codza

You want to play and convert .mts files on Vista64 for free? Here’s how, using Windows Media Player and Windows Media Encoder. I’ll also show you how to batch encode multiple files.

Not only is this totally free, but the quality is amazing. Truly.

It will take a couple minutes to setup, but it’s totally worth it.

I have a Panasonic HD camera that records video straight onto an SD card. I assumed that I’d be able to use the video files in any video application by default… how wrong I was. The AVCHD codec is unfortunately not supported on Vista by default. I’m running Vista64, which made things a bit more complicated.

The ffdshow codecs from here will not work on Vista64. What you need is the Vista Codec Package from Shark007 including the x64 components. (If you are running Vista32, just skip all the 64 bit stuff.)

1. Make sure that the ffdshow codecs are not installed
2. Download and install the Vista Codec Package from Shark007
3. Download and install the Vista64 components from Shark007

You should now be able to play .MTS files in Windows Media Player.

You need Windows Media Encoder to convert AVCHD to WMV files. DO NOT INSTALL THE 64 BIT VERSION! Only the 32 bit version works with the Shark007 codecs. Also get the SDK so you can batch convert:

1. Download and install the Windows Media Encoder 32 bit version
   
2. Download and install the Windows Media Encoder SDK

Fire up Windows Media Encoder. The easiest way is to hit the Windows button and type “encode” in the serach field (selected by default). It will show up on top. Gosh I love Vista.

Select “custom session” (click on screenshots for larger view):

Select “file” for the source, browse to your folder, select the “all files” filter and open your .mts file:

In the “Compression” tab select “file archive” and go to “edit”:

Select the “Quality Based” tab, uncheck “Same as video input” and type the size you want for your output. My source files are 1920×1440, for DVD editing 720×406 is a good output size. Make sure that the new size is the same aspect ratio and the dimensions are even numbers (for this size the height should officially be 405, but I rounded it up to 406 to get an even number.) Set the video quality, I found that 75 is an awesome compromise of quality and file size. Of course you can leave it at 100 for no compression. The frame rate I left at 29.97 even though my footage is 23.98fps (24P makes everything look more expensive). This setting seems to dictate a maximum frame rate, so it won’t hurt 24P footage:

Don’t hit OK yet, go back to the “General” tab and “Export” the profile so you can load it later and we’ll use this profile in the batcher:

In the “Output” tab uncheck “Pull from encoder” (very important, making sure that no frames will be dropped), check “Encode to file”, type in the output file name and hit “Apply”:

You are ready to encode! Click “Start encoding”, here’s a screen shot of the encoding process:

Jumping through so many hoops for every movie file would be pretty insane so let’s look at batch conversion. The SDK includes a batcher, you can find it here (given that you installed the SDK in the default location):

C:\WMSDK\WMEncSDK9\samples\vb\batcher\BatchEncode.exe

In the batcher add your source .mts files (you will have to select the “all files” filter from the browser again to see .mts files), select the output folder, specify a prefix for the files (”Output string”) and open the compression profile you made earlier. The extension for the profile is “.prx” and you can find your profiles in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Components\Encoder\Profiles

Fill out whatever metadata info you want (like title, copyright etc..) and hit the “Add” button (under the DRM setting) to queue the selected video files. Click “start”, and go mow the lawn while the batcher converts your movies!

Once you have your compression profiles setup, you never have to go back to the encoder, just use the batcher.

That’s it. Enjoy!

As always, feel free to contact me.

Filed under:
pc, vista64 by lajos