Free online TREC to M1V converter

What the TREC format is

TREC is TechSmith’s proprietary screen-recording format, created primarily by Camtasia Recorder and Camtasia. It can contain captured screen video, microphone or system audio, cursor data, recording metadata, and other information used during Camtasia editing.

TREC files commonly appear after recording a software demonstration, presentation, tutorial, or desktop session. Camtasia is the most reliable application for opening and exporting them because general-purpose media players and converters may not decode every TREC variant.

What the M1V format is

M1V is an MPEG-1 video elementary stream. It stores compressed video without an audio track, subtitles, or a general-purpose container such as MP4. Older MPEG-1 players, authoring tools, and some embedded or legacy playback systems use this format.

M1V can be useful when a specification explicitly requires MPEG-1 video, but it is less suitable than MP4 for normal sharing because it cannot carry synchronized audio or modern metadata. Converting a TREC recording to M1V therefore removes TREC-specific editing data and all audio from the output.

How to convert TREC to M1V

Using Camtasia and FFmpeg

1. Open the .trec file in Camtasia.
2. Export the recording to an intermediate video file through Export → Local File. Choose MP4 if available and keep the required frame size and frame rate. If the recording contains audio that must be preserved, export or save that audio separately before creating M1V.
3. Install FFmpeg and run this command in the folder containing the exported file:

ffmpeg -i recording.mp4 -an -c:v mpeg1video -q:v 2 recording.m1v

The -an option deliberately removes audio, while -c:v mpeg1video selects MPEG-1 video encoding. The -q:v 2 setting gives high quality; use a larger value such as 4 or 6 to reduce the file size at the cost of more visible compression.

Check the result with:

ffprobe recording.m1v

The output should identify an MPEG-1 video stream and no audio stream. If a target device specifies a particular MPEG-1 resolution, frame rate, or bitrate, add matching FFmpeg options, for example -s 352x240 -r 29.97 -b:v 1150k; otherwise, retain the source dimensions and frame rate.

Using the online converter

You can also use the free converter on 101convert.com without installing software. Upload the TREC file, select M1V as the output format, start the conversion, and download the resulting file. Because M1V is video-only, verify whether the service discards TREC audio or provides it as a separate output.

Quality and compatibility limitations

The intermediate export can affect the final result: exporting TREC to a low-quality MP4 and then encoding that file to MPEG-1 applies compression twice. Use the highest practical source quality, avoid resizing unless the target requires it, and match the source frame rate to prevent unnecessary judder.

MPEG-1 is substantially less efficient than modern codecs, so the M1V file may be larger than expected at comparable visual quality. M1V cannot retain Camtasia annotations, zoom effects as editable objects, cursor metadata, project tracks, or audio. If synchronized sound is required, M1V alone is the wrong target; use a container format such as MPEG-PS or MP4 instead.