How can I convert my AVCHD footage to an easier high definition format to edit in Adobe Premiere Elements 10?

Admin — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 03:22:26 +0000

Although it is clarified that “Adobe Premiere Elements 11.0 supports DV, HDV, WDM, and AVCHD formatted video”, many Elements users are experiencing problems with importing AVCHD footage to the well-known post-production video editor. Here are some questions put up in the Adobe forum.

“I am trying to set up a project in Premiere Elements 10 using AVCHD .mts video files imported from my Sony Nex-5N camera. These files are 1080p 24fps. I am unable to find any preset setting that matches these specs. The AVCHD presets are all either 1080i at 30fps, or 720p at 24fps. There is a 1080p 24fps setting under the “DSLR” presets, but I have no idea what codec “DSLR” refers to and assume it is not AVCHD.

Any advice greatly appreciated. I’m running a Core 2 duo 2ghz Mac Mini, so I don’t have tons of processing power. I’m most interested in simply viewing footage and making selects at this stage, rather than actually editing, so I would prefer to avoid transcoding my footage for now.

“I’m considering buying a Sony NEX-VG20, and I can’t find information on whether Premiere Elements 10.0 can import it’s files. The VG20 video format is AVCHD 2.0 (MPEG-4 AVC(H.264)), 1920×1080 @ 60p/24//60i. If Premiere Elements can’t import the files directly, is there a work-around?”

“How can I convert my AVCHD footage to an easier high definition format to edit? We are using Adobe Elements 10 and it seems that some AVCHD .mts video from Sony Handycam do not load to AE.”

Adobe Premiere Elements 10 includes amazing new tools that take the work out of video editing and let users focus on making incredible home movies. It supports a wide range of video formats for importing, such as 3GPP (.3gp, .3g2), Adobe Shockwave Flash (.swf), Audio Video Interleave (.avi), AVCHD (.m2ts, .mts), DV stream (.dv), H.264 (.mp4, .m4v), H.264-encoded QuickTime (.mov, .mp4, .m4v), MOD (.mod), MPEG-1 (.m1v, .mpeg, .mpe), MPEG-2 (.m2v, .mp2, .mpg), MPEG-2 Transport Stream (.m2t), QuickTime (.mov), TOD (.tod), Video Object (DVD video) (.vob), Windows Media (.wmv), Windows Media Advanced Systems Format (.asf).

Basically, I would not recommend using AVCHD 60p or 24p with the current versions of Premiere Elements, civex. But AVCHD 60i should work just fine. Even if Premiere can Import some of these files with other CODEC’s inside, there are very often problems. Some common ones are OOS (Out Of Sync) issues, no Audio, no Video, horribly pixelated Video, partial display of Video or Video and Audio that halt, or stutter. Some users who want to edit their AVCHD footage in Adobe Premiere Elements 10 indeed encounter such problems, due to this, if you have already taken AVCHD footage in 60p or 24p, a preferable workaround is encoding AVHCD .mts/.m2ts files to MPG/MOV/WMV or other editable formats. In the following paragraphs I’ll show you how to transcode Panasonic/Sony/Canon AVCHD files to MPG for importing to Adobe Premiere Elements 10.

First of all, you should download and install Pavtube AVCHD to Premiere Elements 10 Converter on your computer.

Note: If you are Mac users, Free Pavtube AVCHD MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac from App Store is the best choice for you. This freestyle AVCHD Video Converter for Mac is specially designed for Sony, Canon, JVC and Panasonic AVCHD Camcorder/camera owners to convert recorded AVCHD (.mts/m2ts) videos to various video formats for using in video editing software and portable devices:

This free program natively supports various AVCHD camcorders like Sony,Canon Panasonic, JVC and so on.
Convert camcorder recorded MTS/M2TS video files to video fromats which are highly compatible with AVID Media Composer, Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, Magix Movie Edit Pro, Windows Movie Maker.
Encode AVCHD (.mts/m2ts) footages to playable video formats for Surface RT/Pro, Google Nexus 7/10, Nexus 4,Apple TV 3, iPad 3, iPhone 5, iPod, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, Kindle Fire HD, Sony Xperia Tablet Z, Transformer Prime, Nook HD, HTC Windows Phone 8X, Coby Kyros, Nabi 2 and other tablets/phones.
Free Convert AVCHD MTS videos shot by Canon, Sony, Panasonic, JVC AVCHD MTS camcorder to MP4 H.264 for uploading to YouTube or Vimeo on Mac.

How to Convert AVCHD MTS/M2TS to MPG, MOV, WMV for Adobe Premiere Elements 10?

Step 1. Launch Pavtube AVCHD to Premiere Elements 10 Converter in standby mode at your computer. Input MTS shootings to Pavtube software via “Add video” or “Add from folder” icon. You can load your AVCHD source files directly from your camera, or from a card reader, or from the file folder that contains the source MTS videos stored on your computer’s hard disk drive. Or drag and drop .mts video files you want to convert into this converter.

Step 2. Select output format for Adobe Premiere Elements 10

There are two choices:

1. Click on “Format” bar and choose “Adobe Premiere /Sony Vegas” as category, then choose WMV, MPG, or MOVformat from the sub-list. Here I recommend the MPEG-2 (*.mpg) format.

2. Under “HD Video” table, you can choose “H.264 HD Video(*.mov)” as output format for converting AVCHD to HD MOV format to maximally preserve your HD camcorder video quality. To set video size as 1920*1080 and frame rate as 30fps, press “Settings”. In this way, you will suffer the least loss of video quality for easy editing.

Step 3. Transcode AVCHD to MPG/MOV/WMV for Adobe Premiere Elements 10.

Click on the big red “Convert” button to begin encoding AVCHD to MPG/MOV/WMV for Premiere Elements 10.

While converting AVCHD to MPG/MOV/WMV etc. format, the app also converts AVCHD (1080i) video from interlaced to progressive scanning. It will achieve better image quality than original.

Step 4. When conversion task finished, you can right click on the task list and Press “Open” to locate converted MPG, MOV or WMV video, then import the videos to Adobe Premiere Elements 11 for further editing.

More tips on editing Panasonic/Canon/Sony/JVC High Definition Camcorder footages:

1. Premiere Elements 10 does not include support for 1920×1080 60p. It does, however, include support for 1280×720 60p and DSLR 640×480 60p.
2. The MTS/M2TS Converter can convert files in batch so you may import all that you would like to convert.
3. This MTS/M2TS Converter can help you join the several clips into one via ticking the box “Merge into one” box.

PS. If you want burn AVCHD MTS videos from Panasonic, Sony, Canon, JVC camcorders to DVD, pls reference the guide.

More about DVD Burning tutorial:

MTS to Premiere Elements 10 – AIC Converter-Import AVCHD/MTS to FCP/FCE/iMovie

How can I convert my AVCHD footage to an easier high definition format to edit in Adobe Premiere Elements 10?