# .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help



## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Hey ive started to have this strange annoying problem and cannot figure out at all what is causing it, I have a Sony AVCHD video camera and I have been able to convert the MTS files with a program called Aimersoft Video Converter to MP4's to edit them in Sony Vegas, the clips were always converted FLAWLESSLY, no frame laggs or anything, but on the same computer, same operating system a couple months later I have new footage I want to edit and I do the exact same steps except this time when I convert it and view the files they are EXTREAMLY laggy for some odd reason, every single clip I convert MTS to MP4 are all laggy and I dont mean that my player cant handle them I put it into vegas for inspection and when viewed frame by frame there were two frames that were the same and some skipped jumped frames by the looks of it, this never happend to me before I dont know why it would start now does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks alot!


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

During conversion were you using the computer for any other CPU or RAM intensive work? transcoding is pretty intensive and if the computer's resources are stretched then dropped frames and other errors can result. Intensive applications like games, video editing, digital manipulation (Photoshop etc) even iTunes messenger etc can tie up resources needed when transcoding.
Do you regularly clean up and defragment your hard drive? if these housecleaning jobs are not done regularly it can impact on your computer's efficiency leading to errors.
Do you allow Aimersoft to regularly update? 

Another thing to check is the bitrate settings you are using when converting - if the bitrate is set too high your computer will struggle to handle the files.

Once in Vegas do the files behave OK when rendered?


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Yes I am never doing anything else on my computer while im doing them, just have a few things open but nothing like adobe, videos, or anything like that, the bitrate setting is always set at max just like it was before and it could handle them fine and still can, when I view one clip I converted awhile ago the clip wasnt laggy at all it was smooth and fine, and when In vegas they dont handel fine because there are repated frames like it will show two of the same frames so even when it rendered you can tell it glitchy because some frames are missing or are doubled


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

what are your camera settings? are you shooting with any settings different to before?
also what would be the typical length of clip - and so therefore size?

I have a Canon which delivers mts files which, if I am having any problems editing (using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4) I convert to .avi with the Matrox I frame codec using Prism's free converter - this article describes the process - it is based on converting .mov files but the process is the same for .mts

mp4 is not an ideal editing format because the video has been compressed a fair bit by the time you get that into your editor then when finalising you will compress again - remember: each time you compress you lose information aka quality.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*



zuluclayman said:


> what are your camera settings? are you shooting with any settings different to before?
> also what would be the typical length of clip - and so therefore size?
> 
> I have a Canon which delivers mts files which, if I am having any problems editing (using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4) I convert to .avi with the Matrox I frame codec using Prism's free converter - this article describes the process - it is based on converting .mov files but the process is the same for .mts
> ...


Same settings as before, there is no difference just 29.97 frames per second, clips are anywhere from 5 seconds to 40 seconds, any length is glitchy(N) I convert to mp4 with the highest bitrate possible and actually there is no quality loss no matter how many times you re-render it as long as the bitrates are high you can keep converting it over and over again I know that because I compare the clips with screenshots and there is never any difference


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

how can I post screenshots? I want to post the MKV -> MP4 comparision to show that there is no difference, I actually took the MKV converted to MP4 then edited it in MP4 and converted it again and the two screenshots show that there is no difference.


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Can we get something cleared up please - your thread header and now your last text refer to the files as MKV (a Matroska file format) yet your first post talks about them as mts (the file format used by Sony, Canon and others) - which are they?

I'm happy to believe the frame grabs are the same after conversion - the problem you have at the moment is not to do with that.

Have you tried any other converters? The freeware Prism converter mentioned (and linked to) in the article I referred you to in a previous post works well and is recommended on a number of videomaking forums - it may be more stable, giving more consistent results than the one you presently use. Similarly Format Factory has been giving me good results for some time now.

I'm not sure what has led to your problem with Aimersoft Video Converter but it may be time to look at other software solutions if this is happening on a consistent basis.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Oh crap sorry lol, im getting confused with MTS and MKV because I am having problems with both, but sorry yes im reffering to MTS -> MP4


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Okay, im so fed up with the problem, I tried Prism and it is interlaced footage it converts it to, I looked everywhere and there is no option to de-interlace it...

I tried un-installing Xvid codec to see if that was the problem with the lag from MTS to MP4 and it didnt change its still laggy as ever.

Does anyone not know why or how this could of occured? I used to be able to convert MTS to MP4 perfectly fine then just out of the blue every single clip no matter how long or short is extremely laggy.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Just tried, a program called Free HD Converter and everything is perfect except now everything has a DOUBLE IMAGE now each frame blend into each other? but I set he settings to 29.97 frame rate!? please help someone


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Why did sony have to make it so difficult for there cameras? I mean is not one program out there that can do a good job simply converting MTS to workable files?


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Just tried Wondershare Video Converter, to my surprise the exact same thing happesn as Aimersoft Video Converter, laggy files again... lol


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Tried AVCHD Video Converter and to my surprise I put the framerate as the correct 29.97 frames per second and I get the same problem with Free HD Converter, the frames overlap each other creating the double image look...


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

ha ha - yup Sony are particularly notorious for this - not only do they use a file format (the mts container) that can be difficult but they also use a proprietary codec (one of their own not readily available) to encode with - they want you to use PMB to edit with :laugh:


what are your shooting settings? 

NOTE THE EDIT HERE - HAD IT WRONG WAY ROUND - WELL IT'S MORNING HERE - NOT A MORNING PERSON

are you shooting interlaced? setting will say 24i, 30i or 60i be aware that some cameras (mine included here) when shooting in interlaced mode actually deliver an progressive video stream in a interlaced container - they just repeat the whole frame in the second part (this may be what has been giving you problems with repeated frames - the converter has not dropped them at times)

or are you shooting progressive? setting will say 24p, 30p or 60p - 

I shoot in progressive mode at either 25p or 50p (in Australia so PAL format gives those fps) and edit the files as is (usually) in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 - it is a bit laggy until rendered on the timeline. Every now and again I have to transcode and I use Prism with the Matrox codec (as explained above)

What is the eventual destination of the video? are you uploading it to a video hosting site such as Youtube or Vimeo? or burning to DVD?

In Vegas when you try editing the raw mts files what happens?

Are you using the "match footage" command to set up your project settings in Vegas?


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Tried PavTube MTS Converter, double image framed problem and interlacced problem...

I cant understand why do companies and people create these programs if they dont even work properly?


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Hmm, I cant seem to figure out where it says if its i or p anywhere on the camera, but Im pretty sure its progressive because wen I view the raw MTS clips in Windows Media Player or VLC they are de-interlacced.

Im just trying to edit to basically MP4 so then I can burn them to dvd and also so I can upload it online to youtube, I dont really care if its not perfect looking on Youtube as long as I can get it in its best looking format on my computer alone and on DVD thats good enough for me.

When I edit in Vegas the raw MTS files it is EXTREAMLY glitchy and laggy even when the project settings are switched to standard and even when I put it to preview mode it laggs and its basically impossible to edit because you cant even see whats happening, it odd because I have a Core 2 Duo with 8 gigs of ram, windows 7 and 2.40 GHz processor, its also strange that VLC cannot really play the MTS files to well yet when I open it with windows media player it runs perfectly smooth and crip speed no lag at all although it does look like its sped up for some reason.

And when you say "Match footage" command do you mean set the project settings to what my file is like editing with an HD profile? if so I set the project settings to standard 720 by 480 to make it faster and with MTS it still lags.


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

have another look at my post above - had it wrong way round - they deliver progressive footage in an interlaced container with every frame repeated

this article, while dealing with Adobe kinda explains the problem we face with non-native settings regarding interlacing - items 2&3 talk about this problem. I used to have a nice clear explanation bookmarked but can't find it atm sorry.


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Have a look at some of these threads from Vimeo Cameras & Editing forum dealing with this problem - there may be some answers there for you - many will say to transcode first using a lossless codec, some say Vegas handles mts natively but not many :sigh:


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

I dont understand though if its regarding Adobe Premiere how can that help with the problem im having? I dont user Premiere


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

I used that article/thread to give you an explanation of the way cameras use an interlaced container for progressive footage - there maybe ways of using his solution in your case adapted to Vegas - it is going to be critical to get the correct initial project settings because all NLE's conform the input footage to the project specs, if they are wrong then your output is going to be wrong too.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

wow lol, im so lost Ive never heard of this in all my 7 years of video editing lol:O


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## Laxer (Dec 28, 2010)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

If you upload one of your files(.mkv) I will play around and see if I can convert it successfully.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

*re: .MTS --> MP4 Extreme Lag Issue *Please Help*

Sorry its actually MTS -> MP4 that im having trouble with dont know how I can change the thread title but anyway I put a link on megaupload with 4 clips if someone could please check them out and see if you can convert them properly that would be great!

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

As you can see in the folder the clip that was converted with AIMERSOFT the guy doing the backflip is laggy right before he does the backflip, yet when you look at the other clip that was converted with AIMERSOFT the EXACT SAME WAY shows no lag whatsoever, I have tons of other clips that were converted awhile ago with lots of movement as well and there are no lags, every single clip I convert with aimersoft has a lag in it somewhere no matter what which doesnt make anysense, I tried wondershare converter to and it does the exact same thing.

Then as you can tell with the other clips I convert them and THEY RUN PERFECTLY SMOOTH.... Except I cant use them because they make a double image over them, I just dont understand how can the other programs work and not be laggy and the programs that actually convert it good without doubled images dont work? And its only started to happen, before I was converting clips fine with aimersoft...

Please watch my clips to get a better understanding of what I mean.


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## Laxer (Dec 28, 2010)

From megaupload:


> *The file you are trying to access is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.*


I will try again later.

I also changed the tittle for you.

As Zulu stated before it may be involved some how with your computer. If I can convert them cleanly then we will try to diagnose your computer. If I can't we will look for a freeware that can convert them correctly.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Aw damn as if it was temporarily unavailable, I just checked now and its working now(Y)

thanks alot for your help, I have no idea where I would of turned to if it wasnt for this forum check those files out whenever you can


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## Laxer (Dec 28, 2010)

Ok, I downloaded Aimersoft Video Converter to see if I could reproduce the error.

The default settings gave me a slight audio pause.....

I then went down to *profile*(at the bottom) and selected *HD Video* inside that menu I selected *MP4*, I then selected *High Quality* from the drop down and started it.

This removed the Audio pause....

Just for clarification....

*Profile -> Apple -> Iphone is BAD*
*Profile -> HD video -> MP4 is GOOD*

See if making those edits change anything on your end....


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

I have successfully converted them using Prism:

I did one mp4 with the XviD codec comes up to 69.7MB, has no lag
I did another using the Matrox I frame HD codec (good for editing - has full 10 bit colour space) comes up to 51.1MB, again no lag

I am uploading them to megaupload - going to take a while, for some reason atm my upload speeds are terrible :sigh:


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## Laxer (Dec 28, 2010)

zuluclayman said:


> I have successfully converted them using Prism:
> 
> I did one mp4 with the XviD codec comes up to 69.7MB, has no lag
> I did another using the Matrox I frame HD codec (good for editing - has full 10 bit colour space) comes up to 51.1MB, again no lag
> ...


Mine too, problem is OP needs to be able to convert the videos without our assistance.

meaning we need a freeware capable of converting without lag....

Aimersoft is free and that's what OP has if you wish to play around.


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

Prism is free (link is in the article I linked to in post above) as are the codecs I used (link to Matrox codecs also in article posted above)


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## Laxer (Dec 28, 2010)

zuluclayman said:


> Prism is free (link is in the article I linked to in post above) as are the codecs I used (link to Matrox codecs also in article posted above)


I stand corrected ray:

Thanks for the information! I can now add more to my never ending list of freewares :laugh:


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Nice, alright I will try with Prism with that codec installed im guessing before I got the double image with Prisim was because I didnt have the codecs installed trying it now I will tell you how it goes


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

And Lexar this is totally bizzare, I had HD Video Mp4 selected and it lags, but on your machine you were able to convert MY MTS fine with no lag?


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Damn still no solution Installed the codecs, restarted the computer then converted with prism except this time the video is just black in windows media player classic and when opened with vlc it lags even more now and it is interlacced footage... im completly lost at this point now


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## Laxer (Dec 28, 2010)

This is how it looked when I converted it:
‪Raw Clip.mp4‬‏ - YouTube


It lagged a little bit playing it locally when I had WMP open as well as VLC.

Perhaps the video is created properly just not playing correctly on the local machine?

Try uploading it to youtube and see if it still skips...

I was able to convert it correctly using prism as well....


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Im currently uploading to megaupload a 2 min short video showing EXACTLY what I did with Prism and Aimersoft and maybe you guys can see if something is wrong but im pretty sure I did it how anyone else would but here it is

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Hmmm, no thats not It because when I put the clip into Sony Vegas I look at it frame by frame and each frame is supose to change and be different but when I look at the part that lags it shows the same exact frame for 2 or 3 frames at a time, Oh and also notice in my video that I just linked to Megaupload it lags as well, you can notice it lag right when the camera is panning mostly.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Im not sure if this matters but, I had success converting raw MTS files from my camera to MP4 when I had windows Vista on my macbook on bootcamp, I reccently just remembered that right when I upldated to Windows 7 that that is when the problem started happening, But its strange because it is ONLY CONVERTING MTS files that I notice this, I can convert MKV files to MP4, and I even used Aimersoft to convert the MKV's to MP4's and they were fine perfectly smooth, but now that I recall I never did film any footage on my AVCHD cam until reccently and I got windows 7 a couple months ago, so when I said eariler that before I converted my MTS to MP4 with Aimersoft and they worked perfectly fine was back when I had Windows Vista.

I would think that Windows 7 would be better in everyway but I guess it has something to do with that:S


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

may be you need to update your graphics card drivers

When I played the first clips you uploaded there was one noticeable glitch in the file labelled "Raw Clip Converted With Aimersoft Video Converter (Lags before backflip)" the others played smoothly in Media Player Classic.
Some of what may seem "glitchy" to you, especially the panning shots is simply from panning too quickly - the camera can't focus properly and also may be experiencing some "rolling shutter" effect.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Interesting, How exactly would I go about to update my graphics card?

I just looked up and read about rolling shutter effect, I know its not that because even when the camera is not panning and something is moving by the screen fast you can tell its not smooth and the frames are repeated, I know its not the rolling effect because sometimes it will play things moving smoothly like in the clip when he does the backflip it was perfectly smooth on my computer its just right before he does it the camera wasnt panning and you can tell from when watching it in MTS form that its all perfectly smooth.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Lol, im pretty sure this is a problem that nobody else has ever had, seems impossible to figure out whats wrong


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

Have you tried using Prism yet? It worked fine for both Laxer and me & sometimes you have to cut your losses and run ... to another software package if the one you have isn't doing it for you anymore.

and yes, sometimes there is just no logical explanation that can be easily found for some computer problems - can't live with them, can't live without them :laugh:


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Thanks, hmmm, but theres a problem with Prism because It cant convert them without having the interlaced lines in them? And ever since I installed the Maxox or whatever its called codec It screws up everytime I convert with Prism, you can see that in the video I uploaded like 5 posts or so ago?


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

Try converting to .avi using either Matrox or XviD - you have gone with mp4 and H264. If you are going to stick with mp4 slide the quality slider to the highest quality setting. It may be that the codec used for the mts files produced from your camera aren't compatible for mp4/H264 conversion. When I tried to convert it to mp4 my version of Prism doesn't allow for choice of codecs - just comes up with mpeg4 greyed out in the encoder options window.

I have made a screen recording of the method and settings I used as well as a play of the converted clip and will post it to Youtube with a link here as soon as I get time.


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## ATP-Studios (Aug 6, 2011)

Dammn, I never knew just cuz one program stopped working that I would have to change my entire way of editing now(N)


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## Laxer (Dec 28, 2010)

ATP-Studios said:


> Dammn, I never knew just cuz one program stopped working that I would have to change my entire way of editing now(N)


Technology, great when it works. A pain when it doesn't.....


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