DV to MTS Converter

DV to MTS — MTS, M2TS or MP4 for a Tape Transfer?

People convert DV to MTS for one reason: they are dropping old MiniDV footage into the same project as clips from a newer AVCHD camcorder, and they want the editor to treat both the same way. If that is you, MTS is the right target. If you are here because you want an old tape to play on a phone or a TV, it is the wrong one — MTS is a camcorder-card format, not a delivery format, and DV to MP4 will serve you far better. The short answer: match your camcorder's files with MTS, feed import software or Blu-ray authoring with M2TS, and use MP4 for anything a human is going to watch directly.

MTS vs M2TS vs MP4 for a DV Transfer

When to Pick MTS

• Your project already contains .MTS clips from a Sony Handycam, Canon HF, Panasonic HDC, or similar, and you want the DV transfer to behave identically in the timeline.
• Your editing software has a well-tested AVCHD ingest path and a shakier one for other containers.
• You are rebuilding an AVCHD folder structure — the file needs to sit in BDMV/STREAM and be recognised as part of the set.
• You want a transport-stream container, which tolerates truncation better than MP4 does: a transport stream is a sequence of self-describing packets, so a file cut short is usually still playable up to the cut, while an MP4 missing its trailing index can be unplayable.

When to Pick MP4 Instead

• Anyone is going to watch it directly. MTS does not play in browsers, and iOS will not preview it in Files or Photos. MP4 plays everywhere.
• You want the smallest good-looking file. Both carry H.264 here, so quality is the same at the same settings, but MP4 is the container every player and uploader optimises for.
• You are uploading it somewhere. Video platforms, messaging apps and cloud drives all handle MP4 without a preview-generation failure.
• You only need the sound. Skip the video entirely and take the tape's uncompressed soundtrack with DV to WAV.

How to Convert DV to MTS

1. Upload Your DV File: Drag the .dv file onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse. The picker here accepts .dv only; queue several tape captures and they all run with the same settings.
2. Pick a Quality Preset: Under File Compression, Quality Preset opens on Very High (Recommended). Step up to Highest for an archival master, or switch the mode to Constant Quality and set the CRF yourself, or to Specific file size, Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, or Constraint Quality.
3. Set Audio Codec, Video resolution or Trim: Audio Codec defaults to AAC; switch it to AC3 if the file is destined for an AVCHD folder or Blu-ray authoring, since AC-3 is what the specification actually calls for. Leave Video resolution on Keep original so the standard-definition frame is preserved rather than stretched, and use Trim to export a Start time and Duration instead of the whole reel.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and save the .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.

What This Converter Writes Into the MTS

Frequently Asked Questions

Will converting DV to MTS make my old footage HD?

No. DV is standard definition — 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL — and it stays that resolution inside the MTS. The container can carry 1080p, but choosing an HD preset only resamples the same picture onto a larger grid and inflates the file without adding a single new detail. The reason to convert is workflow: getting a tape transfer to sit in an AVCHD project alongside newer camcorder clips. If broad playback is what you actually want, DV to MP4 is the more useful target.

Should I choose AC3 or AAC for the audio?

AC3 if the file is going into an AVCHD folder structure or a Blu-ray authoring tool. The AVCHD specification, introduced by Sony and Panasonic in 2006, allows Dolby AC-3 or uncompressed linear PCM — AAC is not part of it, so a strict authoring tool or an older standalone player may reject an AAC track even though the video is perfectly valid H.264. AAC is the default here because it is more efficient and plays in more software, and it is the right choice if the MTS is just a working file. DV's own audio is uncompressed PCM, so either encode starts from a clean first-generation source.

What is the actual difference between MTS and M2TS?

Less than most explanations suggest. Both hold the same H.264-in-transport-stream content. .MTS is what an AVCHD camcorder writes to its own memory card, in a BDMV/STREAM directory inside an AVCHD folder; .M2TS is what you end up with after the camcorder's companion import software copies the material to a computer, and it is also the stream extension used on Blu-ray discs. In practice the change is a rename during import rather than a different file format. Match the on-card convention with MTS, or use DV to M2TS if the software you are feeding expects that spelling.

Why is my MTS so much smaller than the DV file?

Because the two formats compress in fundamentally different ways. DV is intraframe: every frame is DCT-compressed independently at a fixed rate of about 25 Mbit/s no matter what is on screen. H.264 in the MTS is interframe — it predicts each frame from its neighbours and only spends data where the picture actually changes. On camcorder footage, which is mostly slow-changing, that is an enormous saving at the same perceived quality. Bear in mind DV is itself lossy, so the H.264 pass is a second generation; converting once from the cleanest capture you have is the best you can do.

Will the converted MTS play on my phone or smart TV?

Smart TVs are generally fine — Samsung, LG, and Sony sets typically play MTS from a USB drive. Phones are the problem. Most Android players such as VLC and MX Player handle it, but iOS will not preview an .mts in the Files app or the stock Photos app, and no browser will play it in a web page. If reliable playback anywhere is the goal, convert to MP4 instead; if you already have an MTS and need that, MTS to MP4 handles the reverse trip.

Does the footage stay interlaced?

Yes. DV from camcorders is interlaced standard-definition video, each frame woven from two fields captured a moment apart, and this converter applies no deinterlacing filter. Those fields are carried into the MTS exactly as recorded, which shows up as comb-tooth lines along moving edges when you watch it on a progressive display. That is the correct behaviour for material heading into an editor, because deinterlacing discards half the temporal information and cannot be reversed — make that call deliberately, later, on the timeline.

My capture is a .avi file, not .dv. Can I use this page?

No — the picker on this page accepts .dv only. Many FireWire captures land in a DV-AVI wrapper instead of a raw elementary stream, holding the same DV video and PCM audio inside an AVI container. Send those through AVI to MTS instead; the decoded frames are identical, so the MTS you get is the same. An AVI using some other codec entirely is a different decode path but the same page handles it.

What happens to my files after the conversion?

Your .dv upload travels over an encrypted connection, is processed on our servers, and is deleted automatically after a few hours along with the MTS we produced. Nothing is shared or made public, there is no sign-up, and no watermark is added. Since DV runs about 26.5 Mbit/s all in — roughly 13 GB per hour of tape — the practical constraint on a full reel is upload time rather than a per-file ceiling, so trimming to the section you need before uploading is the single biggest time saver.