ‘Browse’ button next to the Export to field and select a location on your HDD for the output video file.

Step five. Click the ‘Convert’ button to start transferring  MTS files  to MOV for FCE.

After conversion you can click the ‘Open’ button to locate converted video files, and edit the video footages for playback on DVD-Video players connected to your TV, as well as on Mac.

Source from: How to Log and Transfer AVCHD files to Final Cut Express