CR2 to M2TS Converter

CR2 to M2TS — Which AVCHD Spelling Do You Actually Need?

CR2 is Canon's second-generation RAW photo — the unprocessed 14-bit sensor data your DSLR wrote before any white balance or exposure was baked in — and M2TS is the AVCHD transport-stream file as it is spelled on a computer or inside a Blu-ray disc structure. This converter renders one Canon photo and packages it as that stream, for the narrow case of dropping a still into a Blu-ray-authoring project or an AVCHD-era timeline that expects the .m2ts extension. The honest catch up front: .m2ts and .mts hold the same H.264 transport stream — .MTS is the 8.3 short name a camcorder writes to its card, .m2ts is the long-filename form software uses after import — so CR2 to MTS and CR2 to AVCHD produce the identical recording under their own extensions. Pick whichever spelling your software is looking for; if you only want a viewable picture or a clip that plays anywhere, skip ahead to the last FAQ.

M2TS vs MTS — Side-by-side

The two extensions describe the same H.264-in-transport-stream payload — the difference is naming convention and where the file lives, not the encoded video. A .m2ts is what most editors and Blu-ray authoring tools display once an .MTS recording has been copied off the card.

When to Pick M2TS

• Your Blu-ray authoring tool (the disc-structure side) imports stills as .m2ts clips into its timeline.
• Your editor or player names AVCHD clips .m2ts and refuses to recognize a .mts file.
• You are assembling material that already lives in a BDMV/STREAM/ layout and want the new still to match that extension.
• You specifically need the long-filename form because the software was written against computer/Blu-ray conventions rather than the camcorder's 8.3 naming.

When to Pick MTS (or AVCHD)

• You are matching files that came straight off a Sony or Panasonic camcorder, which writes .MTS — use CR2 to MTS so the extension matches the rest of the card.
• Your software exposes an AVCHD import path and asks for the .avchd/.mts spelling — use CR2 to AVCHD.
• The stream is identical either way, so the only real question is which extension your destination software is looking for.

How to Convert CR2 to M2TS

1. Upload Your CR2 File: Drag and drop your .cr2 onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse. You can queue several Canon photos at once.
2. Set Merge strategy and Image Duration: Open Advanced Options. Use "Merge strategy" to choose "Merge images" (combine several photos into one M2TS) or "Video per image" (a separate file each), then set "Image Duration" to hold each still from 1/60s up to 10 seconds (5 seconds is the default).
3. Pick Quality Preset, Background Color, and Codec (Optional): Leave "Quality Preset" on "Very High (Recommended)"; set a "Background Color" (Black by default) to fill any letterbox bars; under "Show All Options" the "Video Codec" defaults to H.264, the codec the AVCHD/M2TS stream actually uses.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download your M2TS. No sign-up, no watermark.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is M2TS just MTS under a different name?

For this conversion, effectively yes. Both extensions wrap the same H.264 video in the same BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream — .MTS is the 8.3 short name a camcorder writes to its card, and .m2ts is the long-filename form software shows after the clip is imported or placed in a Blu-ray disc structure. The encoded video is byte-for-byte the same recording; only the filename convention and the typical home of the file differ. This page outputs the .m2ts spelling some Blu-ray-authoring and editing tools expect, while CR2 to MTS writes the identical stream as .mts.

Will the M2TS clip have any motion or sound?

No on both counts. The converter renders your single CR2 to one still frame and holds that motionless frame on screen for the duration you set — there is no pan, zoom, or transition. It is also silent: a photo carries no audio, so there is nothing to encode, even though the M2TS container itself can carry Dolby AC-3 or linear PCM. If you upload several photos and choose "Merge images," they play back to back, each shown for its set duration — a sequence of stills, not a cross-faded slideshow. Add narration or music on your editing timeline after import.

Do I lose the RAW editing latitude when I convert CR2 to M2TS?

Yes. A CR2 stores unprocessed 14-bit sensor data, which is why you can recover highlights and shift white balance long after the shot. To put the photo into a transport stream, the converter must develop it first — demosaicing the sensor data and baking in white balance, exposure, and tone — because a video stream has no concept of undeveloped RAW. Once that rendered frame is inside the M2TS, the latitude is gone, exactly as in a JPEG. Develop the RAW in a dedicated editor first if you want that control, and keep the original .cr2 as your master.

My Canon is 20 megapixels — what resolution does the M2TS end up?

Lower than the photo, in practice. A 20-megapixel Canon sensor captures far more pixels than an HD video frame holds, so AVCHD/M2TS targets 1080p-class dimensions — choosing a 1920×1080 preset under "Video resolution" downscales the rendered image to fit. AVCHD was built around HD recording, so 1920×1080 is the natural target and detail beyond it is discarded — normal for putting a high-resolution photo into video. If preserving every pixel matters, keep the still as an image with CR2 to JPG instead of wrapping it in a video stream.

Will this produce a finished Blu-ray disc I can burn?

No. This is a file converter — it outputs a single rendered .m2ts stream, not the full BDMV/STREAM/ directory tree with the playlist (.mpls) and clip-information (.clpi) files a Blu-ray player or authoring tool reads. Building that structure is a disc-authoring task, much as a lone .m2ts is not a finished disc and a single .vob is not a finished DVD. Import the rendered clip into your Blu-ray-authoring or editing project, let that software lay it into the disc layout, and author from there. If your tool's dedicated AVCHD/Blu-ray importer doesn't see the loose file, use its generic file import instead.

How big is the M2TS, and how are my files handled?

In our testing, a single full-resolution Canon CR2 held for 5 seconds at the "Very High" preset produced an M2TS only a couple of megabytes in size, because a motionless H.264 frame compresses heavily. Your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection, rendered and packaged into the M2TS on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after conversion — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public.

Should I really convert CR2 to M2TS, or to JPG or MP4 instead?

For almost everyone, M2TS is the wrong target. If you only want a viewable, shareable picture, CR2 to JPG gives you a far smaller file that opens everywhere, and you keep the original .cr2 as your editable master. If you need a video clip for a modern editor, web upload, or phone playback, CR2 to MP4 carries the same H.264 in a container that plays natively almost anywhere, while M2TS does not. Reach for M2TS only when a specific Blu-ray-authoring or AVCHD-era workflow requires that exact container and extension.