M2TS to HEVC Converter

How to Convert M2TS to HEVC Online

1. Upload Your M2TS File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select .m2ts files — Blu-ray BDMV/STREAM rips, AVCHD camcorder clips, or recorded broadcast streams. Sony, Panasonic, Canon, and JVC camcorders all write M2TS into BDMV folders. Batch is supported, drop in an entire BDMV/STREAM directory at once.
2. Pick Quality and Compression Mode: Output codec is H.265 / HEVC. Set Quality Preset (Highest → Lowest, default "Very High"), target a percentage of the original size or an exact size in MB, or fine-tune with CRF (18 = visually lossless, 23 = default for H.265, 28 = noticeably smaller). For tight bitrate control, switch to Variable Bitrate (target / min / max in Mbps) or Constant Bitrate.
3. Resize, Trim, or Pick Audio Codec (Optional): Pick a resolution preset (4320p / 2160p / 1440p / 1080p / 720p / 576p / 480p / 360p), enter custom width × height, or scale by percentage. Trim a section using start time + duration in seconds or HH:MM:SS.sss. Audio defaults to AAC — switch to AC3, EAC3, DTS (DCA), MP2, MP3, FLAC, or Opus from the Audio Codec dropdown to keep the original Blu-ray surround track lossless.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files process in your browser session — no sign-up, no watermark, no upload to a third-party server.

Why Convert M2TS to HEVC?

M2TS is the BDAV (Blu-ray Disc Audio-Video) transport stream format introduced in 2006 — it lives inside BDMV/STREAM/ on a Blu-ray disc and inside AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM/ on AVCHD camcorder SD cards. The video inside is typically MPEG-2 (older Blu-ray, broadcast captures) or H.264 (AVCHD, modern Blu-ray), with AC-3 / DTS / LPCM audio. The container is built for disc playback, not modern storage. HEVC (H.265) shrinks the video stream roughly 50% versus H.264 and roughly 70% versus MPEG-2 at the same visual quality, which is the difference between fitting one Blu-ray on a phone and fitting twenty. Common reasons to convert M2TS → HEVC:

• Archive a Blu-ray collection without filling a NAS — A typical retail Blu-ray rip lands at 25-40 GB per movie in the original M2TS. Re-encoded to HEVC at CRF 18 (visually lossless), the same movie ends around 8-15 GB. A 4 TB NAS holds 100 movies in M2TS or 300+ in HEVC at the same quality.
• Free up SD cards from a Sony / Panasonic camcorder — AVCHD shoots at 17-24 Mbps, so a 64 GB card holds about 6-8 hours. Re-encoded to HEVC at CRF 23, that footage drops to roughly 4-7 Mbps and the same archive fits on a 16 GB card with room to spare.
• Stream Blu-ray rips over Plex / Jellyfin without transcoding — Plex servers transcode on the fly when the client can't decode the source, and MPEG-2 from older Blu-rays burns CPU cycles on every stream. HEVC archives play direct on every iPhone, Apple TV 4K, Fire TV 4K, Shield TV, and 2018+ smart TV without server-side transcoding.
• 4K HDR Blu-ray (UHD) workflows — UHD Blu-ray already ships with HEVC inside the M2TS. Pulling that stream out into a raw .hevc file preserves the bitstream for downstream HDR-aware tools (mkvtoolnix, ffmpeg muxers) without re-encoding the video.
• Cloud backup billed by storage — Backblaze B2, Glacier, and Google Drive all charge by GB-month. Cutting the archive in half cuts the bill in half, indefinitely. For a 2 TB Blu-ray collection that's the difference between $10/month and $5/month forever.
• Feeding HEVC into a muxer or hardware encoder pipeline — Plain .hevc is a raw elementary stream (Annex B). Useful when a downstream tool wants the bitstream without a container — for example, remuxing later into MP4 or MKV with custom audio tracks, subtitle tracks, or chapter markers.

M2TS vs HEVC — Format Comparison

CRF Quick Guide for HEVC Output

Frequently Asked Questions

How much smaller will the HEVC file be compared to the M2TS source?

Depends on what's inside the M2TS. If the source is MPEG-2 (older Blu-ray, broadcast captures), expect 65-80% size reduction at CRF 23. If the source is H.264 (AVCHD, modern Blu-ray), expect 40-55% reduction. If the source is already HEVC inside (UHD Blu-ray), re-encoding gives only a marginal gain with a small generational quality loss — in that case, you usually want to remux the existing HEVC stream out instead of re-encoding it.

Will the AC-3, DTS, or LPCM surround audio survive?

The audio is re-encoded by default to AAC stereo, which is what every HEVC-aware player expects. To preserve the original Blu-ray soundtrack, switch the Audio Codec dropdown to AC3 (Dolby Digital), EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), or DTS (DCA) — those keep multi-channel surround intact. Pick FLAC for a lossless audio track if your source was LPCM. Note that DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD lossless tracks down-convert to their core lossy variants (DTS / AC3) since those are what the encoder writes.

What CRF should I use for Blu-ray archival?

CRF 18 for visually lossless archival when you want the original Blu-ray quality preserved indefinitely — output is 30-40% the size of the M2TS source. CRF 22-23 is the sweet spot for a Plex / Jellyfin library where you want quality you can't tell from the original on a 65-inch TV at 8 feet. CRF 26-28 for tablets and phones where small file size matters more than mathematical quality. Lower CRF = larger file, higher quality.

Can I rip a UHD Blu-ray (4K HDR) and keep HDR metadata?

UHD Blu-ray M2TS files carry HEVC video with HDR10 (and sometimes Dolby Vision profile 7) inside. Re-encoding HDR10 to HEVC preserves the HDR10 metadata in the new bitstream. Dolby Vision profile 7 (dual-layer) won't survive a re-encode — only profile 5 or 8.1 does. For pure HDR preservation, the ideal workflow is to extract the existing HEVC stream rather than re-encode it.

Does the converter handle full BDMV/STREAM folders?

Yes. AVCHD camcorders and Blu-ray rips both write a BDMV/STREAM/ directory containing sequentially numbered .m2ts files (00001.m2ts, 00002.m2ts, etc.). Drop the whole folder — every .m2ts is queued, converted in your browser session, and downloads individually or as a single ZIP. Useful when a Blu-ray ripper has split a movie into multiple stream files.

Why is the output a .hevc file instead of an MP4 or MKV?

Plain .hevc is a raw HEVC elementary stream (Annex B bitstream) — not a container. VLC, mpv, and IINA play .hevc directly. macOS QuickTime, Windows Photos, iOS Photos, and most smart TVs do not — those expect HEVC inside an MP4 or MKV. If you want a file that plays in QuickTime or on a smart TV, see M2TS to MP4 and select H.265 from the codec dropdown, or M2TS to MKV to keep multiple audio tracks and subtitles.

Can I trim a section while converting?

Yes. Use the trim controls to set a start time and duration in seconds (e.g., 30 / 120) or HH:MM:SS.sss (00:00:30.000 / 00:02:00.000). Useful for pulling a single chapter out of a Blu-ray rip without re-encoding the whole disc. Trimming first means the encoder does less work and the output is smaller.

What's the file size limit for M2TS uploads?

XConvert handles multi-GB M2TS files including full Blu-ray streams (typically 25-40 GB) and 4K UHD Blu-ray rips (typically 50-80 GB). Conversion runs in your browser session, so the practical ceiling is your device's available memory and your willingness to wait for upload. There's no fixed cap, no quantity limit on batch jobs, and no watermark.

How does this compare to AVCHD MTS conversion?

MTS and M2TS are structurally identical — same MPEG-2 transport stream container, same codecs inside. The only difference is the file extension: AVCHD camcorders write .mts to internal storage and .m2ts when the file is moved into the BDMV/STREAM directory. Both work here. For the camcorder-specific landing page see MTS to HEVC or for the AVCHD top-level format see AVCHD to HEVC.