Free online DV to MTS converter

What the DV format is

DV is a digital video format used by MiniDV, DVCAM, and DVCPRO camcorders. It stores intraframe video at roughly 25 Mb/s, commonly at 720×480 NTSC or 720×576 PAL, with interlaced fields and PCM audio. Files may use .dv, DV-AVI, or QuickTime DV containers.

MiniDV capture utilities, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, Windows capture software, and FFmpeg commonly create or read DV files. You encounter DV when transferring footage from tape, opening older editing projects, or restoring archived camcorder recordings.

What the MTS format is

MTS is a filename extension for an MPEG transport stream, commonly containing H.264/AVC video and AAC or AC-3 audio. AVCHD camcorders and some Blu-ray workflows use MTS or the closely related .m2ts extension.

MTS usually produces much smaller files than uncompressed or DV-style source video at comparable viewing quality. It is useful when an editor, media player, Blu-ray tool, or AVCHD device specifically expects an H.264 transport stream. The extension alone does not guarantee a particular resolution, frame rate, bitrate, or AVCHD compliance.

How to convert DV to MTS

FFmpeg provides the most direct desktop conversion. Install FFmpeg, place the source in an accessible folder, open a terminal there, and run:

ffmpeg -i input.dv -c:v libx264 -preset medium -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a ac3 -b:a 192k -f mpegts output.mts

Replace input.dv with the actual DV-AVI or QuickTime filename. -crf 18 gives high-quality H.264 output; increase it to 20–23 for a smaller file or lower it for less compression. The -f mpegts option explicitly selects the transport-stream container, while -c:a ac3 is widely accepted in AVCHD-oriented workflows.

To retain the source frame rate and dimensions, FFmpeg does so automatically unless other options are supplied. For a device that requires a specific format, set them explicitly, for example:

ffmpeg -i input.dv -vf scale=1280:720 -r 25 -c:v libx264 -profile:v main -level 3.1 -crf 20 -c:a ac3 -b:a 192k -f mpegts output.mts

On 101convert.com, you can convert the file for free without installing software: upload the DV file, select MTS as the output, start the conversion, and download the result.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

DV is already compressed, so converting it to H.264 cannot restore detail; it adds another lossy encoding stage. Keep the original DV file as the archival master and use a low CRF or an appropriate bitrate when quality matters.

Interlaced DV footage may show combing if the target player expects progressive video. Preserve the interlaced structure for an interlaced delivery workflow, or deinterlace deliberately with a high-quality filter such as yadif when the final device is progressive.

Some hardware accepts only AVCHD-compatible combinations of resolution, frame rate, H.264 profile, level, bitrate, and audio format. A generic MTS file may play in VLC and other software but still fail on that hardware. Certain applications also require an AVCHD directory structure rather than an isolated .mts file; in that case, conversion alone is insufficient and the result must be authored into the device's expected structure.