A solution to the problem of importing MTS files to Sony Vegas

The .MTS is an AVCHD file format (Advanced Video Codec High Definition), which is created specifically for high-definition digital camcorders. It was developed jointly by Sony and Panasonic in 2006 for use in their camcorders. Support for this format has grown and is now supported by Sony, Panasonic Canon, JVC, Hitachi, and Sanyo HD camcorders. The format itself is based on the popular MPEG4 video codec and supports 720p and 1080i HD video formats.

As this format is relatively new, many video players or video editors are lacking of native support to it, or are only just starting to add support for this file type. Therefore, AVCHD camcorder users often meet problems one or another while playing or editing .MTS files. To relieve people’s pains, this article will give a solution to importing MTS file to Sony Vegas. If you have demand for this information, please go along with it.

Factually, Sony Vegas mentions that it is working with MTS from Vegas Pro 8 on its official site, but some users still encounter troubles while inputting MTS files to this editor. Ok, now let’s breakthrough these setbacks one by one together.

First of all, I will focus on solving MTS problems about Sony AVCHD camcorders whose hard drive is using a FAT32 file system.

Once the footage is recorded in chunks longer than 20 minutes, the file size will exceed 2GB, since FAT file system does not support it, in this case, camcorder will automatically record the rest data to a new file.
For example, the footage will be recorded as:
00000.MTS (2GB)

00001.MTS (2GB)

00002.MTS (2GB)

00003.MTS (the last file size will be not more than 2GB)

When connecting your Sony camcorder to your PC, you will be directly navigated to the storage folder of your camera, and then you can copy it to the hard drive of your PC with ease. Also, Vegas may recognize the .MTS files and is willing to import them, however, Vegas is not always able to recognize these .MTS files in size of 2GB, at this time, the following problems may happen:

1. Choppy frames at the end of the 2GB footage;

2. Vegas refuses to import the 2GB video clip, and pops up a message “unrecognized file format”;

3. Vegas crashed after the file is imported .

What should we do now? Actually, you just need pay attention to one thing that is making sure Sony Picture Utility is installed on your PC. It is included with you Sony camcorder, if you’ve lost it, click here to download. As soon as installed, while your camcorder is connected to your PC, the “HDD Handycam Utility” will be automatically launched.

This utility joins multiple .MTS files into a single .m2ts file on the hard drive of your PC, and then you can work this file with Sony Vegas smoothly.

Secondly, I’d like to say something more about the older version of Sony Vegas. Although the robust Vegas Pro 9 has been released not long ago, and it boasts supporting AVCHD definitely, I know some users are not willing to spend much more money to upgrade their old version to the newest one. Many people are still using Vegas 7 or former version to edit their video files.

To these people, the only way to let Vegas work with MTS files is convert these files to Vegas compatible formats like WMV(transcode AVCHD to WMV for Sony Vegas), MPG, MOV and MP4(convert MTS to MP4 for Sony Vegas) previously. The converter I personally used is Pavtube MTS to Sony Vegas Converter, I usually use it to convert my MTS files for my iPhone/iPad, and its output formats is various, including optimized presets for Sony Vegas. You can select a preset format for your Vegas. To be honest, I’ve tried many other converters before choosing it, this one can make my audio and video go in the same way, so it finally won my appreciation. Hopefully it will also do you a favor.

As for other AVCHD camcorders, because no research has no right to speak, I can say nearly nothing about them. I’m not sure whether they have certain plug-ins or utilities like Sony’s HDD Handycam Utility, or something else to help them import MTS files to Vegas. If not, may use Pavtube MTS/M2TS Converter to do previous conversion work still be an available way? Of course, if you have the latest version of Vegas or have your better way to solve this problem, just let my words go, or you can share your ideas to me as well. Thanks Prior.

Tags : Edit mts with sony vegas, Sony vegas presets, Convert mts to mp4 for sony vegas, importing MTS file to Sony Vegas, MTS to Sony Vegas Converter, transcode AVCHD to WMV for Sony Vegas