M2TS to XviD Converter

M2TS to Xvid: A Deliberate Step Backwards, Done Properly

An .m2ts holds H.264 video in a BDAV transport stream — the Blu-ray and AVCHD packaging, with 192-byte packets instead of the plain 188-byte ones a .ts uses. Xvid is MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile, a codec generation older, and it exists on this site for one honest reason: a DivX/Xvid-certified DVD deck, a car head unit, an old set-top box or a legacy Windows editing tool that will not touch H.264.

So this is a downgrade on purpose. If the destination is anything made in the last fifteen years, M2TS to MP4 keeps the H.264 you already have and produces a smaller file. If a device's badge says Xvid, read on — there are three things about this route that catch people out, and all three are on this page.

How to Convert M2TS to Xvid

1. Upload Your M2TS File: Drag the .m2ts onto the page or click "+ Add Files". AVCHD and disc-rip streams are large; the upload dominates the wall-clock time. Several files can be queued with one set of settings.
2. Leave Video Codec and Check Audio Codec: Video Codec offers Xvid only on this target and is already selected — there is nothing to decide. Audio Codec opens on MP3, which is the pairing every Xvid-certified player expects. AC3, MP2, PCM and several others are listed, but a certified deck is far more likely to decode MP3 than any of them.
3. Choose a Rate-control Mode and a Resolution: File Compression opens on Quality Preset at "Very High (Recommended)" — read the next section before you trust that. Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, Specific file size, Constant Quality and Constraint Quality are all available; Constant Quality shows a slider labelled CRF that runs 1 to 31 and opens at 5, where lower means better. Video resolution opens on Keep original.
4. Convert and Download, Then Rename: Click Convert, save the file, and rename the extension from .xvid to .avi before you copy it to a player. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are re-encoded on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

The File Is an AVI That Happens to Be Called .xvid

There is no such thing as an Xvid container. Xvid is a codec, and the file this page produces is a RIFF AVI — we checked the bytes, and it opens with RIFF....AVI exactly like any other AVI, with the video stream tagged xvid and MP3 audio alongside it. The .xvid extension is a naming convention, not a format.

Practically that means one thing: rename it to .avi. A DVD player scanning a USB stick looks at the extension, sees something it does not recognise, and skips the file even though it could decode the contents perfectly. VLC and most desktop players sniff the header and will play it either way, which is exactly why the problem is not obvious until you put the stick in the deck.

What "Quality Preset" Really Does Here

This is the part that surprises people. Quality Preset is a CRF selector on codecs that have CRF — H.264, H.265, VP9, AV1. Xvid has no CRF mode, so the preset falls back to a completely different mechanism: it multiplies the source video's bitrate and encodes at the result.

The ceiling in each case is 1.5x the target, with a two-second buffer. Read the top row again: on a non-CRF codec the default preset asks for more bits than the source had, and because Xvid is a less efficient codec than H.264 you are spending them on a worse picture. That is not a bug so much as a mismatch between one control and two very different codec families, but it does mean the sensible defaults are inverted here. For a legacy player, Medium or Low is usually the right rung, or skip the preset entirely and set Constant Bitrate to a number the device's manual actually lists.

Resolution: the 2048 Ceiling and the Keep-original Trap

The converter records a 2048 x 2048 maximum for the Xvid encoder, and that cap is applied when you set a size yourself — type a width above 2048, or pick a preset taller than 2048, and it is brought back to 2048. It is not applied when Video resolution is left on Keep original, which is the default. A 4K .m2ts therefore sails through at 3840 x 2160, producing an Xvid file no Xvid-badged hardware will decode.

Two more things about resolution on this route. Any resize flattens the pixel aspect ratio to square, so an anamorphic 1440 x 1080 source needs an explicit Width x Height of 1920 x 1080 rather than a bare width, or it will look narrow. And there is no deinterlacing anywhere in this pipeline, so 1080i AVCHD arrives with its comb teeth intact — which is correct for an interlaced television but visibly wrong on a progressive panel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why will my DVD player not see the file?

Almost certainly the extension. The output is named .xvid, which is not a container name any player recognises; rename it to .avi and the same bytes usually play immediately. If it still does not appear, the next most likely cause is resolution — a certified deck typically lists a maximum such as 720 x 576, and a 1080p or 4K file exceeds it even though the codec is right.

Is Xvid the same thing as DivX?

They implement the same standard — MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile — with different encoders. Xvid is the open-source implementation; DivX is the commercial one. A player that decodes one will normally decode the other, because what it is really decoding is ASP video. Match your device's badge if you want to remove all doubt: M2TS to DivX produces the DivX-named equivalent.

Why is my Xvid file bigger than the M2TS it came from?

Two reasons stacked. First, the default Quality Preset targets 1.32x the source bitrate on a non-CRF codec, as the table above shows. Second, Xvid needs more bits than H.264 for the same picture, so even at an equal bitrate you are getting less quality per byte. Drop the preset to Medium or lower, or set Constant Bitrate explicitly.

What does the "CRF" slider on Constant Quality actually control?

On this target it is a qscale, not a CRF. The slider runs 1 to 31 and opens at 5, and lower is better — the opposite scale from the 16 to 51 CRF you would see on an H.264 target, where lower is also better but the numbers mean something different. Values around 3 to 6 give a good-looking Xvid encode; anything above about 10 starts to look visibly rough on motion.

Which audio codec should I choose?

MP3, which is preselected. The AVI container and Xvid-certified hardware grew up together around MP3, and a deck that plays Xvid almost always plays MP3 audio. AC3 is worth trying if you need to preserve a 5.1 mix and the player's manual mentions Dolby Digital. The AVI muxer will accept several other codecs listed in the dropdown, but a legacy player has no reason to have decoders for them.

Does the AVCHD audio survive?

Yes, re-encoded. AVCHD carries Dolby AC-3 or uncompressed linear PCM, and both are decoded and re-encoded to whatever you select — MP3 by default. Nothing is stream-copied here; the server re-encodes both tracks every time, which is why choosing a sensible audio bitrate matters as much on this route as the video setting does.

Can I keep the file at 1080p?

You can — Keep original does not cap the resolution — but you should think about why. No DivX or Xvid certification profile in general circulation lists 1080p, so a 1080p Xvid file is playable on a computer and largely useless on the hardware this format exists to serve. If the destination is a computer, H.264 in MP4 is strictly better in every dimension.

Will the converter deinterlace my 1080i footage?

No. There is no deinterlacing stage anywhere in this pipeline, so interlaced AVCHD keeps its field structure and the comb teeth appear in the output. On an interlaced television that is correct behaviour. On a progressive screen it looks like tearing on horizontal motion, and the fix is to deinterlace in a desktop editor before converting.

What is the difference between the .m2ts I have and a .ts or .mts file?

Only the packet framing and the extension. A .ts uses plain 188-byte transport packets; .m2ts and .mts wrap each one with a four-byte arrival timestamp for 192 bytes total, which is the BDAV variant used on Blu-ray discs and by AVCHD camcorders. The video and audio inside are the same. This page accepts the .m2ts spelling; the payload it extracts is identical either way.

What happens to my file after conversion?

It is uploaded over an encrypted connection, re-encoded on our servers, and both the upload and the output are deleted automatically after a few hours. No account is needed, no watermark is applied, and nothing is shared or made public. If you decide Xvid was the wrong target after all, M2TS to AVI writes a properly named AVI and M2TS to MP4 keeps the modern codec.