MTS to AIFF Converter

MTS to AIF Converter

This tool pulls the audio track out of an MTS (AVCHD) camcorder clip and writes it as an AIF (AIFF) file — the H.264 video is discarded and you keep only the soundtrack. MTS is the AVCHD recording format Sony and Panasonic introduced in 2006; AIF is Apple's uncompressed Audio Interchange File Format, the Mac counterpart to Windows' WAV. The conversion exists for one narrow situation: getting camcorder sound into an older Mac, a classic Logic Pro or GarageBand-era session, or a hardware sampler that imports AIFF-family files but won't open a raw video container.

MTS (AVCHD) Format at a Glance

AIF (AIFF) Format at a Glance

How to Convert MTS to AIF

1. Upload Your MTS File: Drag and drop your .MTS (or .M2TS) clip onto the page, or click "+ Add Files" to browse. Browse into the card's STREAM/ folder and pick the individual clip, not the top-level AVCHD folder. Queue several to extract them in one batch.
2. Leave the Audio Codec on the AIF Default: Under "Show All Options," the Audio Codec defaults to PCM 16-bit Big Endian — standard uncompressed audio inside the AIF container, which is what older Mac editors and samplers expect. PCM A-law or mu-law makes a smaller telephony-style file, but plain PCM is the safe, importable choice.
3. Set Audio Channel, Audio Sample Rate, or Trim (Optional): Audio Channel and Audio Sample Rate both sit on Original, copying the source layout; set Audio Channel to Stereo or Mono to control how a surround track folds down, or use Trim to keep only part of a long recording.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and save your .aif file individually or as a ZIP. No sign-up, no watermark.

What Happens to the Audio (AC-3 vs LPCM Source)

The AVCHD specification allows two audio types, and they behave very differently when written into a PCM AIF:

• Dolby AC-3 (Dolby Digital) source — the common case. Most consumer AVCHD camcorders record AC-3, which is already a lossy format. Decoding it to uncompressed PCM inside the AIF adds no new generation of loss — but it cannot rebuild detail the AC-3 encode already discarded. You get a clean, editor-ready copy of exactly the quality the source had, not an upgrade.
• Linear PCM source — some professional models. Because that source is already lossless, writing it into a PCM AIF is a genuinely lossless handoff — camcorder PCM straight to PCM-in-AIF, with no transcode in between. Keep Audio Sample Rate on Original so the AIF inherits the source rate and depth.

Either way the AIF is uncompressed, so expect it to be much larger than the clip's audio bitrate suggests — roughly 10 MB per minute for 16-bit/44.1 kHz stereo. If you need cross-platform reach instead of an Apple-specific file, convert MTS to WAV is the more universal editing target, and MTS to MP3 is the right pick when you only need the soundtrack to play on a phone or car stereo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this keep the video, or just the audio?

Just the audio. This is an extraction: the H.264 video inside your MTS clip is discarded and only the soundtrack is written out as an AIF file. If you want to keep the picture too, convert MTS to MP4 instead, which re-encodes both the video and audio into a single playable file.

Will the AIF sound better than the audio already in my MTS clip?

Usually no, and the honest reason is the source. Most consumer AVCHD camcorders record Dolby AC-3, which is already lossy — so decoding it to PCM inside an AIF gives a faithful copy but cannot exceed the source. Some professional models record uncompressed Linear PCM, and that case is different: PCM straight into a PCM AIF is a genuinely lossless handoff with no transcode at all. Either way you get a clean working copy for editing; only the LPCM source starts from true lossless audio.

Why is my AIF file so much larger than the original soundtrack?

Because this converter writes uncompressed PCM into the AIF by default. AVCHD audio is compressed (AC-3 packs a stereo track into a few hundred kbps), whereas 16-bit/44.1 kHz stereo PCM runs about 10 MB per minute regardless of the source bitrate. The size jump is the cost of an uncompressed, editor-friendly format, not a setting you can tune away. If you would rather keep things small, extract to a lossy format like MTS to MP3 instead.

Why is my extracted audio slightly longer than the video?

AC-3, like every lossy audio codec, includes a small amount of encoder padding — typically on the order of 10–20 ms — and different editors interpret the clip's muxing delay differently, so a decoded PCM track can land a hair longer than the original. In our testing this is inaudible on a standalone clip but can show up as a tiny sync offset in a tight multi-clip edit; nudge the audio track into alignment in your DAW if you notice it. An LPCM source avoids the codec-padding part of this entirely.

Can the AIF keep my MTS clip's 5.1 surround sound?

Not as surround. AVCHD AC-3 audio can carry up to 5.1 channels, but this tool's Audio Channel control offers Original, Stereo, and Mono, so a surround source is most reliably handled as a stereo fold-down here. If preserving every channel matters, extract to AAC instead, where multichannel is the supported path. For an ordinary recording you will listen to in stereo, the PCM AIF is exactly what a sampler or DAW wants.

Is .aif different from .aiff, and what about .aifc?

.aif and .aiff are the same Audio Interchange File Format — the three-letter spelling is a holdover from the old DOS/Windows 8.3 filename limit, while macOS tends to write .aiff. Both hold the same uncompressed PCM inside IFF chunks and convert identically here. The related .aifc is AIFF-C, the 1991 variant that can additionally carry compressed payloads; if you specifically need that container, convert MTS to AIFC is the matching tool. For plain uncompressed audio, AIF and AIFF are interchangeable.

How are my files handled, and is there a size limit?

Your MTS file is uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after conversion — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public. The main practical limit is upload size and time rather than the extraction itself: an MTS clip carries full HD video alongside the audio, so a long recording can take a while to upload even though pulling out the soundtrack is quick.