AVCHD to OGV Converter

AVCHD to OGV: Start by Checking Which File You Have

Before anything else: no camcorder writes .avchd. AVCHD is a recording specification Sony and Panasonic introduced in 2006 — H.264 video and Dolby Digital audio in an MPEG-2 transport stream — and the cameras that record it name their files .mts on the card, or .m2ts once a clip has been imported into a BDMV folder. A file whose extension is literally .avchd has almost always been produced by a converter or renamed by hand.

This page accepts the .avchd extension only, so the first thing worth doing is looking at what you actually have. Once that is settled, the conversion itself is a straightforward one with two things worth knowing: the output codec is VP8, not Theora, and an .ogv is not a file that plays in a current browser.

Which Page Do You Need?

The three contain closely related transport streams, so a rename usually works if you would rather not switch pages — but the packet framing differs between the plain and BDAV variants, so if a tool downstream validates packet size, use the page that matches the extension rather than renaming.

How to Convert AVCHD to OGV

1. Upload Your AVCHD File: Drag the .avchd onto the page or click "+ Add Files". Several clips can be queued and each converts with the same settings. Only the .avchd extension is accepted here.
2. Leave Video Codec on VP8 and Audio Codec on Vorbis: Those are the values the two lists open on, and they are the right pair for a general-purpose .ogv. Theora is the only video alternative; Opus, Speex and FLAC are the other audio entries.
3. Set File Compression and Video resolution: File Compression opens on Quality Preset at "Very High (Recommended)", with Specific file size, Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, Constant Quality and Constraint Quality alongside it — the table below explains which of those actually work on VP8. Video resolution opens on "Keep original"; Preset Resolutions sets height with the width following the source aspect. Trim takes a Start time and a Duration.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the .ogv. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are converted on our servers and are deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public.

What Goes In and What Comes Out

Bitrate figures are as published in the official AVCHD format specification.

An .ogv is not a browser delivery format any more. caniuse's Ogg/Theora entry puts global support at 5.76%: Chrome disabled it by default from version 120 and Chromium removed the decoder in 123, Opera disabled it from 106, Firefox from 126, and Safari never shipped it. On top of that, this page's default codec is VP8, and VP8 inside an Ogg container is a pairing browsers were never built to expect — the ones that decode VP8 look for it in WebM. If browser playback is the actual requirement, AVCHD to WebM is the same royalty-free philosophy in a container that still works, and AVCHD to MP4 is the universally playable option.

Rate Control on VP8: One Mode Does Nothing

VP8 has no constant-quality mode in this pipeline, and the Constant Quality path does not fall back to a bitrate either — so neither a quality target nor a rate reaches the encoder and libvpx uses its own internal default regardless of what the field says.

That first row matters more than usual on this conversion, because AVCHD is a high-bitrate format by design. A clip recorded at 24 Mbit/s and converted at the preset the page opens on aims at roughly 32 Mbit/s of VP8, which is a very large file for no visible gain. On camcorder footage, Medium (0.90x) is the first preset that actually shrinks anything, and Specific file size or Constant Bitrate are the controls to reach for when you have a number in mind.

Switching to Theora reshapes the panel rather than just changing the codec: the Constant Quality field re-ranges onto Theora's own narrow scale and Constraint Quality disappears entirely. That is one more reason to stay on VP8 unless something specifically demands classic Theora-in-Ogg.

Frequently Asked Questions

My camcorder files are .mts, not .avchd. Can I use this page?

Not directly — this page accepts the .avchd extension only. Use MTS to OGV for files straight off a camera card, or M2TS to OGV for the spelling a computer or Blu-ray import produces. Renaming a .mts to .avchd will generally work, because both hold transport-stream data, but it is an unnecessary step when the right page already exists and it can mask the packet-framing difference between the plain and BDAV variants. Pick the page that matches the name your file already has.

Does this actually output Theora, the codec OGV is known for?

Not by default. The Video Codec list opens on VP8, with Theora as the alternative. Both are royalty-free, but VP8 is a later design and holds detail at bitrates where Theora visibly falls apart, so it is the better engineering choice for the same licensing. Pick Theora deliberately, and only when the software or archive consuming the file names Theora specifically — a lot of legacy .ogv consumers were written when Theora was the only option and will not recognise anything else.

Will the OGV play in a browser?

Realistically, no, on two independent counts. Ogg/Theora playback sits at 5.76% global support on caniuse and is disabled by default in Chrome from version 120, in Opera from 106 and in Firefox from 126, with Safari never having implemented it and Chromium having removed the decoder outright in 123. And this page's default video codec is VP8, which browsers expect to find inside WebM rather than Ogg. If browser playback is the requirement, AVCHD to WebM is the conversion you want.

What happens to the camcorder's Dolby AC-3 audio?

It is decoded and re-encoded — Ogg does not carry AC-3, and nothing here copies streams through untouched. The default destination is Vorbis, the codec anything expecting an .ogv will be able to decode. AVCHD recordings that used linear PCM instead go through the same re-encode. If the source track is a multichannel mix, be aware that you are handing a surround programme to a lossy encoder with no channel controls on this page; check the result before deleting the original.

Why doesn't the Constant Quality slider change my output?

Because VP8 has no constant-quality mode here, and the Constant Quality path does not fall back to a bitrate either. Neither a quality target nor a rate is handed to the encoder, so libvpx uses its own built-in default and every value in the box produces the same file. Use Quality Preset if you want a simple control, Constant Bitrate or Specific file size if you want a number you can predict, or Constraint Quality, which on VP8 does pass its Max bitrate figure through as the target.

Why is the OGV larger than the AVCHD file?

Two effects stack. VP8 is a less efficient codec than the H.264 in your AVCHD, so holding the same picture costs it more bits. And Quality Preset scales the source bitrate rather than setting an absolute one — the rung the page opens on targets 1.32x, so a 24 Mbit/s camcorder clip is asked for roughly 32 Mbit/s. Drop to Medium, which is the first preset that aims below the source, or set the number yourself with Constant Bitrate or Specific file size.

Does converting to OGV deinterlace 1080i camcorder footage?

No. There is no deinterlacing filter anywhere in this pipeline, under any setting or preset. If your clips were recorded 1080i, each frame carries two fields shot a moment apart, and the horizontal combing on moving subjects is encoded straight into the OGV exactly as it exists in the source. Neither VP8 nor Theora has interlaced coding tools either, so the woven picture simply becomes the picture. Deinterlacing needs a desktop tool with a dedicated filter before you upload.

Should I choose Vorbis, Opus, Speex or FLAC for the audio?

Vorbis unless you have a specific reason otherwise — it is the codec anything expecting an .ogv will decode, which is usually the whole point of choosing OGV. Opus is technically better at nearly every bitrate, but a legacy player that only learned Vorbis will not read it. Speex is an older Xiph speech codec that Opus superseded and there is little reason to pick it now. FLAC is lossless, so it adds no further loss to an already-lossy AC-3 source, at the cost of a track much larger than the video deserves.

How large a file can I convert, and what happens to my upload?

There is no fixed per-file cap; upload size and connection speed are the real constraints, and AVCHD is heavy — up to 24 Mbit/s means a long recording runs to several gigabytes before the conversion starts. If you only need part of the clip, cutting it down first with the video cutter is usually quicker than uploading the whole thing. Everything you send travels over an encrypted connection, is converted on our servers, and both the upload and the output are deleted automatically after a few hours. Files are never shared or made public, and there is no sign-up and no watermark.