Cut M2TS

How to Cut M2TS Video Online

1. Upload Your M2TS File: Drag and drop or click "+ Select File" to add a Blu-ray rip or AVCHD camcorder file from your computer. Batch uploads are supported.
2. Set Start Time and Duration: Use the trim controls to enter the start point and either the duration or end time. Both seconds (e.g. 12.5) and HH:MM:SS.sss (e.g. 00:01:30.250) inputs are accepted. Scrub the preview to find the exact moment before locking it in.
3. Pick the Output Container (Optional): Keep M2TS to preserve the BDAV Transport Stream wrapper used by Blu-ray, or switch to MKV or MP4 via the dropdown if you plan to drop the clip into an editor that prefers those containers.
4. Cut and Download: Click "Cut". The selected segment is extracted on our servers — no sign-up, no watermark, no re-upload to a third-party cloud.

Why Cut M2TS?

M2TS is the BDAV (Blu-ray Disc Audio-Video) variant of the MPEG-2 Transport Stream container. On a Blu-ray, every title and clip lives in the BDMV/STREAM/ folder as a numbered .m2ts file; on a Sony, Canon, Panasonic, JVC, or Lumix AVCHD camcorder, the same container is on the SD card under a .MTS extension because AVCHD inherits the legacy 8.3 filename limit. Inside, the video is H.264/AVC (always, on AVCHD; usually, on Blu-ray — H.262/MPEG-2 and SMPTE VC-1 are also valid), and the audio is typically Dolby Digital AC-3 or Linear PCM, with DTS, DTS-HD, and Dolby TrueHD allowed on Blu-ray.

Common reasons to cut without converting:

• Extracting a single Blu-ray scene — pull one chapter out of a 25 GB rip without processing the rest of the disc.
• Trimming AVCHD camcorder footage — Sony Handycams and Panasonic AG-AC30 cameras record one continuous clip per take; cut the dead air at the start and end before importing into Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut.
• Splitting recordings that hit the FAT32 4 GB cap — AVCHD camcorders auto-split at ~4 GB; cut the seam back out so you have one clean take.
• Cropping out commercials — some DVRs and PVRs save TV broadcasts as M2TS; remove ad breaks before archiving.
• Sampling for proxy editing — extract a 30-second slice from a 40 Mbps Blu-ray rip to use as a transcode test before committing to a full conversion to MP4 or MKV.
• Reducing upload size — share a single highlight on Drive or YouTube instead of the whole multi-gigabyte original.

M2TS vs MTS vs MP4 — Container Comparison

Property	M2TS (Blu-ray)	MTS (AVCHD)	MP4
Underlying container	MPEG-2 Transport Stream (BDAV)	MPEG-2 Transport Stream (BDAV)	ISO Base Media (MPEG-4 Part 14)
Typical origin	Blu-ray disc STREAM/ folder	AVCHD camcorder SD card	Phones, editors, streaming
Video codecs allowed	H.264, H.262/MPEG-2, VC-1	H.264 only	H.264, H.265, AV1, MPEG-4 ASP
Audio codecs (mandatory)	AC-3, DTS, LPCM	AC-3 or LPCM	AAC most common
Optional audio	Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, DTS-HD MA	—	AC-3, ALAC, FLAC
Filename length	Long filenames	8.3 (legacy)	Long filenames
Streaming-friendly	Yes (transport stream, packet-aligned)	Yes	Yes (with moov atom at start)
Sub-clip cut on this page	Frame-accurate re-encode	Frame-accurate re-encode	Frame-accurate re-encode

The two formats are byte-identical containers — renaming .MTS to .m2ts (or the reverse) does not change the file. The extension only signals the origin.

Bitrate Reference for M2TS Sources

Source	Typical Video Bitrate	Audio	Hourly File Size
Blu-ray feature (H.264)	25–40 Mbps	DTS-HD MA / TrueHD 5.1	12–20 GB
Blu-ray feature (VC-1 or MPEG-2)	20–30 Mbps	AC-3 / DTS 5.1	10–15 GB
AVCHD 1080/60p	28 Mbps (PS mode)	AC-3 stereo	~13 GB
AVCHD 1080/60i, 1080/24p	17–24 Mbps (FX/HQ modes)	AC-3 stereo	8–11 GB
AVCHD 720/60p	12–17 Mbps (HQ/HA modes)	AC-3 stereo	6–8 GB
DVR / TV capture	8–18 Mbps	AC-3 stereo	4–8 GB

Frequently Asked Questions

Will cutting an M2TS file lose any quality?

Not visibly. The cut decodes the kept segment and re-encodes it at the visually-lossless default preset — there is no stream-copy path, so the output is not bit-identical to the source, but at the default settings it is visually indistinguishable from the 25-40 Mbps original. The upside is precision: the cut starts on the exact frame you request, regardless of where the encoder placed its I-frames.

Why does my cut start a fraction of a second earlier than the time I entered?

With XConvert it shouldn't — the cut re-encodes the kept segment, so the output starts exactly at the time you entered. The snap you're describing is how stream-copy cutters behave: they rewind to the nearest preceding keyframe, and Blu-ray and AVCHD encoders place an I-frame every 0.5–2 seconds, so those tools can start up to ~2 seconds early. Here the cut is frame-accurate.

Should I keep the file as M2TS or switch to MKV or MP4 after cutting?

Keep M2TS if the clip is going back to a Blu-ray authoring tool, a hardware player, or any workflow that expects the BDAV transport-stream wrapper. Switch to MKV via M2TS to MKV when you want to preserve DTS-HD, TrueHD, or multiple subtitle tracks in a flexible container. Switch to M2TS to MP4 when targeting consumer devices, web players, or social platforms — but expect the audio to be re-muxed to AC-3 or AAC since MP4 does not officially carry DTS-HD or TrueHD.

What's the difference between MTS and M2TS files?

They are the same container with different filename extensions. AVCHD camcorders write .MTS because the camera filesystem (originally FAT32 with 8.3 short names) cannot store the 4-character .m2ts. On a Blu-ray, the same file is stored as .m2ts because the disc filesystem allows long filenames. If you rename the extension, nothing inside the file changes.

Can I cut multiple non-contiguous segments out of one M2TS in a single pass?

This page produces one segment per upload. To pull two or three highlights from a Blu-ray rip, run the cut tool once per segment (or use the MTS cutter for the AVCHD .MTS variant). To stitch the segments back together, use a desktop tool such as ffmpeg -f concat or mkvmerge — keep the same codec and resolution across all segments so the join doesn't need another re-encode.

My camcorder split one long take into multiple ~4 GB M2TS files. Can I cut a clip that spans two of those files?

Not directly — the split happens at the 4 GB FAT32 file size limit and the files are independent. Concatenate them first (the AVCHD spec guarantees they are codec-compatible and align at a GOP boundary), then cut the joined result. Most editors and ffmpeg -f concat handle this seamlessly.

Does this preserve DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD tracks?

No — the cut re-encodes the audio along with the video, so lossless DTS-HD MA and TrueHD tracks come out as a lossy codec at a bitrate matched to the source. For bit-exact lossless-audio extraction, demux with a desktop tool (eac3to, MakeMKV, ffmpeg -c copy) and keep the untouched rip. MP4 output can't carry those codecs in any case per the ISO/IEC 14496-14 spec.

Will subtitle and chapter tracks survive the cut?

Don't count on it. The cut re-encodes to a single video and audio track, and PGS subtitle streams (the bitmap subtitles used on Blu-ray) are not guaranteed to carry over. Chapter markers are dropped in any case, because the original chapter table references the full title's playback timeline. Extract subtitles separately and re-add chapters in your authoring tool after cutting.

Is there a file size limit for online cutting?

The cut runs on our servers, so the practical limit is upload size and connection speed and how long you're willing to wait. A 20 GB Blu-ray rip cuts fine on our servers; on a slow connection you can compress the M2TS first or cut directly from the source disc with a desktop tool to reduce the upload.