M2TS to MP4 Converter
M2TS is the stream format of Blu-ray discs and of camcorder clips copied off the card by import software. It plays on a Blu-ray player and in VLC, and almost nowhere else; an MP4 copy fixes that.
Video Converter
or drop MP4, MOV, MKV … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Lower is better quality and a bigger file. 18 looks identical to the source, 23 is the default, 28 and above shows visible softening.
Frames per second. Keep the source rate unless a platform asks for a specific one; 15–20 fps is plenty for GIFs.
Only used for PowerPoint files and single still images: how long each slide or picture stays on screen.
Auto uses AAC for MP4/MOV and Opus for WebM. Copy keeps the original sound untouched when the new format supports it.
192 kbps is transparent for music; 128 kbps is enough for speech.
Width of the animation in pixels; height follows the aspect ratio. 480 px suits chats, 720 px or more gives a high-quality GIF but a much larger file.
GIF holds at most 256 colors. Fewer colors make a smaller file but cause banding on gradients and skin tones.
Mixes palette colors in a fine pattern to hide banding. Sierra gives the smoothest result; none gives the smallest file.
Whether the animation repeats endlessly or plays one time and stops.
Optional. Seconds (e.g. 75) or minutes:seconds (1:15). Leave empty to start at the beginning.
Optional. Same format as the start time. Leave empty to keep everything up to the end.
The converted file will be at or just under this size.
How to use this tool
- 1
Pick the M2TS clips
Upload .m2ts files of up to 95 MB each, 20 at a time. On a disc they sit in the BDMV/STREAM folder with names like 00001.m2ts.
- 2
Leave H.264 and AAC selected
The page starts with Video codec on H.264 and Audio codec on AAC. Set Resolution to 720p if the MP4 only needs to play on a phone.
- 3
Convert to MP4
Press Convert to MP4 and download the results. Files are deleted from the server 30 minutes after processing.
Upload a short .m2ts clip and press Convert to MP4: the H.264, MPEG-2 or VC-1 video becomes H.264, and the Blu-ray soundtrack becomes AAC.
What an M2TS file is: the Blu-ray BDAV stream
M2TS stands for MPEG-2 transport stream in the BDAV layout that the Blu-ray Disc Association defined for the first discs in 2006. Every 188-byte transport packet gets a 4-byte timecode in front of it, so the file is a run of 192-byte packets. That detail lets a Blu-ray player schedule playback exactly, but it is why many phone apps, browsers and editors refuse the file outright.
Inside, a Blu-ray video stream is MPEG-2, H.264 or VC-1 at up to 40 Mbps, with audio in LPCM, Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio. Sony and Panasonic camcorders record AVCHD, the same packet structure at lower bitrates; on the card the clips use the short .MTS name, and software that copies them to a computer often renames them to .m2ts.
M2TS
Blu-ray MPEG-2 transport stream
M2TS is the transport stream format used on Blu-ray discs and by some AVCHD camcorders, introduced in 2006. It holds high-bitrate H.264, HEVC or MPEG-2 video with multichannel audio and subtitles. Files are very large and use timecode-based packets designed for disc playback. Phones, browsers and most social platforms cannot play M2TS files.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2006 · Blu-ray Disc Association
MP4
MPEG-4 video
MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) is a multimedia container standardised by ISO/MPEG and based on Apple's QuickTime format. It usually holds H.264 or HEVC video with AAC audio, and can also carry subtitles, chapters and metadata. It is the most compatible video format in the world, playing on phones, browsers, TVs, game consoles and social platforms. The video inside is almost always lossy, so repeated re-encoding gradually reduces quality.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2001 · Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
M2TS is converted to MP4 when footage has to leave the Blu-ray world: a clip from a home-burned disc or a Handycam import needs to play on a phone, go into an editor or be sent to someone, and only MP4 does all three.
How much M2TS video fits in a 95 MB upload
≈ 20 sof Blu-ray video at the 40 Mbps peak fits in one 95 MB file
Convert M2TS to MP4: what to keep and what to change
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| Convert the largest numbered files in BDMV/STREAM; they hold the footage. | Upload clips from a store-bought disc; AACS encryption blocks them. |
| Raise Audio bitrate to 256 kbps for concert or film soundtracks. | Expect PGS subtitles or menu buttons to carry over. |
| Keep Resolution on Same as source for 1080p material you may edit later. | Rename .m2ts to .mp4 and hope; the packet layout is different. |
| Keep the original M2TS files until you have checked every MP4. | Choose H.265 if the MP4 is meant for an older Windows PC. |
For a longer recording, split it on the computer first, then convert the parts; the camcorder sibling of this page, MTS to MP4, covers card-side AVCHD folders in more detail. When one MP4 must stay under a portal limit, compress video to 100 MB adds a size ceiling to the same conversion.
Ultra HD Blu-ray discs switched to HEVC video, so a 4K M2TS clip gives a much larger MP4 than 1080p material at the same quality setting. Pick 1080p under Resolution if the file is going to a phone or a chat app.
M2TS to MP4 questions
Can I convert the M2TS files on a Blu-ray movie I bought?
No. Commercial Blu-ray discs are encrypted with AACS, and the streams in BDMV/STREAM cannot be decoded without the disc keys; uploading them here only produces an error. Discs you burned yourself and camcorder footage are not encrypted and convert normally.
Why does one Blu-ray title use several M2TS files?
Blu-ray stores a title as a playlist (.mpls in BDMV/PLAYLIST) that points at one or more clips in BDMV/STREAM. A home-authored disc may split a long recording or reuse a menu loop, so check the file sizes and convert the large clips; they hold the actual footage.
What happens to Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD sound in the M2TS?
MP4 has no reliable place for those lossless Blu-ray formats, so the track is re-encoded to AAC at the Audio bitrate you choose; 256 kbps is a sensible setting for film sound. Dolby Digital tracks from camcorders go through the same AAC conversion.
Are Blu-ray subtitles kept in the MP4?
No. Blu-ray subtitles use PGS, a bitmap format that MP4 cannot hold, so they are dropped. Text subtitles would need to be recreated with OCR and added to the MP4 afterwards in a separate tool.
How much smaller is the MP4 than the M2TS?
Usually several times smaller. Blu-ray and AVCHD encoders spend bits generously so that players can decode in real time, while an H.264 encode at the default Quality (CRF) of 23 targets visual quality instead of a fixed rate. Grainy film transfers shrink less than clean camcorder footage.