How to create *.mpg instead of *.m2t files in VS X4?

[john6898]

When I create Blu Ray H264 (1920X1080) video clips in VS Pro X3, all files give me extensions *.mpg, and they can be played with my LG BD 570 player. However, When I create Blu Ray H264, 1920X1080 video clips in VS Pro X4, all files give me extensions *.m2t, and these video files can NOT be played with my LG BD 570 player.

Is there anyway I can create Blu Ray H264 (1920X1080) video files with extensions *.mpg in VS Pro X4? What is the difference between Blu Ray H264 (1920X1080) *.m2ts and Blu Ray H264 (1920X1080) * .mpg file? Thanks.

[Ken Berry]

Hmmm... This is a bit curious. I had not really taken any notice of the different extensions used by X3 and X4 before now. However, I have just checked and confirmed your findings. What is even more curious is that even using an AVCHD clip (whose native extension is either .mts or .m2ts), when you output a Blu-Ray H.264 file -- which should in fact be an AVCHD file because of that H.264 codec -- the extension used is .m2t, as you also found. But .m2t is normally associated with HDV mpeg-2.

However, I would still have thought -- if you are being literal in what you say and are only playing clips via your LG player rather than as part of a full Blu-Ray disc -- that simply changing the .m2t extension to .mpg should allow it to be played. Or have you already tried that?

I should add that one of the reasons I never noticed the difference in the extensions is that my own Blu-Ray player is the PlayStation 3. I convert my projects mostly into HDV, but I do in fact convert some to AVCHD and have used both X3 and X4 for this. And the PS3 does not appear to have any difficulty with any of the extensions.

What I find particularly strange about your problem, though, is that your LG is not apparently recognising the .m2t extension. Yet that -- along with .m2ts -- is the international standard for Blu-Ray discs. Look at a commercial Blu-Ray disc, or indeed one of your own if you have burned one, and you will see that the actual video in the STREAM sub-folder of the BDMV folder on the disc is in files with either .m2ts or .m2t as their extension (e.g. 00000.m2ts...) So it seems strange to me that a Blu-Ray player is not recognising such an extension if it is not on a Blu-Ray disc.

[Natal]

when you output a Blu-Ray H.264 file -- which should in fact be an AVCHD file because of that H.264 codec

Actually, H.264 is one of the 3 codecs used in the blu-ray spec, so it would be a blu-ray file.

X3 used to output AVCHD and Blu-Ray (mpeg2 and H.264 versions) as mpg files. X4 still outputs AVCHD as mpg files, but form flavours of Blu-Ray are now outputted as m2t files.

[john6898]

Thank you for your response. Actually, there are two problems here:

1) I can NOT create Blu Ray H264 (1920X1080) *.mpg video files (movie clip) in VS Pro X4. All files output in VS Pro X4 gave me extensions *.m2t (AVCHD clip).
2) My LG BD 570 player can NOT recognize the .m2t extension. After I changed the .m2t extension to .mpg, they still can NOT be played.

By the way, my xbox and WD media player do not have any difficulty with .mts or .m2ts or .mpg. However, I like to play these video files with LG BD 570 player.

So my question is that if anyone know how to create Blu Ray H264 (1920X1080) video files with extensions *.mpg in VS Pro X4.

[Ken Berry]

I am not sure why you are fixated on the 'Blu-Ray' format as such if you are just playing back clips as opposed to an actual Blu-Ray disc. Both Natal and I agree that if you convert your project to a 1920 x 1080 AVCHD (which uses the same H.264 codec which can be used in producing Blu-Ray files [point taken, Natal, though it is a fine point!]) you will get a file with the .mpg extension in X4. And the only significant difference between producing a Blu-Ray file from AVCHD video and another AVCHD file -- apart from the extension used -- is that X4 will produce the Blu-Ray H.264 file with a maximum bitrate of 20 Mbps, whereas the AVCHD file will only have a maximum of 18 Mbps -- so notionally a little less quality. But you would only see any difference if your camera is an AVCHD one which has the latest maximum bitrate under the international standard of 24 Mbps. Older camcorders had a maximum of 18 Mbps and below. Unfortunately, Corel has not yet caught up with this increased bitrate, which is not well and truly over a year old...

So if you can live with that difference, why not choose AVCHD as the output format, instead of Blu-Ray?

[Natal]

I don't think there is any difference between the AVCHD and Blu-ray versions of H.246 other than the file name suffix. You could try just manually changing the .m2t to .mpg.

[Ken Berry]

Well, I am glad we agree on the non-difference. But unfortunately, he already said he tried changing the extension to .mpg and it did not work ... at least with his LG, which is sounding more and more like a prima donna!!

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi John

Silly question I know, but how are you making your disc?
That’s assuming you are making a disc!
If so are you making a DVD Video or just saving the files as data to a disc? the latter just wont work.

However you could simply save the video files to Memory Stick and connect to LG via USB.

[john6898]

Hi, Trevor,
I create Blu Ray H264 (1920X1080) video files *.mpg (movie clips) in VS Pro X3, and then I save the video files to a 1TB external USB hard drive connected to LG or WD players. It worked marvelously. However, since I upgraded to VS Pro X4, I am having a problem to play video files with LG player. All files I create give me extensions *.m2t (AVCHD clip), and these video files can NOT be recognized with my LG BD 570 player.

Occasionally I also burn some video files to an actual Blu-Ray or DVD disc with VS Pro X4, which can be played with my LG BD 570 player. Blu-Ray discs are affordable here, but saving the video files to an external USB hard drive and playing via USB is more convenient for me. Now I have to go back to VS Pro X3 for this purpose.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi John

When you burn a bluray disc “m2ts” files are created rather than “m2t”
If you were to create the folder rather than a disc, would the “m2ts” play on the LG?????

A little bit more info.............

I just created a Bluray folder, within the Steam folder was my m2ts video file.
I used Make Movie Templates Manager and created a template --Add function using the m2ts file.

I then rendered a video to this template, the extension was Mpg.... with all the attributes of HD.