CRW to MTS Converter

Turning a Canon CRW Photo Into an MTS Clip: What to Expect

This walk-through is for anyone holding an early-2000s Canon .crw raw who needs it as an .MTS file — the camcorder spelling of an MPEG transport stream, the container AVCHD camcorders from Sony and Panasonic record to. Read this card before you start, because this is not "importing a raw into an editor": the tool develops your CRW into one finished frame and holds that motionless frame for a duration you choose, producing a silent, static clip. If you want a viewable photograph or an ordinary video, CRW to JPG and CRW to MP4 are almost certainly what you are after.

How to Convert CRW to MTS

1. Upload Your CRW File: Drag your .crw onto the page or click "Add Files" — straight off an EOS D30, D60, 10D or 300D, or a PowerShot G-series compact. Queue several if you want them in one clip; any companion .thm thumbnail files are harmless.
2. Set Merge strategy and Image Duration: Merge strategy starts on Merge images, joining every upload into one clip in upload order; Video per image writes a separate .MTS per photo. Image Duration decides how long each still is held and defaults to 5 seconds per frame, with the dropdown running from a single frame at 1/60 s up to 10 seconds.
3. Check Video Codec, resolution and Background Color: Video Codec defaults to H.264, which is what AVCHD tools expect — the dropdown also offers H.265, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX and Xvid. Video resolution starts on Keep original; pick the fixed 1920 x 1080 preset to match an HD project. Background Color defaults to White and fills the bars a 3:2 photo leaves in a 16:9 frame.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the silent .MTS. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

Walk-through: Duration, Frame Size and Background

The two settings that decide what the clip looks like are Image Duration and Video resolution, and CRW is an unusually forgiving source for the second one. These files came off three-to-six-megapixel sensors, so unlike a modern 24-megapixel raw there is barely any downscaling to fight: a 3.1-megapixel EOS D30 frame is 2160 x 1440, only a modest step down to fit 1080p. The 3:2 shape does not match a 16:9 video frame, though, so the picture is fitted inside without cropping and the side bars are filled with your Background Color.

• For a title card or slate you will trim on the timeline: leave Image Duration on the 5-second default — long enough to grab, short enough to keep the file tiny.
• For a held establishing shot: push Image Duration to 8 or 10 seconds per frame so the clip stands on its own.
• To match an existing 1080p project exactly: choose the fixed 1920 x 1080 preset rather than "Keep original", so no editor has to rescale on import.
• To keep the side bars unobtrusive: set Background Color to Black for a conventional neutral pillarbox; White is the default and suits light-background projects.
• For several photos as one sequence: leave Merge strategy on Merge images — each still appears in turn for its Image Duration, as hard cuts rather than cross-fades.

What the .MTS File Actually Contains

AVCHD as Camcorders Record It vs What This Tool Writes

.MTS is a camcorder file naming convention, and it is worth being precise about how close this output is to the AVCHD format proper.

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "The clip plays but nothing moves." Correct, not a fault. One CRW becomes a static frame held for the Image Duration; there is no pan, zoom or transition. Add motion on your timeline after import.
• "There is no sound." Also expected. A photograph carries no audio, so nothing is encoded — even though AVCHD itself allows AC-3 and linear PCM. Add narration or music after you import.
• "My photo has bars down the sides." A 3:2 Canon still does not fill a 16:9 frame, so it is pillarboxed and the bars take your Background Color. Change the colour, or leave Video resolution on "Keep original" so the frame matches the photo exactly.
• "My editor reports the clip as 1 fps." That is how a still is written — one frame per second across your chosen duration. Most editors conform it to the timeline rate on import; if yours refuses, re-render the same still as CRW to MP4 and place that instead.
• "The raw will not decode." Check that the file really is a Canon CIFF .crw and not a renamed CR2, and that it copied off the card completely. A truncated early-2000s raw will fail regardless of the target format.
• "My camcorder or Blu-ray player will not play the file." Those devices expect a complete AVCHD folder structure with an audio track, not a loose silent .MTS. This output is built for editing timelines, not for playback hardware.

When This Doesn't Work

This pairing exists for one narrow job: slotting an early-Canon still into an AVCHD-era editing or disc-authoring timeline that ingests .MTS footage. It is the wrong tool everywhere else. If you want to keep the picture editable, do not wrap it in video at all — the raw latitude is spent the moment it is developed, so archive the .crw and export a master with CRW to TIFF. If you only need a shareable image, CRW to JPG is smaller and opens everywhere. And if the CRW itself will not decode — a damaged file, or one your software no longer reads — develop it in Canon's Digital Photo Professional or RawTherapee first, then convert the result. Keep the original .crw regardless; for irreplaceable early-digital captures it is your only full-quality source.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why would I convert a Canon raw still to MTS instead of MP4?

Almost the only reason is an AVCHD-era pipeline. If you are working in an older editor or disc-authoring tool that ingests .MTS transport-stream footage and you need to drop in a still — a title card, a slate, an early-Canon photograph — an .MTS clip slots straight into that timeline. For everything else, CRW to MP4 carries the same H.264 video in a container that phones, browsers, TVs and current editors all accept. If you want a picture rather than a video, render CRW to JPG.

Is MTS the same as M2TS, and which one do I get?

They carry the same encoded video, but they are packetized differently. Camcorder media use the .MTS spelling and computers and Blu-ray discs use .m2ts, and that extension decides the framing: the .MTS this page writes is a plain transport stream of 188-byte packets starting with the 0x47 sync byte, while CRW to M2TS writes BDAV 192-byte packets that each prefix a 4-byte timestamp header, producing a slightly larger file. Renaming one to the other does not re-frame it, so convert to whichever extension your editor or authoring template asks for.

Is this a real AVCHD file — will a camcorder or Blu-ray player accept it?

It is a genuine MPEG transport stream carrying H.264, which is the technical core of AVCHD, but it is not a complete AVCHD recording. Camcorder and player compatibility depends on a full BDMV/AVCHD folder structure, an audio track, and one of the standard AVCHD frame rates and data rates — none of which a single silent still satisfies. Treat this output as an .MTS-named clip for an editing timeline, not as something you can copy back onto a camcorder card.

My CRW is only 3 megapixels — will it look soft as a 1080p clip?

Less than you might fear, and this is the rare case where the downscale is gentle. Bodies in the three-to-six-megapixel class capture close to a 1080p frame already: a 3.1-megapixel EOS D30 image is 2160 x 1440, only a modest step down to 1920 x 1080, where a modern 24-megapixel raw would be shrunk hard. Expect pillarbox bars in your chosen Background Color, because the 3:2 photo does not fill a 16:9 frame. To keep every captured pixel, hold the still as an image with CRW to TIFF instead.

Will the MTS clip have any motion or sound?

No on both counts, by design. The CRW is developed into one frame and that frame is held for the Image Duration, so it plays as a freeze-frame with no pans, zooms or transitions. It is also silent: a still image carries no audio track, so the Audio Codec control is not shown on this page and nothing is encoded, even though AVCHD itself supports Dolby AC-3 and linear PCM. Use Merge images to join several CRW frames back to back if you want the picture to change.

What happens to the raw editing latitude when I make the MTS?

It is spent at the develop step. To place a CRW into any video frame, the converter must demosaic Canon's sensor data and commit a white balance, an exposure and a tone curve, because a transport stream has no concept of undeveloped raw. CRW stores that undeveloped capture in Canon's CIFF container — a specification Canon released on 12 February 1997 — while the frame inside the .MTS is a finished 8-bit H.264 video frame. Develop the raw in Digital Photo Professional, Lightroom or RawTherapee first if you want that control, and keep the original .crw as your master.

Can I put several CRW photos into one MTS clip?

Yes, and it is the default. Upload them in the order you want, leave Merge strategy on Merge images, and each developed still is held for the Image Duration before cutting to the next — a back-to-back sequence, not a cross-faded slideshow, and still silent throughout. Choose Video per image instead if you would rather receive one .MTS per photo.

How are my files handled, and how long are they kept?

Your CRW is uploaded over an encrypted connection, developed and encoded on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, and your photos are never shared or made public. The main practical limit on a large job is upload size and time, although early-Canon CRW files are typically only a few megabytes each, so they move quickly even in batches.